Blue Bell in Daily Telegraph

On Saturday 28th June 2008 the Blue Bell was featured by the Daily Telegraph in its Pint to Pint column, which appears regularly on the back page of the Weekend section of the newspaper.  We were quite unaware that we had been “visited” until we received a telephone call on Monday 23rd from the paper to check our address details.  You can read the article on the Telegraph’s website at:

www.telegraph.co.uk/wine/main.jhtml?xml=/wine/2008/06/27/edpint127.xml

Open for Dogs

The Blue Bell is supporting the Kennel Club’s “Open for Dogs” campaign, which aims to highlight those business premises where dogs are welcomed.  The campaign’s web site gives lots of helpful information, and you can search for dog-friendly premises in different areas of the country.  The site can be found at http://www.openfordogs.org.uk.

 

CAMRA Potteries Pub of the Year Awards 2010

We are very pleased to announce that we have once again been voted Pub of the Year by members of the Potteries branch of CAMRA, the Campaign for Real Ale.  This is now the fifth time we have won this award, the last time being in 2003.  Our certificate was presented to us at the recent Stoke Beer Festival.  Second place went to The Congress in Longton, and third was The White Star in Stoke.

To view the full list of our achievements during the past 13 years, go to the Awards page

More Awards!

A double celebration is in order this month (August 2011) as we have won a further two awards to add to the CAMRA Potteries Pub of the Year for 2010 (see below).  First of all, the Potteries Pub Preservation Group (PPPG) have voted us their Community Pub of the Year, an award which we have now won outright for the third time. Apparently this is something of a record, and we are the only pub to have won the award three times since its introduction in 1998.  We received our certificate and trophy from the PPPG at a recent presentation.

 

Then shortly afterwards we were advised that we had been awarded the CAMRA Staffordshire Pub of the Year title, which makes it the fourth time we have won this accolade.  Local CAMRA branches throughout Staffordshire submit their best pub into the contest, which is judged by branch members who visit pubs on a “mystery customer” basis and then give each pub marks based on a variety of criteria, the most important one of course being the quality of the beer.  We now go forward into the judging for the regional CAMRA West Midlands Pub of the Year.

Update:  (Oct 2011)  Out of five pubs being judged for the West Midlands Pub of the Year award, we came second, beaten only by the Beacon Hotel, Sedgley (home of the famous Sarah Hughes Dark Ruby Mild), which was itself a runner-up in the CAMRA National Pub of the Year competition in 2010.

Christmas & New Year Opening Times

New Year’s Eve

This will be as in previous years, a “picnic” where you are welcome to bring your own food if you wish.  Admission will by by ticket only, and as last year these will be “virtual” tickets, in other words your name goes on our list.  As most customers know, the reason for this is to regulate the number of people in the pub so that everyone can enjoy a comfortable evening.