Stroud CAMRA presented a special certificate to Rodda Thomas to celebrate his 15 years at the helm of the Crown & Sceptre at 7.30pm on Tuesday, 30th July. The pub lease is being advertised but Rodda expects to still be at the pub for Guy Fawkes Night on 5 November, writes Tim Mars.
It is Rodda’s proud boast that ‘we never closed’ in all that time, even during lockdown when the pub became a local shop selling food and other essentials and take-away beer.
Rodda is a proud Cornishman and the pub regularly featured Spingo Middle (5%) brewed at the Blue Anchor pub at Helston in Cornwall. This is a distinctive and unusual dark beer, lightly hopped so that it drinks like a strong mild. It is a close relative of Sarah Hughes Dark Ruby Mild brewed at the Beacon in Sedgley in the Black Country. Spingo Special and Extra Special also make occasional appearances on high days and holidays—and always at the pub’s Easter and August Bank Holiday beer festivals, held in a marquee in the garden. Rodda reports that the Crown & Sceptre used to play cricket against the Blue Anchor team. The landlord would tap a cask of Spingo from the back of a van, which may explain why the Crown & Sceptre never won.
Alas, there was no Spingo on offer at the presentation, but the guest beer, from Bristol Beer Factory, was most acceptable.
Th Crown & Sceptre is the quintessential Stroudie pub, a fixture in the Good Beer Guide since 2011. It is a lively back-street local at the heart of its community. The walls display an eclectic mix of framed prints, many of vintage motorcycles, and old film posters, and the ceiling of the side room is covered with band posters. There is some new stained glass—look for the Crown & Sceptre in the fanlight over the front door and the ‘Gents’ above the passage to the men’s loo. The walls and ceiling of the Gents themselves are covered in posters, while the Ladies are palatial. An elaborate mantelpiece clock, a cuckoo clock and a Che Guevara clock argue over the time.
A large oak table in a side room is popular with local groups—including Knit and Natter on Tuesday and the Friends of Daisy Bank (the park and children’s playground directly in front of the pub). The pub also has its own motorcycle society. The Hat & Stick (as it is affectionately known) raised £1,800 for a public defibrillator, which is housed on the terrace at the back of the pub and available 24 hours a day.
It is famed for its Up the Workers good value set meal on Wednesdays, and its Sunday roasts. Saturdays are pasty days, the first Wednesday of the month is steak night, the second pie night and the last Wednesday of the month is curry night. Meat-free Mondays are on the last Monday of every month. Football, rugby and cricket screened in the back bar. A south-facing terrace to the rear offers panoramic views across the Stroud valley to Rodborough Common.
