On Thursday November 28th CAMRA Central Lancashire held a branch social at the Lostock Ale in Lostock Hall. This had been arranged because the pub had been chosen as the branch's Community Pub of the Year for 2024. A presentation took place during the evening, with landlord Ray receiving a certificate to commemorate his pub's success.

Community Pub of the Year is an occasional award made by CAMRA Central Lancashire branch. and is only made when we feel we have a worthy winner. This is the first time an award has been made since 2019.

For more information about why the Lostock Ale was chosen as the branch's Community Pub of the Year, see Community POTY 2024.

This year three more pubs in the CAMRA Central Lancashire branch area can claim the distinction that they have now reached 10 successive years of being in the Good Beer Guide. These pubs are the Market Ale House in Leyland; the Moorbrook in Preston; and the Shepherds' Hall Ale House in Chorley.

To commemorate this impressive landmark these three pubs will each receive a Dave Linley Award certificate which formally recognises the 10 years achievement.

The first presentation of a certificate took place today at the Moorbrook, and pictured left is landlord Richard Fisher Godwin holding the certificate alongside CAMRA Central Lancashire branch Chairman Adrian Smith.

The presentations at the Shepherds' Hall Ale House and the Market Ale House, will be taking place on Thursday November 7th and Monday November 11th respectively.

Today is the official publication date of Good Beer Guide 2025, the 52nd edition of the Good Beer Guide. As ever, an essential purchase for those wanting to discover the very best of real ale pubs in all parts of the country, Good Beer Guide 2025 features 34 pubs from the CAMRA Central Lancashire branch area as determined by local members. An added bonus this year is that the Good Beer Guide has two different covers - you can have a Coronation Street cover or you can have an Emmerdale cover. Of course if you are really keen you can have both!

Preston Pub Festival 2024 is to take place over the weekend Friday September 13th to Sunday September 15th.

For the first time in many years a Preston Pub Festival was held in 2023 with 11 pubs taking part to celebrate the rich heritage of the city's ale houses. With this event proving to be a great success, another Preston Pub Festival has now been arranged for 2024, and this year there will be 14 participating pubs. The original 11 from 2023 are all back for a second year, while new to the Preston Pub Festival activities this year are Bar Pintxos, Vinyl Tap, and Winedown.

Further information about Preston Pub Festival 2024 and the 14 participating pubs can be found on their website - here.

NOTE: Winedown has had to withdraw from taking part in this year's Preston Pub Festival. This follows the sad news of the death of the bar's founder and owner Douglas Lowe.

Tonight there was a double presentation at the Black Horse, Preston, with the pub picking up another two CAMRA awards. Already the CAMRA Central Lancashire Pub of the Year and Cider Pub of the Year for 2024, it can now also be acclaimed as Pub of the Year across all CAMRA Lancashire branches, and Cider Pub of the Year for the whole of the CAMRA West Pennines Region. A great achievement for one pub to win so many awards in one year, and it may not be over yet, with the pub now going forward for consideration in CAMRA's national Pub of the Year and Cider Pub of the Year awards.

Pictured here holding the Tony Buller Shield (for Lancashire Pub of the Year) is landlord Dan Taylor, and alongside him are those members of the Black Horse staff present on the night, while the two certificates held are for Lancashire Pub of the Year and West Pennines Cider Pub of the Year.

Available from early June is Ale Cry 137, the Summer 2024 edition of the CAMRA Central Lancashire branch quarterly magazine (on-line version available here Ale Cry). The magazine includes the usual good mix of pub and beer related articles, with Riley's Taproom & Wine Bar in Chorley being featured as the branch's Pub of the Season for Summer 2024. There are also articles on St Wilfrid's Terrace Members Club in Longridge, which is the branch's Club of the Year for 2024, and the Black Horse in Preston, which is the branch's Cider Pub of the Year for 2024. Riley's Rambles visits Ormskirk, CAMRA Central Lancs And looks at pubs with a link to Preston North End's Invincibles, while there is a new series starting on CAMRA Heritage Pubs. Copies of Ale Cry 137 will be available in pubs and clubs throughout the branch area in the coming weeks.

For those who like to consult older issues of Ale Cry for ideas when going for a day out in an unfamiliar location we now have an index of Riley's Rambles Destinations here.

A little later than planned, but hopefully making an appearance in the usual outlets in the next few days is Ale Cry 136, the Spring 2024 edition of the CAMRA Central Lancashire branch quarterly magazine (on-line version available here Ale Cry). The magazine includes the usual good mix of pub and beer related articles, with the Black Horse in Preston being featured as the branch's Pub of the Year for 2024 and with the Guild Ale House in Preston being revealed as the branch's landmark 100th different Pub of the Season winner. Also in this issue Riley's Rambles visits Huddersfield, while Walking With A Purpose describes a 4 mile circular trail from Abbey Village. Copies of Ale Cry 136 will be available in pubs and clubs throughout the branch area in the coming weeks.

Early last year CAMRA Central Lancashire branch introduced a new annual award whereby we would recognise those pubs and clubs that were identified as those that were found to be selling beer of the most outstanding quality. It was decided that each year we should recognise five pubs or clubs, and that these should be those that had received the highest average beer scores from CAMRA members during the whole of the previous calendar year. The beer scores from 2023 have now been thoroughly checked, and the following five pubs have come out as the five that had the best average beer scores during 2023:-

Bay Horse, Heath Charnock; Flat Iron, Chorley;

Old Post Office, Adlington; Red Lion, Wheelton; Yew Tree, Heath Charnock.

Congratulations go to these five pubs which will all be presented with a special certificate to recognise their outstanding achievement. Especial congratulations go to the Old Post Office and the Red Lion which are both receiving this award for a second successive year.