September 2020


Here is a round-up of the events at The Swan during September, 2020.

2nd Sept: Quiz Night

The winners on the night were The Gibsons and Friends.

Winners: The Gibsons and Friends Happy team of six won a prize in the raffle
The Bar Staff Quizzers dispersed round the pub
Quizzers in the bar socially distanced The Gibsons and Friends

5th Sept: BBQ

Still covid lurks about and still we have social distancing. More people on furlough. More redundancies. BUT did that get us down? A resounding NOOOOO as we had another of our famous BBQs.

Connor doing some table service
Crowd in The Courtyard Underneath the covering was busy but socially distanced
No need for the brollies as it was neither sunny nor raining Was not the warmest, some jackets in evidence

Some people opted to remain indoors inside the pub. As you can see, the tables have all been spaced out and the doors and windows opened to provide good ventilation. The pub, staff and the community all followed the covid guidelines to try and stop the spread.

Connor doing some table service
Crowd in The Courtyard

The barbecue was very popular all day, but still the lads had time to joke about. We had our usual range of burgers and sausages, both meaty and vegan, to suit all tastes. And that included Luke from the bar team who enjoyed one of the excellent burgers.

Luke from the bar team enjoying a burger
Burgers and sausages being cooked on the barbie
Ian and Tony, our resident chefs

9th Sept: The Coach House

In just 10 short weeks Jayflex & their team of builders have completely transformed the Coach House. What a pleasure it has been to see such a professional and talented group of guys restore this historic building to its former glory.

Inside the IT Suite facing the front of the building
Desktop PCs with monitors on display
Inside the IT Suite facing the rear of the building

This old hay loft that has now become a fabulous light and airy IT suite is a sight to behold. It compliments the School House upstairs and will be of huge benefit to the pupils of GR6 in the coming years. It also gives us scope for hosting and running exciting community projects for the technical and not so technically minded.

Outside the building lit up in the dark
Outside the building in the daylight
Another shot of the building at night time but shwoing the ide, newly reworked, ties inserted, and painted

The now structurally safe, insulated and spacious room downstairs will prove to be very versatile for future events. Everything from kids craft sessions, to live music and games, the Coach House will be Windsor’s premier bijou venue.

Green Room Sixth Form class in the ground floor of The Coach House

Work started on 16th June has been completed on schedule. No small task for the team, who each day had to clear up early to ensure the courtyard was ready for the pub to open.

NTaking the building back to real basics

Sadly we say goodbye to the core team of Shane & Dale (Evolution Roofing) & Simon (Read Building) whose happy demeanour, generous spirit and multi-talents ensured everything hummed along - there is literally nothing these guys can’t do!

Building back up and extending the upper floor walls

Many thanks also to Bonzo (a brick laying dynamo), Aiden for his endless trips to and fro delivering important materials and helping clear our endless ‘stuff’ and both Keith (Roberts Electrical) and Scott (SKPH Ltd.)) our resident electrician and plumber.

Flooring going down and finishing touches outside

There are more to thank. Bobby & Manuel (Iron Bark) for their great work on the windows and restoration of the Coach House doors, the father & son team Richard & Harry, Matt & Mark the carpenters who built the frame of the roof, Chaz & his team (Cutting Edge Flooring) for the flooring upstairs and of course Jack & Andy (AVS Online) who added to our fire and security systems.

Glasswork and electrics going in

And finally we must thank Peter the architect, David the structural engineer and Alan at Jayflex for his organisation and oversight throughout and of course all of our Weekday Warriors and School staff who helped along the way.

Finishing touches by GRS staff and Weekday Warriors

This whole project would of course not have been possible without the very generous donation and vision of Jayflex’s owner Brendan O’Reilly whose vision, experience and attention to detail has made this old building the stunning structure it is today with an IT suite that will be of huge benefit to The School and Community alike.

Inside the IT Suite

From everyone from The Swan Community... a huge Thank You!

Warm regards, Will & Richard

You can see much more of the actual renovation and weekly progress during the ten weeks in our Renovation Diary for 2020.

9th Sept: Bingo Night

A return of Bingo to The Swan saw our first simultaneous live and virtual event. Richard Allen, our resident bingo caller delivered to players in the pub and those who stayed within the comfort of their own home. Once a few IT issues had been resolved the games began with many winners on the night including Vernon, Amjad, Erin, Trudy, Louise, Jane and Tony. The winner of the full house in our final game was Katie Eleftheriou who was presented with a beautiful swan motif notebook.


Teams online via Zoom Inside the pub in the paby window
Ladies enjoying the bingo Quite a few tables took part
One of our winners

14th Sept: GBPA

Voting is closed and we are waiting for the 24th to find out how we have got on. The team from the Great British Pub Award (GBPA) sent a camera team down to interview some of those involved in Keeping The Community Entertained and of the wider pub and school. We were led to believe that this was being done at the other pubs, this turned out to be a wee white lie.

Renee, our first customer last July when we opened and an avid online Bingo player. She was interviewed to give an overview of what the pub means to the local community and the importance of the online events during lockdown.

Renee, our first customer
Renee being interviewed Joking after the filming was complete

Anne from The The Friends of The Swan was doing all the linkage between the various interviews. During this she re-iterated the importance of the three pillars: the pub, the school and the community. This was reflected in the rest of the interviews.

