The Crown & Sceptre is Stroud CAMRA’s Pub of the Year for 2026, and on a sunny Saturday afternoon, Stroud CAMRA presented licensee Rhiannon Roberts with a framed certificate recording the pub’s triumph. Rhiannon and her partner Owen Isserlis only took over the pub in November 2024, so this victory (in a secret ballot) was secured in record time, writes Tim Mars.
Rhiannon is from north Wales and previously ran the Red Lion at Redfield in Bristol. She had been living in Nailsworth for seven years and drinking at the Crown & Sceptre when she heard that the remainder of licensee Rodda Thomas’s lease was for sale. She bought the lease, with six years left to run, including the fixtures and fittings and that intangible value known as ‘the goodwill’. The pub is leased from a private landlord and is free of tie. Rodda advised on Rhiannon and Owen’s suitability as tenants.
This is the second time the ‘Hat & Stick’ has been crowned as Stroud CAMRA’s Pub of the Year. The first was in March 2010, shortly after Rodda Thomas took over in the previous August. The Stroud CAMRA chairman at the time, Bob Brooks, said: ‘Rodda Thomas has taken a tired, struggling pub and turned it into a thriving real ale-led community local in a remarkably short space of time.’
‘I always really wanted that pub,’ said Rodda, previously landlord of the Woolpack in Slad and Stroud pubs the Golden Fleece and the Pelican. ‘It was always a little gem that simply needed polishing.’
And polish it he did. Even going so far as to commission stained glass: a crown and sceptre in the fanlight over the front door and the word GENTS picked out in gold within a blue and black oval (or is it a rugby ball?) above the passage to the men’s loo. The walls and ceiling of the Gents are covered in posters for bands performing at the pub, alongside Easy Rider, Jimi Hendrix and The Prisoner (among much else), while the Ladies are palatial, with a chandelier and wallpaper crowns.
The secret of Rhiannon and Owen’s success is how carefully they have respected and nurtured Rodda’s legacy. The fixtures and fittings remain the same, including those that reflect his passion for motorcycling. A Janis Joplin wannabe sits astride her machine, running her hand through a luxuriously long mane of hair, in a picture above the front bar. A poster for the 2013 Pendine Sands Speed Trials (‘pre-1990 motorcycles only’) still adorns the back bar. As does a map of the Isle of Man with all the Castletown Brewery pubs near the TT course marked. Everywhere Rhiannon and Owen have shown restraint and avoided reaching for the broom. A new broom may sweep clean but, as the proverb warns, the old broom knows the corners.
This is a pub overflowing with character and idiosyncratic charm. It is a Stroud institution, the quintessential ‘Stroudie’ pub—STROUD AND PROUD, as a sign proclaims. All this is down to Rodda, a Cornishman who has indelibly stamped the pub with his personality and his passions. Rhiannon and Owen have wisely left almost all of this alone.
Uley Bitter and Pigs Ear remain fixtures on the bar. A battered rusting enamel sign on a beam proudly proclaims—
BREWERS OF SPINGO
STRONG REAL ALES
—and the legendary Spingo from the Blue Anchor brewpub in Cornwall remains a regular presence on the bar. Beyond that, the guest beers have been far more adventurous and original, countenancing strengths and styles that Rodda shied away from, except at beer festivals. Who can forget such heady delights as Arbor Rocketman (6.0%), Siren Broken Dream Breakfast Stout (6.5%) or Fresh Standard Export Porter (6.8%)? There is (as before) a single guest cider on handpump.
The entire pub is a cabinet of curiosities, and itself contains two glass-fronted cabinets of curiosities. There is an eclectic collection of bric-a-brac and memorabilia, but not random tat or standard pub fitters’ fare. School science laboratory stools line the bar. Assorted animal skulls with horns adorn the chimney breast nearest to Horns Road (geddit?), while pinned spiders in entomology frames are displayed in the back bar overlooking Spider Lane. Led Zeppelin pose beside the Starship, their customised Boeing 720, in the side room. Nearby, on a more down-to-earth note, a photo shows smartly dressed customers sitting in a charabanc outside the pub, bound for Weston-super-Mare.
A twin-blade aeroplane propeller affixed to the underside of a beam in the front bar turns lazily above your head when provoked. A Junkers JU 88 Airfix model is suspended from ceiling—said to commemorate a dogfight over Stroud when a Hurricane and a Spitfire engaged the German bomber. A polished steel and aluminium British Rail luggage rack still serves much the same purpose in its new location, and is a poignant reminder of the era of corridor carriages to trainspotters and those of a certain age. The interior boasts a motley collection of green utility lampshades, some now spotted with rust on the inside and slightly compromised by the range of LED filament bulbs they house, all with slightly different colour casts.
One of the striking features of the pub is the range of newspapers and magazines on display. You might expect a single daily paper, but the Crown & Sceptre stocks the Guardian, the i paper, the Observer and … the Morning Star! When it comes to magazines and periodicals, the range is even more catholic and extensive. Which other pub do you know that takes the New Scientist, Private Eye, Viz and The Oldie? And subscriptions to these publications do not come cheap!
This is a pub that is at the very heart of its community, a ‘local’ in the fullest sense. It is noteworthy (and not always a given elsewhere) that either Rhiannon or Owen or both are very present in the pub, whether behind the bar or drinking with customers in front of it. A large oak table in a room to one side is popular with local groups and for impromptu folk sessions. A south-facing terrace at the rear offers panoramic views across the Stroud valley to Rodborough Common, and serves as a hang-out for smokers. The garden makes the pub a magnet for families at the weekend. The pub’s Sunday lunch remains a big draw, as do the ever-changing Wednesday evening UP THE WORKERS! specials.
How lucky am I that the Crown & Sceptre also happens to be my local!
Pictures by Henry Bloomer
