A bar in Witney which reopened last year has won an award from the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) group.

The Oxford branch of CAMRA chooses the city's pub of the year, but it also hands out a town and village pub of the year title.

The town and village pub of the year accolade for 2025 has gone to The Crafty Pint, formerly the Drummers Bar.

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Drummers in Langdale Court in Witney closed in July last year following a decision by West Oxfordshire District Council to take enforcement action over a conservatory that was added during Covid restrictions.

But former manager Melanie Cassidy and business partner Ian Walton bought the small bar in the former shop and relaunched it in October last year,.

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Dave Richardson, of Oxford CAMRA, said: "It's a real achievement for the Crafty Pint to win this award bearing in mind that Mel Cassidy and Ian Walton who run the pub took over only just over a year ago, after the previous owner of the business, Simon Scamp, decided to retire.

(Image: Dave Richardson) "Mel and Ian were already running the bar when Simon left and they have clearly built up a very strong following among beer lovers whether they prefer cask or keg beer.

"It always offers an interesting range of independently brewed beers from near and far, and only this month it had cask ales side by side from Loose Cannon of Abingdon and a ruby ale called Red MacGregor from the Orkney Brewery in Scotland.

"With charity quiz nights and regular live music, it is very much a community pub despite its small size."

The micro-pub, in Langdale Court near the Waitrose car park, has had its third identity in only six years, having opened as Oxbrew in 2018 but renamed Drummers after Oxbrew brewery was merged into Little Ox.

It became the Crafty Pint on reopening last year.

When the pub reopened Mr Walton said: "The USP of the place is that it’s a craft beer bar. We have a variety that changes on a regular basis.

"The beer used to come from breweries within a 30-mile radius but we have expanded that a bit to good pints from across the country. There’s lot of good local breweries and micro breweries all over.

“The reason for the name change is we wanted to give it a new feel. So we’ve changed the inside with more seating. We want to get back that community hub feeling.”

Mr Richardson also paid tribute to Oxford CAMRA's previous Pub of the Year, the Brewery Tap in Abingdon, which lost out by a very narrow margin this year.

He added: "Abingdon's top pubs have a very strong following and this is the first time in years that the award hasn't gone to a pub in the town."

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About the author 

Andy is the Trade and Tourism reporter for the Oxford Mail and you can sign up to his newsletters for free here. 

He joined the team more than 20 years ago and he covers community news across Oxfordshire.

His Trade and Tourism newsletter is released every Saturday morning. 

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