IT’S a double celebration for the management team at a Blakedown pub as they mark two milestones.

Chris and Tracy Lowe have been in charge at The Swan in Blakedown for 15 years and have just been included in the 50th edition of the Campaign for Real Ale’s (CAMRA) Good Beer Guide 2023 for the first time.

The pub offers two or three well-kept real ales from local breweries often ‘off the beaten track’, together with a fine range of some 25 gins.

During the Covid restrictions they extended the decked outdoor dining area, but with the arrival of the cost-of-living crisis, Chris and Tracy have noticed customers buying more soft drinks and smaller meals and have adapted their opening hours.

Nonetheless, having been free of the brewery tie for the last 6 years, they are looking to the future and hoping to buy the premises outright.