Events: 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

30th Sept: Quiz Night

Winners on the night were: The Soggy Swans.