The Oxford Drinker Return of the X - Exeter Hall Revival After a Shaky Start, the of All Her Beers, Especially Exeter Hall on Cowley Road Her Cask Ales
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ISSUE 51 June - July 2008 the Oxford Drinker Return of the X - Exeter Hall revival After a shaky start, the of all her beers, especially Exeter Hall on Cowley Road her cask ales. At present now seems on track to they serve Greene King IPA return to its place in the and a guest ale, currently community as a great music Old Speckled Hen. venue for ‘the people’. However, they are open to, and welcome, suggestions for guest ales and have the option to provide a third ale if demand exists. Their newest member of staff recently graduated with a Music The Sweeney Pubs venue Management degree and reopened in March with a will be able to provide in- continued commitment to house sound engineering providing good support. beer and a warm and friendly atmosphere. Current regular events are the Pub Quiz (Sundays), Manager Pippa Dods has inside this issue: open mic sessions headington crawl won a Gold Award in (Tuesdays) and poker night Beautiful Beer from the (Wednesdays). cryptic crossword British Beer & Pub breweriana - part 1 Association. Pippa is proud Continued over page kidlington ramblings beer festival reports the free newsletter of the european beer festival Oxford City Branch of CAMRA festival and branch diaries www.oxfordcamra.org.uk festival logo design competition issue 51 Photos here are from a from lunch time onwards recent open mic night daily. which, as you can see, attracted talented local Pippa and her team are artists of all ages. determined to bring the Exeter Hall back to its The kitchen will re-open former glory, not just in later in June with plans to terms of being a strong serve the usual pub grub competitor on the music scene in Oxford, but also to provide its customers with a comfortable place to enjoy a pint whether it be at lunchtime, after work or on a night out and booked, free of charge, for private parties. They are open to all forms Promoters, bands and and genres of music, and those with suggestions and welcome bands from feedback should contact across the board. Pippa via email ([email protected]) The small private lounge or phone (01865 776431). bar can also be closed off page 2 the Oxford Drinker june 2008 beer festival diary Thurs 5 - Sat 7 June Wed 2 - Sat 5 July Wed 16 - Sun 20 July Southampton Beer Ealing Beer Festival Greenwich Beer & Jazz Festival Walpole Park, Ealing Festival Guildhall, West Marlands 07971 547738 Charles Lawn, Old Royal Road, Southampton Naval College, Greenwich, www.shantscamra.org.uk Fri 4 - Sun 6 July London SE10 Hereford Beer Festival 140 beers + ciders & perries Sat 14 June Hereford Rowing Club, www.greenwichbeerandjazz.co Candleford Fayre and Greyfriars Avenue, m Beer Festival Hereford Fringford Village Hall, 100+ beers, 50+ ciders & Fri 18 - Sat 19 July Fringford, nr Bicester perries Merton Beer Festival 12 noon-9pm 01432 275497 Merton Village Hall, Merton, www.herefordcamra.org.uk Nr Bicester Tues 17 - Sat 21 June 40 beers + ciders & perries Far from the Madding Sat July 5 Friday 6-11pm Crowd Summer Beer Haddenham Village Real Saturday 12 noon-11pm Festival Ale Festival Friars Entry, Oxford Youth & Community Tues 5 - Sat 9 August www.maddingcrowd.co.uk Centre, Woodaways, 31 st Great British Beer Haddenham Festival Fri 27 - Sun 29 June 60+ beers, ciders & perries Earl's Court, London General Elliot Beer www.haddenham-beer- 450 real ales + ciders, Festival festival.co.uk perries & international beers Manor Road, South www.camra.org.uk Hinksey, Oxford Fri 11 - Sat 12 July 01865 739639 Woodcote Festival of Thurs 14 - Sat 16 August Ales 9th Worcester Beer, Cider Sat 28 June (With Woodcote Steam & Perry Festival Burford School Rally) Worcester Racecourse Association’s 4 th Tidmore Lane, Woodcote, www.worcesterbeerfest.org.uk Biennial Beer Festival off A4074 Wallingford to Warwick Hall & Gardens Reading Road Fri 22 - Mon 25 August Church Lane, Burford www.woodcoterally.org.uk/ Chester Arms Beer Festival festivalofale.html 19 Chester Street, Oxford 12 noon-10pm see page 9 Sat 28 June Sat 12 July Chipping Norton Rugby Charlbury Beer Festival Further details and Club Beer Festival Charlbury Cricket Club updates are available Greystones, Burford Road NOTE NEW VENUE (A361) The Pavilion, Burford Road on our FESTIVALS Charlbury 12 noon–10.30pm webpage at 20 beers, ciders & perries 12 noon-11pm www.cnrufc.co.uk 36 beers + ciders & perries www.oxfordcamra.org.uk www.charlburybeerfestival.org the Oxford Drinker page 3 issue 51 Breweriana - part 1 Richard Queralt The word breweriana is a rarity value plays a