Stroud Pub of the Year 2021 – Crown Inn, Minchinhampton

The Stroud CAMRA Pub of the Year 2021 is the Crown Inn, up at Minchinhampton.
The place was thronged with drinkers, proof that the Crown is first and foremost a pub, meant the presentation and photography disrupted the normal smooth running. Despite this, landlord Richard Terry (seen here) and his team made everyone very welcome.
There was a very good turnout of CAMRA members and locals and everyone – whether real ale drinkers or otherwise – rejoiced in the pub’s success and joined together to toast Richard and his team.

Lotte and Miles Lyster Connolly, landlady and landlord of the Prince Albert on Rodborough Hill which was Pub of the Year for 2020, were there to ‘pass on the baton’ to Richard, and Ruby Stephens from the Albert was also there to show her support.
Among the CAMRA members present were Tony Hodder of The Beer Agent, the wholesaler that supplies the Crown with beers and ciders, and local brewer Richard Taylor of the Fresh Standard Brew Co, Stroud’s newest brewery.
The Crown won the Pub of the Year ballot in December by a landslide. This was a really sensational result for the pub – the new kid on the block, the young pretender, only reopened in 2019, and in the 2021 Good Beer Guide for the first time.
Extraordinary and also unprecedented, were the number of ballots that included (sometimes lengthy) personal endorsements and what its resurrection after a long absence means to Minchinhampton. As part of the presentation I read out some of these glowing endorsements, including:
“I lived in Minchinhampton throughout a long period without a pub and can really say that the team at The Crown could not have done a better job in creating a space that is equally focused on drinking, eating and socialising – all boxes ticked.”
“The Crown is such a lovely local pub to have in Minchinhampton, we are so lucky that Lucky Onion took up the job of restoring a huge part of the village that has been so sorely missed, after being closed for nearly seven years. Some of the best ales I have had in memory.”
“This pub has brought the life back into
Minchinhampton!”

That Minchinhampton should have been without a single pub for so long is nearly unconscionable. Especially bearing in mind that, according to British History Online: “Twenty victuallers were licensed in the parish in 1755, and in 1838 it had 20 public houses and 38 beershops. The Crown had opened by 1718 and in the late 18th century and early 19th was used for public meetings and assemblies and was the terminus for the London coaches.”
We may never aspire to the glory days of 1838, but at least Minchinhampton has its ‘principal inn’ back and already the Crown is proving a runaway success.

Tim Mars