Lancaster House welcomes Andy Lemm as General Manager. Andy has bags of vision for the future of the hotel, but he is also returning to a place that is a significant part of his past. 

Lancaster House has always been a special place for me. It was my home for nearly two years and I met Michelle, my wife, here when she was Restaurant & Banqueting Manager.  We married at Lancaster House and so it has been a huge part of my life already. Lancaster House was a great management training ground and prepared me for my first general manager’s position at The Wild Boar, also part of the English Lakes family of hotels.

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The team at Lancaster House is dedicated to ensure that the hotel is one of the Lancashire leaders when it comes to green initiatives, reducing our carbon footprint and supporting our local environment.
Adding to our Gold status in the Green Business Tourism Scheme, the hotel was recently shortlisted in the Lancashire Tourism Awards, Sustainable Tourism category. Emma Underwood, Deputy Manager at Lancaster House and our ‘Green Champion’ is keen to spread the message that it’s not just businesses that can get involved. Here are her four top tips that will help save you money, whilst also saving the environment. (more…)

The environment is an essential part of life in the Lake District and like most popular areas; it needs constant care to maintain the beautiful surroundings. Freddie Tedstone, a student from the Wirral, has been challenged with the question ‘Who should care for the environment?’
The Lake District is renowned for its breath-taking scenery, including the traditional towns and villages that are centres of regional culture and history. The lakes can provide stunning reflections on a still day yet are used for sailing when there’s a breeze. There were more than 1.2 million boat cruise passengers in 2012 which shows how well-used these wonderful resources are. Along the mountains of the Lake District National Park are many of the UK’s best walking routes and are used all year round come rain or shine. If these valuable natural sights are used by so many, who should look after them?
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Green Tourism, gold award winner, Lancaster House have an ongoing commitment to everything environmental. Perhaps it wouldn’t be on everyone’s top ten must-see locations, but a dedicated team from the hotel visited Envirofirst Waste

Reduction and Recycling Unit recently to follow their trail of recycling in the hotel. (more…)

Research has shown that visitors to the Lake District want to contribute to the beautiful environment that keeps them coming back time after time.
“Tourists in the 21st century are likely to base their choices in travel and tourism on environmental protection and social responsibility” British Tourism Framework Review.
We love where we live and work. Our family of hotels are all located in beautiful corners of Lancashire and Cumbria, with either stunning Lake views, ancient woodland, the Trough of Bowland on the doorstep and on Morecambe Bay an area of outstanding natural beauty. (more…)

As a family company we really enjoy being in business. It also gives us a long term view to invest in the future and build a sustainable business. Unfortunately Shirley the Sheep is not an investment we are making; it was a light hearted April Fools joke and I hope we got ewe!
Although we aren’t making investments in Eco Sheep we are investing in new Green Technologies for Low Wood Bay and our other fantastic venues. The biomass boiler at The Wild Boar is keeping the inn toasty warm whilst reducing our carbon footprint, so much so we are looking at a further two biomass boilers across the group.  (more…)

When thinking about ‘going green’, many people automatically think all this involves is turning off lights and taps and walking rather than driving.  However working closely with Green Tourism over the last few years has revealed so many different ways of being green, and making small changes that can make a huge difference.
The area I have found to be the most interesting and rewarding is the concept of ‘buying local’.  We are fortunate to live in one of the most beautiful and resourceful areas of the country and even the world.
How does buying local help you go green, you may ask?  Well being green can manifest itself in many different ways, and the things that are taken into consideration in this instance are;

• The more local the less transportation needed for delivery, reducing our carbon footprint
• Supporting the local economy and smaller family farms
• The produce reaches us being as fresh as possible, being better for the guest’s health as it has lost little of its nutritional value
•  Buying local means our guests are eating foods that are in season

Buying locally means you can create relationships with local businesses, and actually see where your food is coming from, and can even order bespoke products for your individual hotel or even individual guests. The lake district not only offers fantastic quality meat, fruit and vegetables, dairy, beers, sauces and chutneys, breads and cheeses, but also offers an impressive array of locally produced arts and crafts, including well-known artists, photographers and poets.

Here at the Waterhead we try and make the most of all the wonderful produce we have on our doorstep, as we believe one of the main reasons people come to visit this part of the world is to sample everything it has to offer.  Guests with a sweet tooth will love local favourite Sarah Nelson’s Grasmere Gingerbread, which features in all our bedrooms, and Kendal Jacksmith’s flapjacks which are served with hot drinks in the bar.  Our lounge also doubles as an art gallery featuring paintings from local artist Julie-Ann Scott, which guests can admire while enjoying a glass of own brew of local Haweswater Gold lager, or Hawkeshead beer.

Our current ‘hyper-local’ dinner menu is inspired by the history of the lake district and the 18^th century spice trade coming through Whitehaven which created the modern-day local favourites, which we have re-created using local produce wherever possible. Our wonderful location in the heart of the Lake District really does make buying local a pleasure.

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Guest post written by Lindsay Price, Deputy General Manager at Waterhead.

As part of Lancaster House’s commitment to local charities, members of the hotel team recently swopped their chef’s whites and uniforms for Gardening gloves and Wellington Boots for Heysham-based charity Primrose House.
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We are pleased to announce we have scooped multiple accolades for our commitment to sustainability. Each of our four-star properties has achieved awards for excellence in the Green Tourism Business Awards. (more…)

Lancaster House has achieved a ‘gold award’ following an inspection by the national tourism environmental assessors. (more…)