Pub hits 25th year in the Good Beer Guide

The plaque was presented to the Beaufort Arms by CAMRA branch chairman Peter Corfield, chairman of the Dursley & District sub branch of Gloucestershire CAMRA.

Beaufort Arms licensee Mark Steeds said: “We’re very honoured to receive the award. Since we acquired our pub in 1994, we’ve been a small independent, family-run pub, swimming against a tide of major industry change.

“The award reflects 25 years of hard work on behalf of the pub and its staff, and it was great that the presentation was in the presence of a local charity that we work closely with.”

Special framed certificate 

The local charity, Providing Opportunity and Support (PROPS), runs a market garden on the pub’s premises and provides seasonally fresh produce for the pub to use. This community-based activity has been in operation for almost 15 years now.

The charity also supports young adults with learning disabilities to gain work skills and put them into practice within a number of projects and enterprises throughout Bristol and south Gloucestershire.

“We’re honoured that the CAMRA award has recognised our efforts over the years to maintain top-quality beers in a traditional pub atmosphere.

“Fewer than 5,000 pubs receive this accolade every year, and to be included in it for so long is no mean feat, if we may say so.”

To celebrate its 25th year, a plaque was presented to the pub that has now been affixed to the front by the main entrance and a special framed certificate was also given to the licensee to mark the occasion.

A communal celebration​

To further illustrate the pub’s community involvement, the Beaufort Arms will celebrate Hawkesbury’s very own saint once again with a vegetarian feast on Friday 17 January. 

Steeds added: “For those who don’t know, Saint Wulfstan is the patron saint of peasants and vegetarians, and was the first to ban the slave trade from Bristol to Ireland in 1090.

“Wulfstan was the last Anglo-Saxon bishop and was a priest in Hawkesbury in the 1030s.”