A rolling round-up of developments in and around Oxford
Good Beer Guide launches on September 26
CAMRA’s Good Beer Guide – the UK’s best-selling beer and pub guide – is celebrating its 52nd edition with two versions featuring two of the UK’s favourite if fictitious locals: Coronation Street’s Rovers Return Inn, and Emmerdale’s Woolpack.
CAMRA says the Rovers Return and Woolpack represent the familiarity and community spirit of pubs across the UK. This edition pays tribute to the communities that are beamed into homes, providing entertainment and companionship to those that may not have a pub of their own.
Research commissioned by CAMRA found people who have a local pub rate themselves as significantly happier because of it, and have more close friends, and the pubs on television reflect this feeling. Some of Coronation Street’s and Emmerdale’s most touching and memorable moments have taken place in their respective pubs.
Check out the Oxford Drinker Online on launch date to see which pubs in and around Oxford are new to the guide for 2025.
Twisted Tree Brewery
This new micro-brewery, situated on a private estate near Bicester and not open to the public, will make its debut at the Oxford Beer Festival in October. It has already produced canned and bottled beers including an IPA and an espresso stout, but will bring cask ales to the festival and is committed to producing them on a regular basis.
Director Mark Hayes-Kemp, who runs the brewery with Peter Kemp said: “Cask beer will be a regular feature at our brewery with plans for a new beer each month in the new year. We’re committed to keeping a steady flow of cask ales available, as we believe in the tradition and craft of cask brewing. We’ll be producing a variety of styles, from IPAs to stouts, and we’re always experimenting with new recipes to keep things interesting including a low ABV beer to be realised very soon which packs a serious punch of flavour.”
Masons Arms, Oxford
The annual Headington Beer Festival, planned here for September 6-8 with over 50 ales, was called off in early August and will now happen at another time of year in 2025, according to a Facebook post by landlord Chris Meeson. He did not go into detail about why he had cancelled this very successful annual event, but there were problems last year with the temperature of the beers served which may have prompted a rethink.
Fleece & Flagon, Witney
The former Chequers and Chequers Smokehouse in Witney has been bought by pub company Craft Union, part of Stonegate, and renamed the Fleece & Flagon to commemorate Witney’s blanket making industry. Three real ale pumps for Carlsberg-sourced beers were available in the opening week in July – Hobgoblin Gold, Hobgoblin IPA and Wainwright, costing around £3.35 a pint which is low by local standards. This is Craft Union’s 600th pub.
Fox Inn, Boars Hill
This country pub just outside Oxford re-opened in June, with a former manager at the Chequers in Witney now in charge. Only two real ale pumps were in use on a recent visit, dispensing Timothy Taylor Landlord and Wadworth 6X. The pub remained closed on Mondays and Tuesdays, but on other days is serving a varied menu including Brets Burgers, once of Cowley Road. Previous landlord Tommy Pritchard, who tragically died in a car crash on Christmas Day, had built up the pub into a Good Beer Guide contender.
Berkshire, Oxford
Also re-opened in June was this pub on Abingdon Road, but it continues to have no real ale as for the last couple of years and it would have to re-install hand pumps if there was a change of policy. In the last few years it has had various identities including the Crooked Pot, Hubble & Home and simply Home, but reverted to Berkshire under the previous operators who also ran the adjacent café and convenience store, which they also closed. The Admiral Taverns pub had an expensive refit a few years ago and now serves a “Fatboy Slim” menu of large and small portions.
White House, Bladon
The tenancy is up for renewal by the end of November, and a new pair of hands is required to write the next chapter of this Community-Owned pub. The current tenancy with L&B Hospitality was due to expire in June 2025 but the tenants decided to give early notice of termination.