Family-run pub that supports its Tydd St Mary community wins Whitings Prestige Award in Fenland Citizen Business Awards 2025

A family-run pub with a huge commitment to the community it serves was named the winner of the Whitings Prestige Award 2025.

The Five Bells pub in Tydd St Mary proved the big winner of the night having narrowly missed out on the Retail and Hospitality Award earlier in the evening at the Fenland Citizen Business Awards on Friday night.

Held at the Braza Club in March and with more than 200 people from the local business community watching on Mike Blackledge of headline and category sponsors Whitings named the pub as the winner of the Whitings Prestige Award.

He told the crowd that the pub had been chosen following a vote among staff at the top accountancy firm to pick a winner from finalists in all the categories.

Mike said the pub had stood out from the crowd with its commitment to giving back to the community with free meals, and events for all ages to enjoy.

Collecting the award were the pub’s owners Tony and Sharon Allard who run the hostelry with their family including daughters Lily and Jessica who accompanied them on stage to collect the accolade.

The Allard family has owned the pub for seven years and speaking after being presented with the award Sharon explained they firmly believe in giving back to the community.

“We do as much as we can, we like to give back with events like an Easter egg we have coming up and the Santa’s grotto we had at Christmas,” she said.

“We like to be part of the community,” said Sharon. The family previously ran a garage business but decided they would like to try their hand at running a pub and have not looked back.

Sharon said they really love running the pub and added they were blown away by winning the top award of the night.

“It was totally unexpected, to be honest we are quite speechless and lost for words. We are truly thrilled to have won – it really means a lot,” said Sharon.