big part in Labologists Society. This ‘made up’ term for all the the prices people are prepared British-based organisation relics, objects and equipment to pay. This Hall’s Oxford calls itself the International connected to brewing and Brewery label dates from the Society of Label Collectors distilling, and the breweries 1920s. and Brewery Research and and distilleries themselves. publishes a magazine six The brewery closed in 1925 times a year which it sends Just about everything is and no more of these labels out to its members. This deemed collectable, from the would have been produced. includes news, articles and smallest scraps of paper, This doesn’t always mean an notice of up-coming label such as beer bottle labels, up item will be hard to find. It could auctions. to hefty wooden pub signs be that a large number of and ornate brewery-branded unused labels were left over Another popular item of mirrors. and ended up in the hands of breweriana is the beer mat. collectors. The fact that beer mats, like bottle labels, are not much more than throwaways and practically worthless doesn’t deter the collector and again, the scarcity factor plays its part. The Glenny Brewery opened in Witney in 1983. Although still brewing, it became Wychwood Brewery in 1989 meaning the beer mat below was probably produced in limited numbers only. As with stamp collectors, some breweriana fans are prepared to pay high prices Some decades-old labels are for tiny pieces of paper. In this still available unused in almost case in the form of beer bottle mint condition but most have labels. While fees are unlikely passed through the hands of to reach the heights of those various collectors and come paid for a rare stamp, there with the stamp hinges used to are plenty of instances of mount them in albums and/or these labels selling for well the collector’s name stamped over the £100 mark. The on the back. Others have been The British Beermat example above, from soaked off of the bottles they Collectors Society was Cirencester Brewery in were stuck to. If done well formed in 1960 and is still Gloucestershire, which closed these can be found in good going strong. These in 1937, recently went for condition but there are lots of collectors are known as £220 on eBay, the online tatty examples. ‘Tegestologists’ from the auction site. Latin word ‘teges’ which The best scources for beer apparently means small rug, Like any collector’s item, bottle labels are eBay and the with mat being another term page 4 the Oxford Drinker decemberjune 20082007 for a rug. As with the what they look like. As with last year it left just the Jude the Labologists, a newsletter is most other organisations they Obscure, Walton Street, with produced and meetings are also produce a regular its cartoon-style double- held around the country. newsletter. Apparently, as in header, giving some idea of Watney’s of London was the the card games themselves, how unusual these things are. first brewer to issue beer mats the picture cards and aces are in Britain. They were a cheap worth more than the number form of advertising and, cards, which probably means placed on bars and tables, this seven of diamonds from they couldn’t be missed by the Banbury brewers Hunt beer drinker. This was in 1920 Edmunds (closed 1967) must but the mats, made of wood rank as second rate. pulp, were first used in Dresden in Germany 1892. Previous to this a pottery or porcelain version known as a ‘coaster’ was used and this term is still in use in some countries, such as Australia and the USA. These big, heavy wooden objects are hard to come by so most collectors make do with photographs rather than the real thing, and the Inn Sign Society exists for these people. Towards the other end of the Even fictional brewers seem to scale, in terms of size, pub get in on the act. signs are not only rarely to be found on sale but each item is There was a time when no usually unique. There may be pub would have been without hundreds of pubs named, for at least one set of playing example, the Red Lion, but cards for the use of its each sign is usually painted as customers. As with beer mats, a one off. the brewers soon cottoned on to the advertising opportunity. Even more unusual is the ‘double-header’, which has a The British Brewery different picture on each side. Playing Card Society - yes there’s one of these too - aims Up until it was pulled down in to buy up playing cards, either 2001, the Bell, Headington, Lots more of this sort of thing in full or part packs, or single was one of only four Oxford in Part 2. cards and redistribute them as pubs sporting this type of sign. single cards to its membership The Fox, Barton, below, via its sales list.