Meeson family celebrated sell-out success at beer festival with long service award
When the 19th Headington Beer Festival was held in September, no thought at all was given to Greene King IPA, a former CAMRA champion beer but now regarded as one of the most insipid beers around. Greene King IPA can be found all over the area but was certainly not at this festival, yet ironically this is how Chris Meeson’s real ale journey at the Masons Arms got started.
This was the only real ale being served when he took over in 1997 although it was a free house. The pub itself is 150 years old this year, having been built in 1872 by Allsopps brewery although it was later taken over by Halls before becoming a free house. It has been run by only four families since 1928, with Cliff Gurle coming in 1966 and retiring just before the Meeson family arrived.
The family has deep roots in the licensed trade around Headington, as Chris Meeson’s grandfather and great-grandfather (from around 1900) had the Britannia and the Chequers. Chris’s aunt and uncle Cynthia and Maurice Jacobs had the tenancy of the White Hart in Old Headington, where Chris started working around 1989.
“When they sold up I went on a Carlsberg-Tetley training course to be a manager, and my first posting was to Parker’s, now the Angel and Greyhound but back then a cocktail bar,” he recalls. “While still with Carlsberg-Tetley I took over the Chequers in Headington Quarry and then the Antiquity Hall (now the Oxford Retreat and formerly the Nag’s Head). I then managed the White Hart in Old Headington before coming here, because I fancied having a go.
“Pubs were thriving back then, but we have since lost the Crown and Thistle, the Quarry Gate, the Shotover Arms (now McDonald’s) and the Fox on the Barton estate, and that’s just in Headington. The pubs I worked in before coming here were very different, but I wanted to keep the Masons as an old-fashioned pub, the kind of pub I like to drink in myself.”
That’s exactly what the Masons Arms – named after the stonemasons who laboured in the local quarry – still is today. It’s a wet-only pub with no food served, open only in the evenings except at weekends, and it still has a range of sports teams and is a major focal point for Oxford United supporters. TV sport, mainly football, is the only major concession to the modern world.
“Sports teams are very important to our sense of community,” explains Chris. “We’ve got two ladies’ and a men’s darts team, and are the only pub left in the local bar billiards league. We still have one of the few crib teams, and Aunt Sally is very important. But the darts league is really struggling, and Covid speeded that up.”
A major part of the pub’s success is down to its focus on real ale, and this has brought rewards as Oxford CAMRA City Pub of the Year on numerous occasions, and unbroken listing in the Good Beer Guide from 2005 to the present day. And it all started with Greene King IPA!
“When I worked at the White Hart we sold a lot of real ale, especially Burton Ale, Tetley bitter and Aylesbury Best Bitter in the days before Everards took it over and the range changed (this pub is also a GBG regular). Here I started by selling a lot of light and bitter – an Ind Coope light ale mixed with a half of bitter. But then I introduced Black Sheep Best Bitter and Shepherd Neame Spitfire, and they really took off. When I started here our clientele was mainly older people, but it soon became more varied. It’s incredible how real ale grew and grew – in 2004 we first won Pub of the Year, and then we got into the GBG.”
Today there are five cask ale pumps, three of which are regulars – Vocation’s Bread and Butter, Harvey’s Sussex Best, and Rebellion’s Smuggler. The other two are ever varying guest ales, and every week Chris posts what they are on Oxford CAMRA’s Facebook page.
“Different styles and strengths are very important, with porters and stouts going down a storm between December and March,” he adds. “The trend has been towards IPAs and Golden ales for a few years, and more brewers are not fining them to make them vegan-friendly. They may look cloudy, and there’s a mixed reaction to that. We now have two craft kegs on because a lot of youngsters look for that, and many brewers who started doing just craft keg are now doing cask too, such as Vocation. We’ve never considered changing our business model, but we keep up with trends including flavoured gins and vodkas.”
Chris runs the pub with his brother Matt, while another brother Andy used to operate the small brewery in the pub’s garden, the aptly named Old Bog. This was only ever a part-time interest for Andy, and when he changed career that was the end of brewing and it is unlikely to return. But now another family member is in the trade, with Chris’s son Archie having worked at BrewDog in Cowley Road and ensuring another generation of the family is carrying on.
So what are Chris’s hopes for the festival after a Covid-enforced break of two years, and for the immediate future? The festival was a great success, and although due to run until Sunday 11 September beers were sold out by 10pm on the Saturday.
“A lot has changed since we last held a festival in 2019,” says Chris. “The biggest thing since Covid is that people’s habits have changed, and some people who would come in every night will now come only once or twice a week. It’s been very difficult since we were allowed to re-open, but the biggest threat now is the cost of living crisis with everyone putting their prices up.
“This is a worrying time for the industry. Archie has been working here and at BrewDog for a few years, and I hope he’ll take over one day. In fact I wish he’d do it sooner!”
