SPREADING THE WORD
Following on from the advice about amending your CAMRA membership settings to receive e-mails from your local branch, reader Nick Goodwin has reminded me that you can also link yourself to other branches so that you receive their news as well, without changing your existing home branch. Log into the CAMRA website, go to the Members’ Area and select ‘Manage Your Account’. For security reasons you will have to log in a second time. Go to ‘Branches (Manage your branches)’ and select from the drop-down list. You can connect to up to four other branches. Thanks to Nick for the information.
NEW CAMRA EVENTS WEBSITE
CAMRA’s IT Team have set up a new website which will list all CAMRA events, including beer festivals, meetings of all types (including branch AGMs), socials and events linked to campaigns, such as Summer of Pub.
BECKENHAM BEER & CIDER FESTIVAL
The first two days of the festival (28 and 29 July) both saw record attendances and all of the beer and cider stock was sold out by closing time on Friday. Regrettably, this meant that the Saturday session had to be cancelled. Refunds have been made to all those who purchased tickets in advance. The festival co-ordinator, Charles Tucker, apologised to all those affected but, in fairness, it is still early days following the pandemic and it is impossible to predict attendances with any accuracy.
As an alternative to attending the festival, Charles suggested that people try the ‘Beckenham Beer Loop’ which includes three of the pubs which supplied beer to the festival and which support local brewers. Readers might like to give this a try anyway. See here.
PIG’S EAR BEER FESTIVAL
This year, Pig’s Ear is celebrating the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings 100 years ago. So what, you ask, has that got to do with beer? In Tutankhamun’s day, the Egyptians believed that the god Osiris had originally taught humans to brew and wrote down some of the oldest known brewing recipes. At CAMRA, we’re all about traditional brewing methods and you don’t get much more traditional that that! So, join us at the 38th Pig’s Ear Festival this winter, raise a glass to King Tut and maybe give thanks to Ninkasi, goddess of beer. If you stay a bit longer, you may find yourselves in the arms of Hathor, goddess of love and drunkenness. The Pig’s Ear Beer & Cider Festival, organised by CAMRA’s East London & City branch, will be held at Hackney’s historic Round Chapel (1D Glenarm Road) from Tuesday 29 November to Saturday 3 December 2022.
Esme Bradbury
KIDBROOKE FESTIVAL PRESENTATION
The Beer of the Festival at this year’s Kidbrooke Beer Festival, organised by CAMRA’s South East London branch, was Hoodwink from the Mad Squirrel Brewery of Potten End, Hertfordshire. Described as a dessert beer (5.3% ABV), it is a pale coloured stout, made with lactose, vanilla and white chocolate.
EALING BEER FESTIVAL
On 13 to 16 July, Ealing Beer Festival returned after a two year hiatus caused by the pandemic. It was great to be back and to once again be in the beautiful surroundings of Ealing’s Walpole Park. I would like to thank all the volunteers, both new and returning, who helped out this year. We draw in volunteers from within CAMRA and from outside and welcome anyone who is interested in helping. Keep an eye out for volunteering opportunities at next year’s festival on our website ebf.camra.org.uk. The weather was kind to us and we both avoided any rain and dodged the heatwave that followed us.
Although below 2019 levels, attendance at the festival was higher than anticipated, with those attending staying longer and drinking more. In a change forced upon us by an astronomical increase in the cost of marquee hire, we changed to using a big top tent for our bars. The feedback on this setup from both customers and staff has been positive and we will look to continue this. The festival again hosted the Champion Beer of London competition.
Ben Hart – Festival Organiser
NEWS FROM ELAC
CAMRA’s East London & City branch recently presented three awards. First, in July, was their Pub of the Year award. The winner was Ye Olde Rose & Crown in Walthamstow.
The award was very much deserved but tinged with sadness because the wonderful co-tenant Viv, wife of Bun and mother of Jo, passed away in April after a short illness.
Next came ELAC’s Community Awards. Earlier this year the branch asked its members to nominate pubs for one-off community awards, to recognise the pubs in their branch area that, during the pandemic, went out of their way to provide support to their local communities particularly during the lockdowns. The following two presentations were made during August.
The Stag & Lantern in Highams Park is ELAC’s first and, so far, only micropub. It was due to open in spring 2020 but the first lockdown delayed this. The Stag and Lantern team quickly revised their plans and started selling ‘click and collect’ take outs and also doing deliveries. ELAC members relished the Friday deliveries of great beer. The team at the pub tapped and poured when many couldn’t afford to take the chance.
