Local real ale and cider campaigner receives national gold medal

The heart and soul of the local Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) Branch, Roy Bailey, has been awarded a National Golden Award for nearly fifty years of robust campaigning for beer, cider and good pubs to drink them in across West Berkshire and beyond.

Roy organised many of the activities and events that put Real Ale in front of the public in the early days of CAMRA both locally and nationally.

He was the first Editor and gave the name to “Ullage”, the quarterly Newsletter of West Berkshire CAMRA, still going strong and eagerly read by many beer drinkers and pub goers.

Apart from reaching the final of BBC TV’s “Mastermind in 1988” and running the Lambourn Valley Cider Company for twenty years, no one has done more in West Berkshire to make CAMRA the acronym now universally recognised across a wide cross section of the British public.

Few people over the years since CAMRA was formed in 1972 deserve this award more.

Roy Bailey is one of only two longstanding active campaigning members in the Southern Region to receive CAMRA’s  50 year Golden Award.

You can read the story of Roy & CAMRA at  https://westberkscamra.org.uk/award/camra-golden-award-roy-bailey 

A Presentation Event is being held tonight (Wednesday 23rd February) at The Catherine Wheel, Newbury at 7:00pm for an 8:00pm presentation. 

The photo above of the Bell Inn at Aldworth is by Tom from Flickr CCL.