STANDING four-square and whitewashed, braced against the weather, in gloriously-remote upper Teesdale, the Langdon Beck Hotel is a welcoming beacon for walkers after a hard day in the hills.

Coal fires blaze in the bars for most months of the year, two cask beers are on tap (the pub has been in the Good Beer Guide since 2007) and substantial home-cooking for fresh-air appetites is on the menu. “We don’t do fancy,” said landlady Sue Matthews.

Sue took over the pub with her husband, Glen, ten years ago. “We moved up from Essex, but we had lived in London for most of our lives,” she said.

“We had a pub in Stepney but then came out of the trade. My husband was always itching to get back. I used to say, ‘I’m not going back into the pub trade unless it’s in the middle of the country’.”

The Matthews discovered Teesdale when Glen did an Open University course in geology. “They held a residential school at Durham, and he went to High Force, Low Force and Gibson’s Cave,” said Sue. “When I came to pick him up afterwards, we stayed for the weekend and fell in love with the area.”

They came back again and again and ended up leasing the Langdon Beck Hotel from the Raby Estate. Sadly, Glen died six years ago, but Sue was determined to stay in Teesdale.

She said: “When you lose a partner, do you want to lose your home as well? That was one side of it, but also we had worked really hard to build the business up. Glen loved it and I loved it. Just walking away from all that hard work didn’t seem right.

“I’ve got very good staff – they have become friends – and it’s a great community so we’ve got lots of support.

“Every time I go away, I always feel so much better when I come back. You think, ‘it’s the right place for me’.”

With a strong local trade, including a darts team, and seven B&B rooms, Sue is kept busy all year round. “We have a real mix of trade which helps make the pub more interesting and vibrant,” she said.

“As soon as the snow goes in the early part of the year, we get the bird-watchers. Then we move onto the wild flower enthusiasts who come for the blue gentians, mountain pansies and Teesdale violets – there are so many flowers up here.

“That takes us through May and June and then we’ve got the walkers. We’re just off the Pennine Way, and we also get people doing the Teesdale Way and sometimes Land’s End to John O’Groats.

“We have a few dedicated fishermen who come for the wild brown trout, you get the day-trippers and day-walkers throughout the season and then you’re into the grouse-shooting.”

An unusual pub attraction is a “geology room” with a definitive collection of mineral samples from the north Pennines, once an important mining area. Some were Glen’s and others were donated.

The pub holds a beer festival each May and a popular music festival – “Langdonbury” – in the summer.

The reason Sue loves being a pub landlady is simple. “It’s a people business and if you can’t welcome people and make them feel at home, you shouldn’t be in it,” she said.

Factfile

Langdon Beck Hotel

Forest-in-Teesdale, County Durham DL12 0XP

Contact: 01833 622267, info@langdonbeckhotel.com

Web: www.langdonbeckhotel.com

Opening hours: Closed on Mondays from October until Easter, otherwise 11am-10.30pm from Monday to Saturday, midday-10.30pm Sunday. Dogs and children welcome.

Food: Midday-2pm (2.30pm Sundays) and 7pm-9pm. Examples: home-made steak pie, chips and peas £8.50; chicken curry £8.95; Sunday lunch (Teesdale beef or pork) £8.25; children’s meals from £4.35.

Cask beers: Jarrow Rivet Catcher and Ringwood Best Bitter.

Accommodation: Bed and breakfast from £40 per person.