AN OSWESTRY pub will be taking part in a national festival to celebrate community pubs across the country.

The Bailey Head has been selected by the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) to host a local Great British Beer Festival celebration on Friday, July 30.

Under normal circumstances the event takes place in London with a large number of beer enthusiasts in attendance, but this year the decision was taken to encourage publicans across the country to host localised celebrations due to the pandemic.

Grace Goodlad, landlord at the Oswestry-based pub, is looking forward to what she believes will be a fun celebration after a difficult year for pubs across the country.

She said: “We get a lot of new visitors who come here as beer tourists.

“We’d like to encourage people to come along to the celebration – I know a lot of the regulars are excited for it.”

The day will be marked with a unique delivery of locally-produced ale from Stonehouse Brewery in Weston.

Cambrian Heritage Railways will deliver casks of beer to the town centre pub on the first train to arrive with freight in Oswestry since the goods yard closed in 1971.

Local railway enthusiast who restores vintage vehicles, Clive Roberts, will be transporting the ale from the railway station to Bailey Head in a vintage jeep.

It is 50 years since the early meetings that started off the Cambrian Railways Society, which later became Cambrian Heritage Railways.

It is also 50 years since the creation of the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA).

Grace is happy to be working closely with the Cambrian Heritage Railway and Stonehouse for the occasion.

She said: “It’s quite nice to celebrate the heritage of the Cambrian Railway and the railway line being open to Weston.

“The railway will hopefully help to attract more new visitors to the town. I feel it is a good way to help support Stonehouse and the railway and raise our profile too.

“The Cambrian and CAMRA approached us and they were very keen for us to come onboard with this celebration.”

The pub always has Station Bitter, or one of Stonehouse Brewery’s other ales, on one of its hand-pulled beer pumps to support its local brewery.

For details of the national promotion, visit https://local.gbbf.org.uk/