Derbyshire choices as new Good Beer Guide highlights the difficulties of running a pub

Emma Middleton and John Smith reopened the Victoria Inn and now have it in the Good Beer Guide.
-Credit: (Image: Derby Telegraph)


The 2025 Good Beer Guide is out and, for us locally, contains relatively few surprises. The publishers, the Campaign for Real Ale, are continuing to be innovative with their themes for the guide and this year have featured two of the country’s favourite fictional pubs, Coronation Street’s Rovers Return and Emmerdale’s Woolpack. Guide buyers can choose from two covers, each featuring a pub.

What I find both interesting and useful is that they have used the theme this year to highlight the plight of pubs. I haven’t watched Coronation Street for years, since they started trying to match Eastenders for gloom, but they have recently had a storyline in which the landlady had to quit the Rovers because of spiralling costs. It was sold back to the Newton & Ridley brewery, then moved on to another company and reopened. Such uncertainties for pubs definitely do happen in real life.

Camra asked Iain Macleod, ITV’s executive producer for continuing drama, to write the foreword for the guide and, as he says: “The story which threatened one of our pubs the most was also the one which most resonated with our times. In 2023, the Rovers Return closed its doors. A combination of the lingering legacy of the Covid lockdowns and the cost-of-living crisis meant that landlady Jenny Connor couldn’t afford to keep it open. The characters – and the viewers – lamented the news like the loss of a loved one. If it were needed, it was a timely reminder of the central place the nation’s pubs have in our lives and in our affections.”

READ MORE: Dead Poet’s Inn at Holbrook: Everard's brewery success a big lesson to others

Quite so. And so to the guide itself. As I probably say every year, it has its flaws but no one has yet come up with a better way of doing it in the 52 years that it has been published. It’s flawed because if selections are indeed made partly as a result of “beer scores” submitted by Camra members, some pubs not visited by said members on a regular basis or at all may miss out. As it happens, none of the three pubs I scored regularly during the qualifying period got in, but never mind.

With the best will in the world, one or two personal quirks can come into the equation – but the fact remains, no one who complains has come up with a better way. At 4,516 pubs, there are six more than in 2024 and 903 are new entries. Derbyshire has 94 entries, 27 more than Leicestershire, 21 more than Nottinghamshire and six more than Staffordshire, although Lincolnshire, being such a large county, has 110.

In Derby, enough time having passed following a change of licensee, the Five Lamps and the Old Silk Mill are back in this year. It comes as no surprise at all that the excellent work being done by John Smith and Emma Middleton to bring the Victoria Inn, near the railway station, back to prominence has been recognised by its inclusion and, indeed, that is where the Derby branch of Camra held their launch party for the guide on Thursday night (September 26).

The Thornbridge Tap comes into the guide, which also means Bakewell is again represented.
The Thornbridge Tap comes into the guide, which also means Bakewell is again represented. -Credit:Colston Crawford

There are 16 pubs within the city boundary included (17 last year) and among those missing out after being in the 2024 guide are the Little Chester Ale House (as it had changed hands), No 189 at Allestree, the White Swan in Littleover and the Woodlark. Just outside the city, the Shiny Brewery Tap, at Little Eaton, is a deserved addition.

Further afield, Bakewell was not represented in the guide at all last year but the new edition has two entries, the Manners Hotel, which is a Robinson’s pub, and Thornbridge Brewery’s brilliant taproom adjacent to the brewery.

I find it a curiosity that all three of Tollgate Brewery’s micropubs – in Duffield, Ashby and Leicester – are in the guide, yet what is arguably the jewel in their crown, the Milking Parlour brewery tap, near Ticknall, is not. I wonder if it is a matter of geography? It sits in South Derbyshire but with an Ashby address and a Leicestershire postcode; the county boundary is mere yards away. I couldn’t tell you which Camra branch covers it.

READ MORE: Peak District hotel pubs close to home where you can spend the night

In Matlock Bath, there used to be several contenders for a place in the guide but the village’s beer scene is not quite what it was. Nonetheless, it’s a surprise to see the only entry last year, the Fishpond, out this year. That said, in Matlock itself, the Red Lion at Matlock Green is a welcome addition. One of my favourite country pubs, the Pack Horse at Little Longstone, drops out this year; another, the Greyhound at Warslow, just over the Staffordshire border, makes it in after having only its on-site brewery listed last year.

Burton has seven pubs listed: the Weighbridge, Coopers, Devonshire and Roebuck are all within yards of each other and make for a recommended pub crawl, while The Dog is not far away. The Beeropolis micropub is on the other side of town, on High Street, and The Elms is further out, on Stapenhill Road. All seven were also in the guide last year.

The Good Beer Guide is out now and can be ordered at https://shop1.camra.org.uk/product/the-good-beer-guide-2025/ or bought in featured pubs.

Enjoyed reading this article? You can find more of Beerhunter Colston Crawford's columns here.