ROYAL OAK IS THE TOAST OF CAMRA
GOOD BEER GUIDE LAUNCHED AT PAINSWICK PUB.

"The Queen of the Cotswolds," the picture-perfect town of Painswick owes much of its wealth to wool. It was one of the most prosperous of the Cotswold wool towns during the medieval period, and it

CAMRA has judged The Royal Oak at Painswick one of the very best pubs in the Five Valleys for a pint.

The pub is a new entry in the 2010 Good Beer Guide, published last week by the Campaign for Real Ale, and CAMRA members were on hand to toast the launch of the Guide and the pub’s inclusion in it. It is one of only nine pubs in the area chosen for the range and quality of their real ales by Stroud CAMRA.

The Guide lists 4,500 of the best pubs in Britain for real ale, all nominated by local CAMRA members, serving beers from more than 700 breweries. Since the 2009 edition, 71 new breweries have opened.

Bob Jeffrey, a CAMRA member from Painswick and a regular at The Royal Oak, praised the transformation in the pub’s fortunes. ‘Shelagh and her team have turned The Royal Oak around. It was always a lovely pub, but the range and quality of the beers used to leave something to be desired.’

These days the pub sells mostly Stroud Brewery beers and also real cider from Thatchers of Somerset.

To qualify for inclusion in the Guide, pubs are visited unannounced at least three times a year. All the ales are tasted, evaluated and scored. In addition, individual CAMRA members file report cards when they drop in for a pint.

‘The Royal Oak is a hidden gem in the back lanes of Painswick,’ says Tim Mars of CAMRA and Stroud Civic Society, ‘with an intimate wood-panelled public bar and a large lounge with huge stone fireplaces. Unusually, the access to the back yard/outdoor drinking area is via a passage through the servery. The yard is a veritable museum of curiosities featuring rare enamel signs from the original Stroud Brewery and the inn-sign of a long-lost pub, The Adam and Eve at Paradise. On a summer's day it is a glorious suntrap.’

The Black Horse at Amberley, Stroud CAMRA’s Pub of the Year for 2008, is also new to the Good Beer Guide this year.

The other pubs chosen for the Guide by Stroud CAMRA are:
The Butcher's Arms, Oakridge Lynch
The Kings Head, France Lynch
The Prince Albert, Rodborough
The Queen Victoria, Stroud
The Ram, Woodchester
The Village Inn, Nailsworth
The Woolpack, Slad