The Shoulder of Mutton

History

On market day, Wednesday 5 February 1919, a farmer from Newtown, Irthington, was seen coming out of the Co-operative Store in Brampton at about three in the afternoon 'in a very drunken condition'. He fell over, got up and went into the Shoulder of Mutton Inn, where the constable found him sitting in one of the rooms. The landlord had him helped out and taken home in a trap. Fined 10s at Brampton a week later, he said he would not have been there but for the market basket.

That is the earliest dated record of the Shoulder of Mutton, and its older history is otherwise thin: nothing in the listed building record, nothing in the trade directories available online, and no former name. It is one of the survivors of Brampton's collapse from dozens of pubs to a handful, the story told on the Nags Head's page. Recent licensees, as recorded by CAMRA: Thomas Brodie until 2019, Stephen Temperley from 2019 to 2022, Vicki Gordon from 2022 to 2023.

It is a traditional wet-led local in the centre of the town: one large U-shaped room round a central bar, side rooms, a stone floor, a beer garden at the back and live music on regularly. CAMRA's survey of September 2026 records two regular cask ales, Timothy Taylor Landlord and Sharp's Doom Bar, and adds the two things that place it properly in the town: it runs quiz nights, and it supports the local leek show.

That last one is worth a word for anyone from outside the north. Leek clubs are a serious business in this part of the country, with growers working all year for a show in early autumn and a pub behind them; a pub supporting the show is doing what village and town pubs here have done for a century or more.

Reviews split sharply, which is worth saying: some rate it the best pub in Cumbria, others have had an uncomfortable night in it. Make your own mind up.