Fancy a drink in the sun in this triple award-winning beer garden?

The popular pub in Thornton Hough has just won our latest Best of 2024 award – Wirral’s Best Beer Garden – for the third year in a row.

Triple cheers to everyone at The Red Fox!

In April, we launched our Best of 2024 competition.

This year’s search for the area’s best in a whole host of categories started with hair and LA Hair was crowned our first winner, quickly followed by Pies4u who won a prize for their delicious pastry offerings and By Taylor Jade took the best nails title.

Next up, The 21st Amendment Hoylake is officially Best for Roast Dinners, we toasted Cow Shed Bar & Grill for their cocktails and At Gilly Gem’s serves up the area’s best breakfasts.

Then we moved onto fish and chips with customers and readers sending in their nominations and votes for their favourite plaice to get the perfect Friday night treat.

SelFish in St Bromborough was last week’s winner.

Voting for Wirral’s Best for Fitness is currently taking place and we’re also looking for nominations in our latest search - Best for Tattoos.

Vote for Wirral’s Best for Fitness 2024

Nominate your favourite for Wirral’s Best for Tattoos 2024

We said cheers to 12 top beer gardens in Wirral with some great spots for a drink in the sunshine making the shortlist and The Red Fox took this year’s coveted crown making it a hat-trick of titles.

The Red Fox in Thornton Hough

David Green is the landlord at The Red Fox, which is owned by Brunning and Price, and took over at the pumps in 2014.

He was born in Wrexham and grew up in Llangollen before going to university in Huddersfield.

When he graduated, he started an events business and then joined Brunning and Price in 2011 as a roving manager, opening Worsley Hall in 2013 before being given the opportunity to take the reins at The Red Fox in Thornton Hough the following year.

David, who is 42 and lives at the pub with his family, said: “We are a classic British pub with many spacious, airy rooms and plenty more intimate nooks and crannies nestled away.

“Open fires abound throughout, with wooden floors, an attractive collection of rugs and plants, and lots of good old furniture.

“We like to think we are a pub with real character and life revolves around the bar at The Red Fox.

“We offer a menu of fresh food serving seasonal, fresh dishes made up of a mixture of hearty British classics and lighter lunchtime bites with a huge array of drinks.

“To the rear of the pub, we have extensive raised terraces, which overlook the landscaped lawns, gorgeous gardens and countryside beyond.”

In 2019, David and the team opened The Little Fox, an event space that is perfect for weddings and private parties, and in 2022, they launched The Out Foxed – an outside bar and pizza kitchen with heated stretched tent shelter in the garden,

It is here that they serve stone baked sourdough pizza, chips and a selection of drinks including guest draught beer, cocktails and an array of other drinks.

The Out Foxed space

The Red Fox recently won Pub of the Year at the Liverpool City Region Tourism awards and bronze in the Visit England Awards of Excellence

David said: “We are a now a team of more than 100 amazing people.

“Our head gardener Tom Davies has been instrumental to our focus and he leads a fantastic team of four passionate people who care and want to make a difference to our outside spaces and that really shows.

“We have a stunning building set in stunning grounds.

“I am very lucky to call The Red Fox my home.

“I am so proud of my team and what we have achieved.

“We serve more than 2,000 people each week and I feel we are pub for all seasons.”

The garden team, led by head gardener Tom Davies, works hard throughout the year to maintain the high standards at The Red Fox.

The triple award winning garden team at The Red Fox

There is a poly tunnel where they grow their own plants and they’ve developed a composting area to process waste and produce compost for the flower beds.

The team has also developed a wild flower garden, landscaped the pond area and added to the Little Fox garden so it’s the perfect place for wedding photos.

The Red Fox has just hosted the beer festival and they’re keeping the main marquee up to house a giant screen to show the Euros.

They will have a cider and sausage festival at the beginning of August.

What do customers think of the beer garden at The Red Fox? Why do they think it deserved to take our latest title?

One nomination said: “There are some lovely beer gardens but The Red Fox is definitely the best.”

David and the team were humbled to hear The Red Fox had made the shortlist again for Wirral’s Best Beer Garden and felt it was deserved recognition for all the hard work that goes into the outside space.

The garden team has cultivated a wild flower bed (Thomas Demol Photographie)

David said: “We were bowled over to win again!

“It’s a real team effort and come rain or shine, they all work hard to get the grounds looking like they do.

“It’s great to know that customers enjoy and appreciate the space.

“A huge thank you to everyone who voted for us - it honestly means the world to know our hard work is appreciated and that people enjoy what we have created and what we’re continuing to develop.”