September 2024

Here is a round-up of the events at The Swan during September, 2024.

2nd Sep: Windsor Ukulele Club

A week peek into the Coach House to see the Ukulele players pracising for their next gig. Over the last year or so, they have become very popular with the local community always bringing in a big crowd wherever they play. All are welcome whatever your level.

The Windsor Ukulele Club

5th Sep: Windsor Town Fun Runners

Every week the Windsor Town Fun Runners meet at The Swan and then have a run round Windsor, Eton and the environs ending back at The Swan. Great camaraderie. Great fun. Why not join them?

 
 

7th Sep: Saturday Sewing Bee

The Sewing Bee meet every second Saturday in the bar. They bring along their personal projects and share updates, ideas, concepts, etc. It ranges from knitting, to sewing, to crochet, et al. And there is a wee chat too. Why not pop along? All welcome.

The Saturday Sewing Bee at The Swan
The Saturday Sewing Bee at The Swan
The Saturday Sewing Bee at The Swan
The Saturday Sewing Bee at The Swan

8th Sep: Annual General Meeting

The AGM was held on Sunday 8th September. Unlike previous years, it was not broadcast and no photos were taken. A hardcopy of the minutes is available which has been sent to The Bevy. Will scan this and add it in soon.

11th Sep: Quiz Night

Winners of this week's quiz were The Posse and the raffle, Cathy Kitson.

Winners at the Quiz: The Posse
Winner of the Quiz Raffle: Cathy Kitson

17th Sep: Great British Pub Awards

We are extremely proud to be chosen as the Winner of the 'Best Community Pub' category at the Great British Pub Awards 2024! The award was announced this week at a gala ceremony in Manchester, heralded as the Oscars of the pub industry. Pubs from across Britain compete for one of the industry’s most sought after accolades. It was presented live on stage to our General Manager, Micky Foden-Andrews who was joined by his wife, Jessica.

Photos from the actual award ceremony in Manchester.

Micky and Jessica prior to the GBPA 2024
Winner of the GBPA 2024 Best Community Pub Award
Micky with the trophy
Celebrations at winning the GBPA 2024 Best Community Pub
Micky and Jess with the award
Announcement of the award to the gathered guests

This last photo is courtsey of the Morning Advertiser.

The ceremony was live-streamed to the pub, where a huge cheer went up as The Swan was announced as the winner, leading to an evening of jubilant celebration.

The calm in the pub before the awards ceremony.
Watching the awards show on the tele in the pub
The announcement has just been made - time to celebrate.
Watching the tele intently.
We won - hands and arms in the air, much cheering.
Mickey and Jess in Manchester on the tele in the pub
Celebrations in the pub.

There is a YouTube video of the evening's activities both from Manchester and from the pub. It gives a flavour of the evening and the celebrations. Do enjoy!

19th Sep: Bingo

Bingo was back with a bang on 19th Sept, with more players than ever after a short summer break, so we had to spill out into the Coach House! It was caller Richard's Birthday so their were more surprise age and year related calls and a rousing chorus of 'Happy Birthday' among the usual destruction of 'Dancing Queen', 'When I'm 64' and 'Staying Alive'.

Eyes Down! in the pub
Richard Allen our Bingo caller
Sshhhhhhh - we're playing bingo

Carol and Amy came out tops in the Top of the Bill final cash game, winning £13 and £30 respectively, both having won boozy prizes earlier in the evening, together with Dawn, Cathy and Martin.

Winner - Amy

Amy

Winner - Carol

Carol

Winner - Cathy

Cathy

The next Bingo night is Thurs 17th Oct - make sure you book your table well in advance!

21st Sep: Skills Fair

A huge thank you to everyone who came down to the Skills Fair on Saturday afternoon. The Swan was bursting with activities and it was lovely to see so many joining in the creativity and learning new skills.

Kids learning to play the ukulele
Entertainment from the lads from the Boys School
Card making skills
Cocktail classes
Hairdressing
Crafts
Sewing skills

The day finished with some very extravagant catwalk modeling in our debut 'Great Swan Sewing Bee' competition - thank you to everyone who took part!

Josie in The IT Suite
The girls selling for the Green Room
Jess and face painting
More learning the ukulele

We hope this will be the first of many Skills Fairs in which we show off all that The Swan and the Community have to offer. If you missed out this time, and would like to be involved in the next, please get in touch!

More pictures to follow.

24th Sep: Windsor Town Runners

Everyone is welcome on Wednesdays. Come join us, might just be the best decision you've made all year. Different route each week.

The Windsor Town Runners leaving The Swan
Passing the Hurricane memorial
Crossing one of the small bridges on the Thames pathway
The runners back at The Swan ready for a refreshing a pint

25th Sep: Quiz

It was a relatively quiet night for the Quiz this week, with a number of teams low in number as the winter sniffles start to take hold. But on the upside, we all squeezed into the bar to enjoy another of Quiz Lord Martin's eclectic mix of questions. The Desperados came out on top, winning the tie break against Hettie's Heroes, and Debs Solo picked a glass of wine from the raffle, having played a blinder in the quiz as a one-person team!

Quiz Winners - The Desperados
Raffle Winner - Debs Solo

26th Sep: Swan Elder

GRC welcomed Swan regular Nicole Caton in the week as our Swan Elder. Nicole's energetic talk about the therapeutic power of our sense of smell was fascinating. Students even created their own scents to help soothe and calm.

Swan Elder - Nicole Caton
Swan Elder - Nicole Caton

26th Sep: Epic Thursday

Local author Tim Walker popped into Epic Thursday this week. He kindly donated a signed copy of his self published book of short stories, Thames Valley Tales. Tim's keen to share his knowledge of writing and self publishing with the GRC students.

Local author Tim Walker with two of the students

27th Sep: Macmillan Coffee Morning

Thanks to the volunteers, bakers, staff, and customers (especially those from our 2024 charity, the King George VI Day Centre) who came out in some dreadful weather to contribute to Macmillan Cancer Support. Together, we managed to raise £193.11 during the morning.

The Macmillan branding outside the pub
The cake table for the Macmillan Coffee Morning

27-29th Sep: Oktoberfest

Report to follow.

Oktoberfest
Oktoberfest
Oktoberfest

Here is what was on offer over the weekend.

Oktoberfest
Oktoberfest
Oktoberfest
Oktoberfest

29th Sep: Monty Python and the Holy Grail

This month's Film Night was the classic Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Not only was it was Swan Film Night, it was also part of the prestigious Windsor Fringe. As you can see, the regulars took to the occasion getting appropriately dressed up as King Arthur, Sir Lancelot and other characters from the film. However, there was no sign of Sir Not-Appearing-In-This-Film. What a night!

People starting to arrive for the film
Lou and Trudy as King Arthur
King Arthur, Sir Lancelot, and others
Knight Helmet underneath the TV
Dawn as  Sir Lancelot

September Newsletters

Although our news page has all the newsletters, we thought it might be easier to access this month's ones from here.

Events in August, 2024 Events in October, 2024