The Eleanor Arms in Bow is an iconic pub that always serves good beer and tenants Frankie and Leslie Colclough always make you welcome. At the beginning of the pandemic, the Eleanor Arms continued to serve its community for as long as it could until lockdown forced the doors to close. Frankie and Leslie then continued to give members of their community comfort and support, such as doing shopping, providing meals or even just having a good old chin wag through the window. They checked that those most vulnerable were safe and assured them that they were only a phone call away, providing hope and reassurance to those who otherwise would have felt alone.
Finally, on 9 July, ELAC held the first George Ingleby Memorial Drink. We received the very sad news of George’s passing during Pig’s Ear last year. He was a stalwart supporter of CAMRA and our branch in particular, attending nearly all events and meetings. He was a regular volunteer at Pig’s Ear and was willing to tackle anything asked of him. His other hobby was photography and he would often take the photos at ELAC presentations. He was a lovely man and a pleasure to be with. In his memory, ELAC members decided to take a walk visiting some of George’s favourite pubs.
We met at the Anchor & Hope, by the River Lea in Clapton (E5 9HG), a pub to which George would often cycleon a Sunday afternoon. Attendees raised a glass to his memory. We then walked across Walthamstow Marshes, calling at the Coppermill in Walthamstow and then the Tavern on the Hill. This was the nearest pub to where George lived and is now run by Wild Card brewery. A few stalwarts then went on to the Stag and Lantern, as mentioned above. A lovely afternoon was had by all as we remembered George. The photo shows the group raising a glass to George outside the Anchor & Hope.
With thanks to Andy Kinch for all of these items.
NEWS FROM KINGSTON AND LEATHERHEAD
During August, CAMRA’s Kingston & Leatherhead branch visited the Park Tavern in Kingston (KT2 6AP) to present the landlady, Sue McFarlane, with the branch’s Summer Pub of the Season award, as voted for by branch members. This also acknowledges the improvement that the pub has shown over the past year. The Park Tavern has been in Sue’s family for 32 years, having been purchased from Charringtons in the 1980s. At that time the pub was in a bit of a state but, fortunately, Sue’s father Peter was a builder and he put his skills into rebuilding the pub to what it is now, even including some quite ornate pillars which came from an establishment in Kingston called Kaleidoscope.
The pillars can be seen at the front of the pub and also in the rear garden. This is very much a locals’ pub, tucked away in a narrow back road not far from the Kingston Gate to Richmond Park. Real ales are prominent, usually with six choices and if you look up at the ceiling, the pump clips on display indicate how many ales they have got through over the years. It is also very much a rugby pub with rugby regalia decorating the walls, although the pub sign does depict a player with a round ball! The photo shows branch chairman, Richard Russell, making the presentation.
Clive Taylor
DON’T LOOK BACK IN ONGAR!
The weekend of 15 to 17 July 2022 saw the return of a major beer event to the Epping Ongar Railway. While, for a variety of reasons, it was much scaled down from 2019, EOR celebrated hosting at bar at Ongar station for the very first time. Luckily the weekend did not clash with the UK’s hottest recorded temperatures, enabling us to provide an oasis of beer and cider for a few pleasantly warm summer days, with the added bonus of steam trains! For next year, the plan is to return to an event more like 2019. The detail is yet to be confirmed but it is likely to include the availability of walk-up tickets, music on both Friday and Saturday evenings and the return of the bar at Ongar. Besides the real ale weekend, the Flag and Whistle continues to host regular Ale Trains. Keep an eye on www.eorailway.co.uk for more information and to book tickets.
Alan Perryman
WORTHING BEER FESTIVAL RETURNS
The 24th Worthing Beer Festival, organised by CAMRA’s Arun & Adur branch, will be held on 28/29 October. The venue is the Rooms at the Guildbourne Shopping Centre, a short walk from Worthing Station. There are three sessions: Friday 11am to 4pm (£7.00), Friday 5pm to 10.30 (£9.00) and Saturday 11am to 9.30 or until the beer runs out (£7.00 or £2.00 after 5pm). CAMRA members will receive £2.00 in additional tokens. For tickets, go here. The beer list and other information will be available on the branch website and branch Twitter and Facebook accounts.
Jamie Hooper