The 2004 Christmas Social

Alan & Margaret Stanley present Julie Kane with CAMRA's cheque

To round off 2004’s CAMRA activities, as always, we have a Christmas Social.

The 2004 Christmas Social took place on Wednesday 15^th December at The Swan & Rushes with a lounge packed with members to participate in a festive beer or two. As well as the social drink, there were a couple of other reasons for the gathering.

Each year at our Beer Festival, we have our collection buckets present, collecting for LOROS, Leicester’s local Hospice. Our collection at the 2004 Beer Festival raised £677.00  Once again we were very privileged to welcome Julie Kane to our social, albeit in her Santa Claus outfit. Julie is a care nurse for LOROS and gave a chat on the work they carry out, expressing the need for voluntary contributions.

Alan and Margaret Stanley presented the cheque to Julie. It was presented in memory of their daughter, Julie Stanley who re-started the Leicester Beer Festivals in 1999 after a 10 year absence. She passed away in 2001 after being cared for by LOROS. As Alan was making his presentation, he felt the urge to add £23 in cash to round it up to £700.00. He then thanked Leicester CAMRA for remembering Julie.

A poetry reading from Robin Worth followed this. He had written a poem for Grant Cook to say thanks and reminisce on his time at The Swan & Rushes and Criterion and to wish him well.

We then had the opportunity to meet the new owners of The Swan & Rushes and The Criterion. Grant introduced us to Chris Wright and his son Jerry. They both have a passion for “Real Ale” so they formed The Pig Pub Company and purchased Grant Cook’s two pubs with the intention of carrying on “Business as normal” They hoped that regulars would continue to support these pubs, promising “No Change”  They also supported LOROS by naming them as the pub’s charity.

Chris & Gerry Wright with Grant Cook

Finally, I wished Chris and Jerry every success with their 2 new pubs and thanked Grant Cook for his contributions to Leicester’s “Real Ale” scene. I commented that I had thought he was mad when he phoned me one night telling me that he was taking over The Swan & Rushes and turning it in to a “Real Ale” pub and that for once I was pleased I was wrong. Grant has maintained very high standards in his five years in Leicester. Over the years he has been very supportive and generous to CAMRA. Grant thanked Leicester Branch for their support and hoped to return to Leicester in the not too distant future.

K Williams

This page last updated: April 15, 2011

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