FIFTEEN pubs in Salisbury and south Wiltshire have been voted into the latest edition of the Good Beer Guide.

The guide, which is published by the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA), is out today (Thursday, September 12).

Deacons in Fisherton Street, Salisbury, is among the pubs included in the guide.

It is the first time for five years that it has been voted into the Good Beer Guide by local CAMRA members.

The landlord Dave Hancock was presented with his Good Beer Guide certificate by Ian Turner, the chairman of the Salisbury and South Wilts branch of CAMRA.

“Our number one ambition was to get Deacons back into the Good Beer Guide after an absence of some years,” said Salisbury-born Dave, who took over the pub two years ago with his wife Aimee.

“We are absolutely elated and I am pleased for the staff, the regulars and all the locals because without them we could not have achieved this.”

Deacons had been closed for six months when the Hancocks took it over.

“We spent two months renovating it but we wanted to keep all its old character because it is one of the few genuine freehouses left in Salisbury,” said Dave.

Ian Turner, the chairman of the Salisbury and South Wilts branch of CAMRA, said: “We are lucky to have so many good pubs in this area and inclusion in the Good Beer Guide is a tremendous accolade for the very best of them.

"Deacons is an excellent example of a really cracking good local.”

Altogether 130 pubs in the area covered by the Salisbury and South Wilts Branch of CAMRA were eligible for inclusion in Britain’s premier guide to real ale but CAMRA members chose only the top 15.

The full list of South Wiltshire pubs which have been included can be found in the 2020 edition of the Good Beer Guide, which is on sale now.

It is available from CAMRA at camra.org.uk/gbg