Our opening times over the coming days are (closing time indicates the last time we serve, we close 30 minutes later):
Friday 23 December Noon to Midnight
Saturday 24 December Noon to Midnight
Christmas Day Noon to 2.30pm and 7pm to 10pm
Boxing Day Noon to 10pm
Tuesday 27 December Noon to 11pm
Wednesday 28 December Noon to 11pm
Thursday 29 December Noon to 11pm
Friday 30 December Noon to Midnight
New Year’s Eve Noon to 2am
New Year’s Day CLOSED
Monday 2 January CLOSED
The Bailey Head Freehouse in Oswestry, which was opened by the Mayor of Oswestry just eight months ago, has reached the finals of the first ever Hospitality Social Media Awards.
The pub specialises in constantly changing microbrewery real ales and craft beers, a large range of small batch gins, an extensive soft drinks range, and local Shropshire and Welsh simple food. They are especially well known for their locally sourced cheese boards, pork pies, scotch eggs and antipasti, as well as winter specials such as local Shropshire Venison Casserole.
The husband and wife owners, Grace Goodlad and Duncan Borrowman, will find out on 23 November at an award presentation at The Palace Hotel, Manchester if they have won the national prize.
Duncan Borrowman said: “After only being open for eight months it is fantastic to have been judged as one of the best pubs in the country for our social media. We use a number of online media to keep our customers informed of what we have on, including a website, Facebook, Twitter, Mailchimp and more recently Instagram. It is increasingly important in the 21st century that we keep in touch with our customers through Social Media.”
It is very much in vogue to give up drinking and abandon the pub for a month in support of charity.
But don’t firget that pubs raise vast amounts of money for charity, and if you are giving up drink for the month, we do sell a big range of soft drinks!
In October we are holding two charity quiz nights.
The first is this Friday, 7 October at 7.30pm in aid of CHALK Oswestry. CHALK is a community based shop in Leg Street raising funds for local projects.
Entry is £10 for a team of up to 6.
The second is on Friday 21 October at 8pm in aid of Prostate Cancer UK. Entry is £12 for a team of up to 6. There will also be Prostate Cancer UK badges on sale.
During October and November we will be opening later on a Monday. We will open at 3pm to allow us some time off and some time to do some work around the pub.
We have replaced our session lager with Freedom Authentic Lager 4%
Freedom Authentic is a truly English craft lager, not compromised in quality, and properly sessionable. Hops: Challenger and First Gold. Freedom Authentic has citrus a nose, and sweet malt and toasted cereal aromas. It’s well-balanced, with a bitter finish. Full-bodied, light and refreshing.
It is £3.00 a pint, but we have a loyalty card for the launch. Buy 6 pints, get 1 free.
At the same time we have had to increase the price of Krombacher to £3.30 to reflect the increase in our purchase price. But we think it is still a bargain for such a quality pilsner.
The two together at 4% and 4.8% offer an excellent choice of lagers, both produced with natural ingredients and both suitable for vegans.
Our front door is usually propped open during opening hours, so many of you may not notice that over the last few days Grace’s father has been working on it and repainted it. The door knocker was one thing that was broken. When buying a new one we obviously needed a good solid brass knocker as befits the building. We chose a knocker that is a hat tip to the pubs longest serving name, Eagles, and have fitted a really nice brass eagle. We hope people like it.
We get a number of customers who arrive on bicycles. The problem is they either have to prop their bikes against the outside tables, attempt to chain them to the front door hand rail or find somewhere to prop them. This has been far from ideal. So this morning we have fitted a rack for three bikes, the biggest we could fit in to the space available. We hope this is found useful by cyclists using The Bailey Head. Usual disclaimers apply, it is for customer use and we accept no responsibility for bikes left in the rack.
From when we first started we have always said that we wanted to be community focused. Up to now most of our pickles and chutnies have been supermarket sourced. We have wanted to change that. We are delighted that from today we will be using Piccalilli, Rhubarb & Date Chutney and Spiced Apple Chutney produced by students at Derwen College Food Centre.
We are really delighted to be able to do this, after Derwen College provided our hanging baskets.
Derwen College’s chutneys are award winning and we tasted a number of samples before deciding on which combinations work best with our food.
Our mustard will still be the same, and as the college can’t produce pickled onions in the quantities we need so will they.
A sharing Cheeseboard with Derwen College Piccalilli and Spiced Apple Chutney
It’s just two days since we launched our Gin Menu, and we are excited by our new addition.
Delivered to us tonight by the distiller Matt Rowland himself.
From the smallest Welsh distillery. Hand-crafted in small batches. Merywen is the welsh word for juniper berries, the principle flavour of gin which can be found growing wild in protected areas of North Wales. Botanicals including eithin (gorse) and grug (heather) are hand-picked from the blossoming hedgerows that surround the rural distillery, combined and distilled with pure grain spirit and local unfiltered water from the foothills of the Welsh mountains. Nothing is used that cannot be found locally.
Read more about it on the North Star Distillery website.
We have a new, exciting, and growing gin menu. Enjoy a refreshing G&T, always served with Fever Tree Tonic. With a slice of lemon, lime or cucumber.
For updates to the list go to our Gin Menu
Speciality Gins (all £2.50 for 25ml):
Juniper Green Organic (Gluten free, vegan)
Dry, Aromatic, Zestful and Organic. We have sourced the natural botanicals grown under the demanding requirements of the Soil Association. They are then distilled in traditional Gin stills in the heart of London. 100% Organic Grain Spirit completes our Recipe to produce the world’s first Organic London Dry Gin
Blackwoods 2012 Vintage Dry
Inspired by the beautiful nature of Shetland, we wait each year for the right weather conditions to harvest our botanicals. With each vintage the botanicals used change slightly due to the quality and quantity available. Our Shetland botanicals are infused with juniper and coriander, plus other botanicals including lime, to give our dry gin its unique and complex flavour. We steep the botanicals in natural mineral water to release their gentle flavours before we go on to distillation in small batches using a traditional copper still. Tasting note: An abundance of citrus on the nose with gentle floral notes to follow. Extremely smooth yet crisp with citrus, herbal and floral notes coming through on the palate.
Whitley Neill Small Batch (Batch No 11)
A London Dry Gin made with African botanicals including extracts from the Baobab Tree (known as the Tree of Life) and Physalis fruit. It’s made in a one-hundred-year-old copper pot still!
Tanqueray Export Strength
Export strength London dry gin made from premium botanicals and distilled four times for a distinctive, crisp taste. The traditional connoisseur’s all-time fave, boasting a higher percentage of juniper than any other gin. This magnificent old-style gin is still the benchmark.
Gordon’s Elderflower
Refreshing Gordon’s London Dry gin is combined with the delicate taste of elderflower for a delicious twist on a great British classic.
Gordon’s Cucumber
Refreshing Gordon’s London Dry gin is combined with the delicate taste of cucumber to deliver a refreshing and invigorating flavour.
House Gin (£2.00 for 25ml, double up for an extra £1.25):
Gordon’s Special Dry London
Gordon’s London Dry gin is carefully distilled using a secret recipe. The distinctively refreshing taste comes from the finest handpicked juniper berries and a selection of other botanicals. It’s the taste that’s made Gordon’s the world’s best-selling London Dry gin.