Welcome to your Bolton CAMRA Branch Update. We’re definitely in the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness and as well as the nights drawing in, some of the beers on the bar of your local may be taking on a darker appearance. Still the last remnants of the summer sunshine continue to make a beer garden a tempting spot to enjoy a pint or two.
Branch Meetings
The October branch meeting will take place at 8pm on 1 October at the Crown Hotel 1 Chorley New Road, Horwich, BL6 7QJ. As well as the meeting itself, we will be presenting the pub with the award for having been voted Summer Pub of the Season. Congratulations to the team at the Crown. As always, all are welcome to come along and try the Holt’s beers on offer.
The November meeting will include the branch Annual General Meeting and will take place on Thursday 5 November at 8pm at the Spinning Mule Unit 2 Nelson Square, Bolton, BL1 1JT. Amongst the business of this meeting will be the election of officers and the presentaion of accounts. We will also consider adopting an updated branch constitution which will be based on CAMRA’s new model constitution with minor amendments to reflect how the branch operates in practice. All members are entitled to vote on these issues.
Good Beer Guide
You may have seen that the 2027 Good Beer Guide has now been published. Congratulations to the Bolton pubs that have made it into the guide and particular the two new entrants, Sparrows Rum Bar and JR’s Ale House in Horwich.
Bolton Branch is allocated thirteen entries in the Good Beer Guide and each year the process begins from scratch with a shortlist being drawn up from those pubs with beer scores above the branch average for the previous 12 months. In this way CAMRA members are the starting point for choosing which pubs go into the guide. As I have said before, if you believe your local pub deserves to be in the guide, then make sure you score their beers and make sure any other CAMRA members who frequent the pub do so too. Information on beer scoring is available on the branch website here. Publicity material is also available for licensees who wish to encourage members to beer score. Drop me a line at chair@bolton.camra.org.uk and we can get a poster to you.
Royal Hotel
You will be aware from both CAMRA and the wider media that pubs are having a difficult time and many are closing. One such casualty is the Royal Hotel on Vernon Street, Bolton. Despite describing the pub as being ‘proud to be part of the community’ and having a ‘great following from the local community’, the owners, Admiral Taverns, have sold the property and closed it without giving anyone an opportunity to buy it and keep it running. An application has now been made to Bolton Council to convert the building into a 12 bedroom HMO. The regulars, however, are not prepared to let their local go without a fight and have started a campaign to save the pub. As well as objecting to the application they have also applied to the Council to have the building designated an Asset of Community Value.The Save the Royal Hotel Facebook page can be found here. Bolton CAMRA has also submitted an objection to the change but previous experience has shown that Bolton Council is not particularly protective of pubs. This would be a great opportunity to show that it really does care about the loss of vital community facilities. There may still be time to make a comment on the application yourself. It can can be accessed here.
Locale
CAMRA’s LocAle initiative promotes pubs stocking locally brewed real ale in order to reduce the number of ‘beer miles’ from brewery to pub cellar in response to growing consumer demand for quality local produce. This includes beer from Bolton’s own breweries including Bank Top, Blackedge, Northern Monkey and Escape and also other breweries within a 25 mile radius. Surveys have consistently shown that cask ale drinkers want to drink beers that are brewed locally and so by checking if a pub is Locale accredited you can check where to find somewhere that stocks them. More information can be found here.
Birthday Party
And finally, Bolton CAMRA branch has a significant birthday coming up. In November the branch will be 50 years old. The exact date of the first branch meeting is in question but nevertheless we have chosen 10 November as the date when we will launch 12 months of events to celebrate this milestone with a social at the Northern Monkey Bar, Nelson Square, Bolton, BL1 1AQ. Members are looking at a number of ways of marking the anniversary including highlighting those pubs that have been serving cask ale throughout the 50 years since the branch was formed and possibly having a 50th Anniversary ale brewed by our local brewers. We hope this will be an opportunity for more members to get involved with branch activities and keep the branch going for another 50 years. More information will be available as plans get firmed up but I hope to see you at these events to enjoy the best of British beer.
Cheers,
John Mitchell – Chair