Community Pub Champs, New Windows and Charity, all in a weeks work at The Swan
Welcome back to ‘The Blog’. An apology first for missing the last blog, with all the excitement listed below time ran away from me. Slap my hand when you next see me.
Who’s the Best Community Pub in Great Britain? You guessed it……!!!
A couple of weeks ago, I headed to Leeds with my wife Jess (And baby on board too!!) to accept the amazing surprise of The Swan being named the BEST community Pub in Great Britain at the Great British Pub Awards. What a brilliant night it was too, socialising with other industry leading professionals, meet old friends and getting to try some absolutely delicious beer to boot! This is all down to you, our amazing bunch of Guests that make The Swan what it is. Thank you all. The trophy is proudly displayed behind the bar so pop in, take a look and see why we are officially the best!
And another win we need to sing about… for the 7th year in a row we have made it into the Good Beer Guide 2027. This puts us on a national map for Guests visiting the area can find where we are, try our great conditioned cask ale and give us a score for it. All the good things happened at once!
Our next coffee morning was due to be hosted on the last Friday of the month. With this one being for RBL, we have decided to move it closer to the date so mark your diaries, The next charity coffee morning will be the 6th November from 10.30am.
Who’s ready for a beer festival? Dark Beers sound good? Great! October 31st and November 1st we will have a range of Dark beers available. Just intime for the long cold nights. 31st, Backtrack will be back with Live Music from 7.30pm, wrap up warm! It will be on the outside stage! And then 1st November, everyone’s favourite Ukulele Band will be with us in the Pub with Uke-oke, karaoke with the Ukulele Band!
Remember, Remember the 5th of November… Bonfire Night is round the corner. Its on a school night too! Its a Thursday so why not come to us, have some Thai food, sit round the fire and listen to the live music from the Dutty Rascals. If were really cleaver you might even be able to see the fireworks from other venues too!!!
Frontage works and an update from our Directors…
As you know, over the last few years we have been raising funds to transform the front of our rather ugly-
duckling pub into the beautiful Swan that this wonderful old building deserves to be. Thanks to the incredible
support we have received from the community, we are delighted to say that we are now in a position to begin
the renovations, and we would like to share our plans with you.
We will be:
-Replacing all of the windows on the front of the building with hard-wood, double glazed units in keeping
with the current style
-Repairing and repainting the gable fascia boards and window cills
-Refurbishing the pub hanging sign and bracket.
-Reinstating the old gable lights and…
-If funds and time allow, refurbishing the roofs of the bay windows and replacing the tired guttering with
cast iron.
Work is planned to start Today, Friday 16th October, with the installation of scaffolding outside of the pub and we hope will take no more than six weeks – though exact timelines will be somewhat dependent on the weather.
Our aim, throughout the works is to cause as little disruption as possible to our neighbours, the pub, the school
and the wider community. The window fitting will be completed within the first two weeks which is half term for
the Green Room.
The pub will remain open for business as usual during this time, but access will be via the courtyard, rather than
the front door. All of our usual clubs, groups and events will continue as normal.
Many thanks for all of your support and donations. We are looking forward to seeing the finished results in a
few weeks time!
Kind regards
Willie, Richard and Stuart
And there you have it. Loads happening right? All in a community pubs work! And now, inkeeping with the building works… Joke time….
‘Exit signs’…. They’re on the way out!!
See you around the pub
Micky xx