Pints for 65p as pub celebrates
Drinkers at a Shropshire pub will be supping pints at 1982 prices tonight to celebrate its 25th anniversary appearance in The Good Pub Guide. Steve Oldham, who runs the popular 15th century Royal Oak at Cardington, near to the South Shropshire Hills, will be selling selected ales at the low price of 65p a pint, or 35p for a half pint, for one night only.
The historic Royal Oak, which is one of the oldest licensed pubs in the county, has appeared in all 25 editions of The Good Pub Guide - which is launching its latest 2007 edition today.
Mr Oldham, who took over the pub in May last year along with Eira Williams, said: "This pub is ancient and we have people who have been drinking here for 40-odd years.
"It is a community pub, we are out in the country and we have a good mix of people from local farmers and villagers to passers-by."
Mr Oldham said the Royal Oak was famous for its Fidget Pie, a Shropshire recipe of gammon, apples and cider that has been handed down from landlord to landlord.
The speciality meal was eaten at the pub by Prince Edward during a visit about 20 years ago.
The Royal Oak is one of only 66 pubs in the whole of the country that has appeared as a main entry in all 25 editions of The Good Pub Guide.
This feat equates to only one establishment in every thousand pubs to be found in the UK. The ales to be sold for the lower old-time prices from 9pm tonight will be Hobson's Best Bitter, Six Bells Happy Daze, Wye Valley Butty Bach, and Morland Old Speckled Hen.
Drivers will also be catered for with soft drinks sold at 30p.
However the prices aren't the only things to have changed in pubs across the country in the last 25 years, as the new pub guide reveals.
In the notes to their new 2007 guide, editors Alisdair Aird and Fiona Stapley, state: "In the first edition of The Good Pub Guide, pub food rarely offered anything more interesting than spaghetti bolognese or egg and prawn mayonnaise sandwiches.
"The simple, unimaginative staple pub grub has now made way for mouth-watering gourmet dishes.
"Twenty-five years ago, pub wine was on the whole best not talked about, nor drunk," the guide adds.
"In 1993 The Good Pub Guide introduced their Wine Award, and since then wine has really taken off in pubs."
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