Anne being interviewed Anne in The Courtyard
Discussing who is up next

Rachel Cross who was the inspiration behind 'Rachel Reads', popular stories on YouTube for our younger community members. Also charities that we have supported - Family Friends and Plastic Free Windsor - were interviewed too.

Rachel Cross who does Rachel Reads for kids
Family Friends
Plastic Free Windsor

Chris from Dublicious who produces our Friday Feast was there. Regulars Bas & Diana spoke about what had been achieved during lockdown. And young Tony from the Weekday Warriors gave an overview of what happened to the renovation work during lockdown.

Chris from Dublicious
Bas and Diana
Tony Cross from the Weekday Warriors

After being interviewed, Richard Allen went walkabout in The School House and IT Suite. This shows the uniqueness of The Swan having not only a pub, but a sixth form school too.

Richard in The Barr being interviewed
Richard being interviewed in The School House

These are some of the people waiting to be interviewed. Also the extras too! It was a large cast that came to the video session just in case they were required as we had no script to follow.

Renee and her daughter, Trudy
The Friends of The Swan
The lads waiting for the shout

A huge thanks to Doug Seeburg for taking these photos.

Have you seen the results evening on September, 24th? Those that were involved in the day got together for the Great British Pub Award programme streamed into The Coach House. Well worth a wee look.

16th Sept: Quiz Night

Winners on the night were The Armitages.

Team enjoying the quiz and cheap lager
The pub was quite busy
The Bar Staff

20th Sept: Mini-Market

The Courtyard busy with both stalls and people enjoying the opportunity to buy fresh produce and the likes. Our stalls included garden produce, homemade honey, masks, cheese and Swan merchandise. It was good to see the regular stall holders including Chris from Dublicious who is famous for our Friday Feast takeway.

Preparing the Stalls
The Homemade Honey Man Chris from Dublicious
The Cheesemunger Donuts from The The Friends of The Swan
Lady with the Homemade Masks Green Room preapring their produce stall

The Gren Room School fresh produce stall probably took the longest to set up. The school had been at their allotment close by and had farmed a lot of fresh produce for the day. Care was taken to make sure it was displayed in the best way possible.

Enjoying the Sunshine and Barbecue

The pub was busy as usual when we have a mini-market. The excellent stalls, the BBQ and the sun all helped along with the odd refreshment from the bar. Even though it was a nice day, the chocolate on the donuts didn't get a chance to melt - they were bought and scoffed very quickly.

Family enjoying the barbecue The barbecue The produce stall is busy
A busy Courtyard Choosing cheeses with The Cheesemunger Checking out the donuts
A busy Courtyard Produce stall still busy A geenerla shot of The Courtyard

So another great market in The Courtyard, well organised and well attended. A huge thanks to all those involved. And we did raise some more funds to the restoration of the pub which is good news - every penny counts at this time.

23rd Sept: Bingo Night

A big thank you to the intrepid Bingo players who made their way to The Swan despite the bad weather on Wednesday. Thank you also to Rachel (not only the star of Rachel Reads) who deputised as caller when our usual host was unavailable. Congratulations to all our winners but especially to Tony Cross who won the final full house. Watch this space for detail of the next Bingo evening.

Louise receiving a bottle of beer
Peter with his winning bottle of beer
Our winnert
Another of our winners, wee Tony

25th Sept: Macmillan

Rachel Cross from The The Friends of The Swan organised a Macmillan Coffee Morning. Connor opened up at 9.30am and very quickly the place got busy. We have never sold so many coffees but the real stars were the cakes that people had baked and brought down. They were an absolute hit with the folk who came along. Lots of old faces and new faces, young and old, it was great to see. And in the process we raised a magnificent £600.

A HUGE thank you to everyone involved.

The feedback has been really positive and we are looking at making a similar coffee morning on the last Friday of each month, each time sponsoring a charity. Watch this space for more information.

People sitting in the window enjoying the cofee and cake Young ladies sitting in the middle of the bar enjoying coffee and cake
Dawn and family enjoying themselves Rachel with the table of cakes
The cake table well laden with a great variety Baby in high stool enjoying a cake
Inside the pub was full
Table of old faces enjoying their cake

Since re-opening in 2019 (and subject to covid restrictions), the pub has tried to have a regular charity coffee morning. Over the years we have raised a few thousand, raised awareness, and importantly ot the community together. We will be continuing this but do need support with baking, etc. If you can in the future, then thank you in advance.

27th Sept: Decorative Stones

We had a huge surprise at the pub when we found a set of decorative stones that has been placed all around the pub. These are very pretty and tastefully decorated by hand. To whoever left them, a HUGE thank you.

Decorative stone left at The Swan
Decorative stone left at The Swan
Decorative stone left at The Swan
Decorative stone left at The Swan
Decorative stone left at The Swan
Decorative stone left at The Swan
Decorative stone left at The Swan

30th Sept: Quiz Night

Winners on the night were: The Soggy Swans.

Young couple playing the quiz
The winners - The Soggy Swans Table of players inside the bar
Regular quizzers insie the bar Cheers! Lads having a beer and doing the quiz
In The Coach House Happy smiley faces


Events in August, 2020 Events in October, 2020