Stamford 2021

Loughborough CAMRA Christmas Trip to Stamford

On Saturday 4th December, 10 members met at Loughborough railway station for our trip to Stamford on the 09.53 to Leicester arriving 10.03 (costing £6.60 or £4.35 with railcards). The train was 6 minutes late so we arrived at 10.09 just making the already tight connection to the 10.12 train to Stamford, arriving 10.53 at Stamford (costing £16.10 or £10.60 with railcard). Here we had a pleasant surprise when Mick, a Leicester member, meet us on the station.

Stamford is located in the Kesteven District of Lincolnshire and is known as one of the finest stone towns in England with its stunning Georgian architecture. There are many 17th and 18th century stone buildings, older timber framed buildings and 5 medieval parish churches close together which makes it a popular location for the filming of period dramas. The town is good place for eating, drinking and shopping with its independent shops.

Our purpose was to sample a few of the town pubs with first port of call being The Stamford Post, a Wetherspoon pub in what was the former offices of the Stamford Post newspaper offices, just a short walk from the station across the park and over river to the town. Many members opted for breakfast and their first beer from the 7 on offer, Oakham JHB seemed a popular choice.

Our next pub was the GBG (good beer guide) Tobie Norris, a gem of a pub with 3 floors and 7 rooms. The building dates back to 1280 and was a bell foundry in the 1600s. In 1950 the building was used by the RAF Association and was converted into a pub in 2005 and restored to its former glory. An excellent choice of five real ales were on offer on handpump and one on tap from the cellar.

Two of our members managed get into the Kings Head, also a GBG pub, which was busy at this time of day to sample the food and excellent beer which was table service only.

The rest of the group opted for an old favourite of the Green Man, with a good choice of 5 real ales on offer with Tydd Steam Top Cat and the Grainstore 1050 both excellent.

After our first beer here the full group reunited, before moving on after our second beer, to the Jolly Brewer, a GBG pub not far away. This is a pub built of local stone dating back to 1830 and twice local CAMRA pub of the year. 4 good real ales were on offer including a strong 7% Christmas beer.

Six members of the group moved on to our final pub in Stamford, The Lord Burghley, a conversion of an historic 18th century building into a large multi room pub with 4 beers on offer from national breweries.

The time soon passed to make our way back to railway station for the 17:07 train back to Leicester via Oakham. The plan was to visit the Lord Nelson and the Grainstore brewery Tap in Oakham, however the timetable included bus replacement and some trains, so we decided to go straight to Leicester for The Blue Boar rather than the bus replacement from Oakham to Leicester. On our arrival at the station we found the other group of 5 members weren’t at the station as expected.

Chris’s magic umbrella finally failed and we arrived in Leicester to heavy rain. The Blue Boar is Leicester’s premier micro pub with 15 beers sourced from microbreweries around the country. On arrival there were familiar faces from Leicester CAMRA who we had not seen since the lockdowns.

After a great day out it was time to make our separate ways back home. I have found out since the others 5 members got a later train back to Loughborough and ended up in the Wheeltappers, a modern industrial style bar with a railway theme with 6 real ales and Craft beers available. A most enjoyable day was had by all and it was nice to have a Christmas trip this year.

Dave Roche

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