Loughborough & North Leicestershire CAMRA

Holly Bush Beer Festival 2008

It’s Saturday again so it must be a day to travel across the country to a beer festival.  There was a choice of ‘Kettering Rotary & KRFC’ festival, which could have been done by train for around £15 return, or the ‘Needlemakers Arms’ beer festival at Ilkeston, which could have been done by buses, armed with a Zigzag rover ticket or a Derbyshire Wayfarer.  There was a third choice which a few of us opted for - the 1st beer festival at the ‘Hollybush Inn’ at Breedon-on-the-Hill.  This also had the advantage that, for a change, we were actually visiting a pub in our own CAMRA branch area.  But isn’t Breedon difficult to get to?  Not at all!

Two of us took the 10.40 ‘Midland Classic’ 129 Ashby bus service, paying the princely sum of £1.70 each for a single to Breedon.  This service will be run by another operator from the end of June, but currently there are about 4 journeys a day to and from Ashby.  It would be easy to use this bus service on a regular basis to visit different pubs in the area as it passes through most of the villages on the route.  After a pleasant, rural journey we spotted the ‘Lime Kiln’ pub sign at Breedon and decided that we ought to alight from the bus at the next available stop.  This turned out to be a good move as, when we got off, there was a sign pointing to the ‘Hollybush’ – which we had thought was in the other direction.  We were not surprised that the pub would not be open till 12 o’clock, but this was only half an hour away so we had time to explore.

We walked past the ‘Lime Kiln’, observing that it is now office accommodation, to the ‘Three Horseshoes’.  This was open so we had a choice of beers from the 4 handpumps of ‘any beer you like as long as it’s Pedigree’.  Still, any port in a storm.  After a pleasant pint we walked back to the bus stop in case an expected third member of our group was on the next bus.  He wasn’t, so we moved on to the ‘Hollybush’.  Inside there were 3 handpumps with a choice of Reverend Eaton from ‘Shardlow’; Atlantic IPA from ‘Sharps’ and Coyote Bitter from ‘Wolf’.  I opted for a pint of the latter, which was highly enjoyable.  We ventured into the back garden, remembering to duck under the low door entrance on the way.  I was glad that I had remembered my CAMRA membership card as without it I would have had to pay a £2 fee for the festival.  The other thing I was glad about was that I had carried my glass with me, as plastic glasses were being used for the outside bar.  Tokens had to be purchased for the range of 20 guest beers available outside, supplied via the ‘Shardlow’ brewery.  There was also plenty of food available, including a hog roast.  All that needed doing now was to find a seat and enjoy the beer.  This was not difficult as there were hardly any customers.  Did the festival need better publicity or do the locals not bother much with lunchtime drinking?  Being close to the airport there was plenty of entertainment for plane spotters – mostly ‘Ryanair’ planes.  As we decided that we would move at 3 o’clock we were joined by a third colleague, who had taken two other service buses with an hour’s wait between them.  At least there was another hour before we had to go.  At the festival I had a pint of ‘Northumberland’ Legends of the Wear and halves of ‘Idle Brewery’ Idle Landlord; ‘Beowulf’ Finns Hall Porter; ‘Spire’ Sgt Peters Stout and ‘Milestone’ Black Pearl.

Having thanked our hosts we caught the ‘Arriva’ 155 bus to Castle Donington for £1.40.  From there we walked the mile to the ‘Jolly Sailor’ at Hemington to meet the new landlord.  He had 8 handpumps, 7 of which had a range of beers from the ‘Greene King’ brewery, including Morland Original; Olde Trip and the handpumped XX Mild - rare for our Camra branch area.  The guest beer was Bass.  I tried a pint of mild and a half of Original, which were both very good.

We walked back to Castle Donington, finding a useful, tarmac paved, public footpath to cut off the corner of the road which we had walked down earlier.  The ‘Jolly Potters’ had a beer range of Bass; Pedigree; London Pride and Taylors Landlord as a guest, which I tried.

We went down the steps to the ‘Cross Keys’.  Here we had a choice of Black Sheep; Pedigree or Deuchars IPA, which I drank.  We had a quick look in the ‘Tudor Inn’, which sold Old Speckled Hen and Courage Directors.  From here we visited the ‘Lamb’, selling ‘Marstons’ Pedigree and Burton Bitter.

Having caught the ‘Skylink’ bus, which was just ahead of the ‘Rainbow 5’ service, to Loughborough for £2.20 there was time to finish off with a beer and a curry at the ‘Blacksmiths’.

A good time was had by all for a total bus fare of £5.30 each and some useful pub information had been gathered.  I look forward to the next time we do something similar.

Brian Rodgers

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