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Cotswold Beer Festival Trip

Saturday 28th July

The annual visit to Postlip Hall, near Winchcombe, was just a week after the Great Rains that caused so much devastation to much of Gloucestershire. Despite the fact that Winchcombe could by no means be described as being on a flood plain, it had suffered considerable damage no doubt courtesy of the River Isbourne which flows through the town. By the Beer Festival weekend the biggest problem appeared to be the lack of mains water supply, with most pubs in the area closed.

So after a week of wondering whether it would still be on, we received amended instructions regarding parking/camping at the venue. We set off, with some trepidation, on the Saturday morning and were able to see the effects on properties that had been flooded, with furniture and white goods piled outside houses in Sedgeberrow and other villages. However all seemed well on our arrival at the festival and the sun was shining!

The festival itself was up to its usual high standard & I found the beer selection to be excellent. This year's emblem for the festival was a goat - so Church End's Goat's Milk was obviously one of the beers available. Entertainment was provided by the Tewkesbury Town Band, who had managed to leave their 'island' to reach the festival - well done to them. Our congratulations to the organising team for achieving an excellent festival in what must have been difficult & uncertain circumstances.

 The session we attended closed at 3:00pm and most of our party set off for 5 mile walk along part of the Cotswold Way. Strangely, those inclined to walk became less inclined as the incline increased! We walked up onto the Cleeve Hills heading south before turning east and heading towards a Long Barrow called Belas Knap, there were some splendid views along the way.

We reached our rendezvous with the minibus at about 6:00pm and then headed for our chosen pub - The Hollow Bottom at Guiting Power - a pub obsessed with horse racing. There were 3 real ales available, most of us chose the Festival Summer Gold that we had already sampled at the festival. It was an excellent pint only slightly soured by the £2.90 price tag!

The rain started at about 7:00pm, as predicted, and we headed home at about 7:45pm.
Alan Cooke

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Photo Gallery:

Inside the Tithe Barn	Outside	a happy group	Lisa glass juggling!
Photographer photographed!	Not so keen on this one!	Serious faces	Nearly time to go
Off on the walk	Straight on or left?	Getting steeper!	Norman takes a break
3 wise men - Resting	A stile too narrow!	At Guiting Power	Are they all on?

My thanks to Chris Davies, Norman Hall & Richard Lewin for the 40+ photos that arrived in my In-Box by 10:00am the next day. I'm afraid there is only room for some of them!

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