View From The Chair(s)Hello, and welcome to our Summer 2026 edition of Pints of View... I've had only limited involvement in the branch so far this year due to ill health, and haven't even had a beer since January 25th (when I had to abandon the #31PubsInJanuary challenge), as I then spent the next 8 weeks in hospital. My thanks, therefore, go to fellow committee members for stepping up and taking on extra responsibilities in my absence. I'll therefore leave it to my Vice-Chair to complete the rest of this piece, but I wanted to mention just a few points first.
Page 5As well as getting a printed magazine back into our pubs, the committee would still very much like to bring back a Mansfield and Ashfield Branch Beer Festival. It's our top priority, and there is work going on behind the scenes. However, as I mentioned earlier, we're a small team of volunteers, doing whatever we can along with our work/home/family commitments. Again, if you think you can help us with any of this, including getting a beer festival up and running, please do get in touch. Looking forward, we have our Annual General Meeting on Sunday 28th June at 2pm at The Brown Cow in Mansfield. We've booked The Cow Shed (the upstairs room) for this. At the meeting, all committee posts will be up for re-election. Again, our AGM is open to all, and we'd love to have the place full of people. If you're interested, do come along - you won't be forced to sign up to anything, and you can just come along to meet us, have a beer, and see what happens. Equally, if you would like to become involved, either formally or informally ('minister without portfolio' is still an option!), we would really appreciate a few more people helping with our committee roles - and if you're interested in real cider, you could even consider taking the Cider Rep role from me!
Branch NewsPub of the Season nominations... PUB OF T
Stagecoach 1 RouteAhead of 'Better Transport Week' in June, I thought it was time another guide was added to the website's Bus Routes page. Thinking, 'Where better to start than from my nearest bus stop in Huthwaite', I caught the Stagecoach 1 to Mansfield Woodhouse and worked my way home, with an open ticket costing £7, allowing unlimited travel for the day. My rules for the trip were that the pub must serve real ale and be no more than 30 seconds from the bus stop. This is how it went... BARREL MICROPUB
Stagecoach 1 RouteWoodfordes Nog complementing Batemans Eggs-B and a brace from Full Mash in Shoreline and Illuminati - the latter of which I had to look up, as it was hard to tell from the pump clip. There seemed to be a party of some kind going on, so I retired to one of the front rooms where I could read a CAMRA branch magazine I hadn't seen before while enjoying my ale. Bold Forester
PUB OF THSEASON Winter 2025/26 Town Pub of the Season
PUB OF TSEASON Winter 2025/26 Village Pub of the Season
Social Round-upOur first social event of the year took place at the 2025 Branch Pub of the Year, FireRock. A good turnout from committee and branch members was bolstered by guests from Amber Valley branch, making for a convivial and cosy winter afternoon.
Out and about inn... WarehamSt. Martins Church The Purbeck area of Dorset has been our go-to place for nearly 20 years, and at the 'Gateway to the Purbecks' is the Saxon town of Wareham.
Opinion"There's no room for complacency" - they were the wise words of CAMRA's national chairman Joe Goodwin when he addressed annual meetings in the 1970s. He stressed that while the Campaign could record many successes, the battle to save real ale was far from over. Today, as we celebrate CAMRA's 55th anniversary, Joe's mantra is as true as ever. We can indeed look back with pride on our undoubted achievements but we face an even more daunting battle to save and promote this country's unique contribution to the world of beer.
OpinionIn Yorkshire, Theakston, which will celebrate 200 years of brewing in 2027, says it had its best year ever in 2025. In the same county, Timothy Taylor says it's brewing more cask beer than before the Covid pandemic. It's not exactly a micro - it brews 70,000 barrels a year of which 80 per cent is cask, with Landlord leading the field. Across the Pennines, Robinsons family brewery in Stockport has built a new plant to supply cask beer to its 300 pubs. In Derbyshire, Thornbridge also reports a strong surge for its cask beers, some of which are brewed in a Burton union fermenter, that was surplus to requirements at Marston's.
Page 24Brook Two Blokes, a Dog, and 26 Letters - G
Page 25Brook Two Blokes, a Dog, and 26 Letters - G
Page 26Brook Two Blokes, a Dog, and 26 Letters - G
Favourite PubsYou may or may not have heard of the ‘Famous Five'. No, not Enid Blyton's band of child sleuths (though there is a connection here), but the five pubs which have been in every edition of the Good Beer Guide... My favourite pub happens to be one of those, but it is its location and individuality that never fails to put a smile on my face. The pub was introduced to me by my brother-in-law on my first holiday in Dorset - not just as a place to go for a drink, but somewhere to experience - that's quite a thing in an area boasting Corfe Castle, Lulworth Cove, Durdle Door, Tyneham and much more.
UnusuAleHighlighting unusual, rare or one-off ales and the pubs that serve them... AL STOUT
THE DIXIES ARMSSCHOOLROAD BAGTHORPE NG16 5HF EINE ALES, A GREAT SELECTION OF TRADITIONAL CIDER PRIVATE WHISKY LOUNGE
Trail and Ale with DuggieA regular feature highlighting a dog-friendly pub, in or around our branch, with a good walk from the door and great beer at the end. The branch has an abundance of scenic countryside with Sherwood Forest, The Dukeries and Robin Hood Way, to name a few of the highlights. Nothing beats a nice pint at the end of a good walk, so lace up your boots and enjoy what our branch has to offer. The Beehive, Maplebeck, and east of the branch