Welcome to the Heart of Warwickshire Branch of the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA). This site has information about our branch, including our branch events & local beer festivals, contact details, downloadable copies of the branch magazine, the “Beer and Ragged Staff“, our local pubs and breweries and our annual beer & cider festival.
Navigate around the site using the menu bar above (or the 3-line “hamburger” icon on a mobile device) and click on the bear logo to return here. There is a search bar at the bottom of every page.
2026 Pub Of The Year Competition
The results of our annual Pub Of The Year competition are available here.
2026 Harbury Beer & Cider Festival (4 & 5 September, open 11am-11pm both days)
Advance tickets are on sale for the 2026 Harbury Beer and Cider Festival. Please scan or click on the QR Code to visit the ticket store.
We need help at the festival so if you have some spare time please sign up to volunteer.
We are also looking for companies and individuals to sponsor barrels at the festival. It costs just £30. Full details are here.
Pat on the back time for us! The branch has received a special regional award in recognition of our efforts to keep the CAMRA pub directory up-to-date.
Leamington Beer & Music Festival 2026
The first Leamington Beer & Music Festival is being held at the Windmill Hill Brewery 16-19 April. Full details are on our events page.
Tom Douglas
We are sorry to report the sad news of the death of Tom Douglas, who died on 22 January 2026 at the age of 71 following a stroke. His daughter Gemma has written the following obituary.
Originally from Belfast, Tom was well known as the landlord of many pubs in the area over the last 40 years.
He and his wife Gill ran their first few pubs in Luton and Bletchley, before taking on The Granville Arms in Barford from 1984 until 1998. The pair also ran The Castle Inn at Edgehill near Banbury for five years, before Tom returned to Warwick with a vision to open a real ale bar in an empty shop on West Street.
Alongside his daughter Gemma he founded The Old Post Office in 2014. Tom fitted the bar out himself with reclaimed materials, furniture and curios, showcasing his flare for quirky and eccentric interior design. The pub quickly became a favourite among beer enthusiasts making it into the CAMRA Good Beer Guide every year and winning Pub of the Year awards on multiple occasions.
As well as its popularity with beer enthusiasts the pub also quickly became a community hub. Local West Street resident and Old Post Office regular Sally-Jane Downes commented “he connected us personally to the community of West Street and through him we have met so many wonderful people”.
During his time at The Old Post Office Tom also saw the potential of another tiny empty property in Warwick and opened Rigsby’s Cellar Bar, now The Eagle.
Tom’s unique character gained him a legendary status across the Warwickshire pub world and beyond, with his friendly manner and interesting tales serving as a catalyst for many friendships to be formed over the years across the pubs he ran.
Tom will be greatly missed by his wife Gill, daughter Gemma, son Daniel, and wider family as well as his countless friends and customers.
New CAMRA Website and WhatPub Website Closure
The new CAMRA website helps you get to the pints you want to drink the most, in the places you want to drink them, as easily as possible. Whether you’re on holiday, visiting a friend, or simply searching your local area, our website brings you the best pubs, beers and breweries straight to you in an instant.
We have brought all our data and standalone websites, including WhatPub, together, so you can access everything you need to know about pubs and clubs, beer and cider and our campaigning efforts in one convenient place combined with the ability to upload beer scores and update pub information.
The newly enhanced online features with easy-to-use smart tools are designed to help you enjoy more of the beer, pubs and festivals you love:
- Search for over 55,000 pubs around the UK by a variety of filters
- Identify Good Beer Guide recommended pubs, now as part of your membership
- Plan pub trips and create itineraries of places you want to visit
- Score your beers at all the pubs and clubs you visit
- Search our database of beers and find out where they are served. Save your favourites or even list those you’d like to try
- Access information on breweries from around the UK and save these as favourites for later too
- Read CAMRA verified beer tasting notes
- View CAMRA beer rating scores and recommendations
- Plus so much more!
Whenever you order a pint of cask beer, remember to log in to our website to submit and keep track of your beer scores. This is one of the easiest and most fun ways to volunteer for CAMRA and helps local branches find out which pubs are serving quality cask. There is more brewery data on the site, and you can now update this data too.
You can help power CAMRA’s campaigning by submitting updates about pubs. Simply go to a pub’s listing on the website and scroll down to the ‘suggest an edit’ section. This will alert the local branch that the pub’s information needs to be updated. It couldn’t be easier!
Don’t forget, even if you are not a CAMRA member, you can still access some of our website’s great features by becoming a subscriber for as little as 99p a month.
Warwick Pub Walk
The landlords of the five Warwick pubs featured in the 2024 Good Beer guide have produced a leaflet describing a walk around the pubs. Full details are here.
