CAMRA Branch Website of the Year 2024
Bailey Head in Oswestry – CAMRA National Pub of the Year 2025
Bailey Head in Oswestry
CAMRA National Pub of the Year
Welcome to the Shrewsbury and West Shropshire branch of CAMRA
As members of the Campaign for Real Ale, we are passionate about real ale and our aim is to preserve and promote real ale and real cider, along with the pubs that provide them. If you’re a fan of traditionally brewed beer, looking to explore something new, or would like to get involved in our campaigning activities, then please get in touch.
Our members are very welcoming and we’re always happy for new people to join us. With our regular events, pub trails, and our famous Shrewsbury beer festival, there’s always something happening. Discover new tastes, make new friends, and support our local breweries and pubs. Hope to see you soon!
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About CAMRA
Find out more about one of the most successful consumer organisations in Europe, and our vision to have quality real ale, cider and perry and thriving pubs in every community.
Join CAMRA
Why not become a CAMRA member and become part of our campaign. Find out how to join up and see what benefits your membership package includes.
National CAMRA
For more information about the Campaign for Real Ale on a national level, have a look at the national website which contains a wealth of information about our campaign.
How You Can Help
Beer Scoring
Did you know that we had over 5,500 scores/ratings submitted for beers drunk in our branch area last year? A lot of these were from our own branch members but a considerable number were kindly submitted by visitors from other branches of CAMRA.
This may seem a lot but with over 300 pubs in our branch area, it averages out at just over 18 beer scores per pub. In reality, some popular pubs get hundreds of scores and other less frequented pubs just get a handfull. So the more members we can get scoring in more pubs, the better.
It takes no time at all to enter a score or rating for the beers you drink, and it helps each CAMRA branch create shortlists of pubs for entry into the Good Beer Guide and the Pub of the Year competition.
Have a look at our page on Beer Scoring page for more information. It may seem a bit complicated at first but after a while, it becomes a straightforward and easy process, and it really helps us to highlight beer quaility in pubs. If you are a CAMRA member, please have a go at scoring – we would really appreciate your input – thank you!
Noticeboard
Shrewsbury Beer Festival
The 33rd Shrewsbury Beer Festival has started. Open from Wednesday 24th to Saturday 27th September.
It will be held in the medieval St. Mary’s church, one of the most picturesque venues in the country.
With a selection of over 100 beers, nearly 20 ciders and perries, plus gins and wines. More info on our Festival page.
Live Beer List
A new website feature for this year’s Shrewsbury Beer Festival is the Live Beer List.
This is a fully searchable list of all the beers, along with a traffic light system showing each beer’s availability.
The list will update automatically every minute to let visitors know when each beer is running low or sold out.
Branch Socials
The next branch social is the Public Transport Group (PTG) bus trip to Oswestry on Friday 17th October.
We will have up to nine pubs to visit in the town centre, including the Bailey Head, CAMRA’s National Pub of the Year.
Apart from being great social events, these monthly trips out enable us to survey pubs and assess their beer quality.
What's New?
Next Events
The Nottingham Robin Hood Beer & Cider Festival is one of the UK’s largest and most anticipated beer and cider events. Organised by the Nottingham Branch of CAMRA, we’re dedicated to showcasing an incredible selection of real ales, ciders, and perries from across the country and beyond. The Nottingham Robin Hood Beer and Cider Festival will return to Trent Bridge cricket ground on 8th-11th October 2025 and feature over 500 beers and 100 ciders and perries, plus music and plenty of food options. For more details and to purchase tickets, please see the Festival website: nottinghambf.camra.org.uk
Shrewsbury & West Shropshire CAMRA committee meeting at the Prince of Wales. All members welcome. Note that the start time for all meetings is 7:15pm, to give people who are getting the train to Shrewsbury time to walk across town. For more information on what happens in Committee meetings, please see the Branch Management section in the Our Branch page.
Social and beer scoring trip by public transport from Shrewsbury to Oswestry. Please note that this is a Friday trip. Details will be confirmed about a week before the trip starts. Members and non-members welcome! For more information about our Public Transport Group (PTG) trips, please see the About Our Events page.
Latest News
Socials
Beer Bus
The next Friday evening Beer Bus is going to rural pubs around Oswestry on the 27th June.
Public Transport Group
The next Public Transport Group trip is to Whittington, Welsh Frankton, Ellesmere on Thursday 17th July.
Pub Guides
Oswestry Pubs
Our newest guide looks at real ale pubs in Oswestry town centre, including the Bailey Head, CAMRA’s National Pub of the Year.
Shrewsbury Pubs
Need some suggestions of pub trails in Shrewsbury? Our guide has six trails covering over 40 of Shrewsbury’s real ale pubs.
