New Pub of the Year winner the Broad Face joins the celebrations
Oxford CAMRA’s Awards Night made a welcome return in February as we handed out certificates to our two Pubs of the Year and Beers of the Festival. City Pub of the Year was again the Royal Blenheim in Oxford, while first place in the Beer of the Festival award, as voted by a tasting panel at the Town Hall event in October, was Yabba Dabba Doo by Little Ox.
The Town and Village Pub of the Year award went to the Broad Face in Abingdon for the first time, the most recent previous winner being the Brewery Tap also in Abingdon. The Broad Face sent a large contingent to help celebrate with owner of the business, Joshua Khan, and manageress Kealey Hitchings. Although the building is owned by Greene King, the pub has freedom to sell whatever cask ales it wants, and the quality of these has now been recognised.
Joshua – who also runs the King Charles Tavern in Newbury and the Great Shefford near Hungerford – said: “This award is long awaited, and a tribute to Kealey and her team. Real ales are the heart and soul of our pub, and we have between six and eight available even during January and February, both local and national brands.”
A recent selection included Oakham Citra, Dark Star Hophead, Lovebeer’s Doctor Roo, and White Horse Black Beauty and Village Idiot, and there are often beers from other local breweries including Abingdon’s own Loose Cannon, and Little Ox. All three of Joshua’s pubs are in the Good Beer Guide, a major achievement.
The Broad Face is the only pub in the country with this name, with a pub sign that often makes passers-by stop to look. Theories abound as to why it is so-called, including that it shows the hangman or one of the prisoners at what used to be a jail across the road, and that it represents a bloated body recovered from the nearby River Thames.
Kealey has brought a feminine touch to the pub, which always has plenty of flowers, and it has a wide ranging menu and regular live music. She has run it for the last two years, since when it has been transformed, having worked at the King Charles Tavern for six years before that.
Awards Night attracted about 40 people to the upstairs room of the White House on Abingdon Road, Oxford, where the event was held for the first time. In addition to the Pub of the Year winners and Beers of the Festival, awards were also given to the Jolly Farmers in Oxford marking 40 years as an LGBT+ pub, and to Tap Social (operator of the White House) to recognise its pioneering work with ex-prisoners, many of whom it has helped back into employment having developed various skills working in the brewery or kitchen.