CHRISTMAS PARTY SUCCESS

In Oakengates, the Crown Inn has celebrated its busiest Christmas Party ever, with a choir, a competition, a visit from Father Christmas and Panto Stars dropping in. A locally based choral group, The Cadence Singers, entertained the crowds with a range of traditional Carols and other Christmas Songs, while a collection raised over £65 for Hope House Childrens’ Hospice.

SANTA

The man in the big red suit made a special appearance to announce the results of a draw for Megan Baker Childrens’ Hospice, the winner of which asked for the prizes to be donated to the Childrens’ ward at Telford Hospital. He then stayed and helped judge the Annual Mince Pie Competition.

BAKERS

The mince pie competition is one of several baking competitions organised each year at the Crown Inn and these are keenly contested. There were so many entrants that extra help was required with the judging. In addition to Father Christmas and the choristers, stars from Oakengates’ Pantomime, “Beauty and The Beast” dropped by to help with the tastings. Sue Hodge from ‘Allo ‘Allo and Richard Calkin from Brookside & Hollyoaks enjoyed tasting the mince pies and were pleasantly surprised by the high standard of baking in a pub-based competition. Eventually, after Howard Bell received his third place “Highly Commended Certificate”, the winners were unable to decide between Steve Folger and Steve Goodchild, who were presented with their “Joint Master Bakers of Oakengates” by landlord John Ellis.

THANKS

In addition to all the above, the crowd expressed their appreciation to Cllr. Steve Wood for arranging the arrival of Father Christmas and to Cllrs. Hilda Rhodes and Veronica Fletcher for assisting in the attendance of the Panto Stars. For those who missed the Pantomime Stars and still wish to see them, “Beauty & The Beast” runs until Sunday 4th January at Oakengates Theatre and tickets can be obtained via 01952 382382.

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All photos are used with kind permission of Amore Photography.

For the second year running the Crown Inn has been named the Best Cask Beer Pub in the East and West Midlands at the Great British Pub Awards; below is is an article that appeared in the Shropshire Star on Saturday 20th September 2008.

A Telford pub has narrowly missed out on a national award after being named as the Best Cask Beer Pub in the East and West Midlands in the Great British Pub Awards.

Yesterday John Ellis, the licensee of the Crown Inn, Oakengates, travelled to London for the ceremony at the London Hilton.

Mr Ellis said it was not the first time they had been successful. They were selected as the East and West Midlands free house of the year last year at the Morning Advertiser awards. And the Market Street pub had been a runner-up for the guest ale pub of the year three times before.

At present the pub has 14 handpull ales. Between October 2 and 6 it will host a beer festival when there will be 34 beers available to try. Morning Advertiser editor, Andrew Pring, said: “The winners of our awards really do deserve to be called heroes and heroines – they run wonderful pubs to the highest standards, keeping their customers happy and cementing together so many communities across the country.”

Pictured is Crown Inn's Landlord John Ellis

First Look at Festival Beers

4^th OAKENGATES

FOLK ‘n ALE DAY

At the

CROWN INN

Market Street, Oakengates, Telford

Saturday 20th September from noon

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Rapsquillion : Andy Flower & Diane Groom

Francis-Bell : Just Good Friends

Neil McPherson : Dave & Anne Reader

Bob Lines : Fola : Claret : Driftwood

Clay Faces : Gilly Kemp : Rob Juckes

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& in Theatre Square

Khalila Belly Dancers

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FREE ENTRY to ALL EVENTS !!

For More Info. Call 01952 – 608450

Read the rest…

It’s festival time again! This time, we greet you towards the end of our re-furbishment! We hope you enjoy the changes.

Since the last festival the side room has a roof window, letting lots of light into the pub. After we finally got permission from the council to re-build and extend the toilet block, work to extend the Gents is largely complete, while a second Ladies cubicle has just been created, although some of the fittings are only temporary! Please be understanding!! The awnings are now up in the rear courtyard, intended to be an oasis of outdoor calm – well, that’s the plan! Meanwhile, with 34 handpulls and beer lines, all cooled to the correct temperature corresponding to our Cask Marque status, we believe this is the biggest pub-based hand-pulled beer festival in the World!

Meanwhile, It’s WAR!! The British Government has declared War against Pubs, Brewing and Alcohol in General. However, in the cack-handed way that seems to typify many politicians when they come to power, they are more likely to increase than decrease the “binge-drinking” they claim to want to tackle. They increase tax on alcohol, making trips to pubs more expensive. Meanwhile, they take no action against supermarkets, allowing them to sell at below cost-price. For every loss supermarkets make on alcohol, we taxpayers refund the V.A.T. on their loss. In addition, every time we buy groceries at some supermarkets, we are cross-subsidising the loss they make on alcohol.

So, every time you make a purchase at the big supermarkets, you are subsidising a thug kicking hell out a bus-shelter. May be that will make Alistair Darling think before he puts his mouth into gear. Or may be not!!

We say “Ban the Thug“, not penalise the innocent drinker, who enjoys beer in a glass in the responsible atmosphere of a pub!

Meanwhile, this is the list of beers and ciders which I have put together for you. I hope you find plenty you like, including lots
of new, rare and special brews. With so much time going into the preparation of the beers, this programme has to be brief!

However, as always, it’s the drinks that you’ve come for, not this piece of paper. So that’s enough from me. Happy Drinking!!
John Ellis

I called in at the Crown in Market Street, Oakengates. The town had a medieval market and then became a cog in the local industries in the 19th and 20th centuries. Today it’s a suburb of burgeoning Telford.

Market Street, which is a short thoroughfare, once had 15 pubs. It’s down to its last five today, of which the Crown is the linchpin, a great champion of cask ale. It dates from 1835 and once had only one room: it was the result of the Duke of Wellington’s Beer Act that enabled anyone to sell beer from their own homes if they paid a guinea a year for a licence.

John Ellis has run the pub since 1995. It had been a Wrekin Brewery tied house and was passed on to Greenall Whitley of Warrington, who had allowed it to fall into dereliction..

John has transformed the Crown. He sells only one regular beer, Hobson’s Bitter, but his battery of pumps serve beers from micros all over the country. He keeps meticulous records and says he has sold 2,000 different beers in eight years.

He stages an anuual Shropshire Beer Festival every July but there are many other beery events throughout the year, as well as regular live music.

And the chairman of CAMRA, Paula Waters, held her wedding reception in the Crown, which makes it a VIP — a Very Important Pub.

www.crown.oakengates.net

This column originally appeared in What’s Brewing. Roger Protz is one of the foremost writers on beer in the World today. He is the Editor of CAMRA’s Good Beer Guides and this article appears with his permission.

Welcome to the new look Crown Inn website.