Welcome to the home of South Oxfordshire CAMRA
Some of our happy entrants of the Good Beer Guide 2025
We have Clare at the Black Horse, Checkenden; Loddon Tap Yard; Ruth at the Fleur de Lys, East Hagbourne; John at the Spire & Spoke, Watlington; Di at the Crown, South Moreton; Nick and Hazel at the Flowing Spring, Playhatch; Dave at the Cross Keys, Wallingford; Corinne at the Red Lion, Brightwell-cum-Sotwell; Rodney at the George, Sutton Courtenay; and Lottie at the Greyhound, Whitchurch-on-Thames.
Branch, Regional & National News
- Latest Pub and Brewery News
Tuesday 1 July 2025
Pub of the Year 2025
The Oxfordshire round has been completed and the clear winner was the Red Lion, Horley. The Crown, South Moreton and The King’s Arms, Wantage came joint second, with the Grapes, Oxford in fourth place. There were nine judges, but only from SOX and Oxford branches.
The Regional round will be between:
- Red Lion, Horley (Oxfordshire)
- Pelican Inn, Gloucester (Gloucestershire)
- Olde Tavern, Kington (Herefordshire)
- Fleece Inn, Bretforton (Worcestershire)
New tenant at the Sun
The Sun at Hill Bottom, Whitchurch Hill has a new landlord. John O‘Grady moved in on May 19th from running a Batemans–owned pub in Cambridgeshire. John and his wife Svitlana had turned around a failing pub in Swaffham Priory, the Red Lion, and been awarded two CAMRA accolades, notably ‘the most improved pub’ and the ‘Rural pub of the year’ awards.
Despite these achievements, John and Lana were keen to run a free-of-tie pub and jumped at the chance to take over the Sun when it became available. Their plans suggest South Oxon drinkers will have a centre of real ale excellence to visit, as John is passionate about real ale and is keen to build upon the freedom to purchase different ales that running a free-of-tie pub will provide.
There will be two pumps dedicated to local Ales, probably Loddon ‘Hoppit’ and Renegade ‘Good Old Boy’ and two more pumps offering rotating ales from far and wide. There will also be one ale offered straight from the cask each week, and during events, it is planned to have ales available in the outside Bar. In addition, a rotating real cider will be available from a pin.
It is planned to have two beer festivals on the May Bank Holiday weekend and at the end of September to coincide with National Cask Ale week. Several ‘tap takeovers’ will take place each year when the pumps will be exclusively dedicated to beers from a selected brewery. Furthermore, CAMRA members are offered a discount on the price of ales purchased.
We wish John the best of luck and look forward to visiting soon!
Many thanks to Keith Grant for his report of which this is an excerpt and for the photo of John.
Branch, Regional & National Events
Note that only the first venue for socials is shown. Click through to the event’s page to find the full itinerary.
- Maidenhead Beer & Cider Festival Friday 4 – Saturday 5 July 2025 The Sports Bar
- Friday afternoon social Friday 4 July 2025 16:00 Amwell Springs Pop Up Bar, Cholsey
- Branch Meeting Wednesday 9 July 2025 20:00 Greyhound, Whitchurch on Thames
- Branch Saturday Social Saturday 26 July 2025 12:00 Queen's Head, Crowmarsh Gifford

Other Local Events
- Bear Annual Beer & Cricket Festival Thursday 17 – Saturday 19 July 2025 Bear of North Moreton, North Moreton
Latest Soxon Ale Magazine
Click or tap the cover to read our latest branch magazine, silver medal winner in the 2024 CAMRA Magazine of the Year awards!
Attention Branch members
If you are a fully paid up member of CAMRA, please do visit the Members' Area, where we endeavour to keep all of our members appraised of the latest news relating to Good Beer Guide nominees, Pub of the Year and Season candidates, and general beer scoring trends. You will also find minutes of our monthly Branch meetings for the last 12 months, as well as for our most recent AGM.
Calling all pub landlords and brewers in the Branch area
If you are throwing a beer-related event at your pub or brewery we would love to hear about it! Please contact us to let us know about your event and we will post it here as well as on our social media.
Pubs as ACVs
We currently only have 3 pubs as Assets of Community Value (ACVs) in the branch. If you would like to find out more about protecting your local with an ACV, take a look at the help on our main website.