Crooked House glasses on sale at beer festival
Special glasses bearing an image of the now demolished Himley pub The Crooked House will be on sale at the Dudley Winter Ales Fayre.
The Campaign for Real Ale beer festival is taking place in Dudley Town Hall from Thursday, November 23, to Saturday.
Organisers from the Dudley and South Staffordshire branch of CAMRA chose to make the pub the symbol of this year's event after it was lost two days following a fire which gutted the 18th Century "wonky" pub on August 7.
It emerged after the demolition that the unique pub was not listed.
The winter ales fayre, which will feature 60 real ales mainly from West Midlands breweries, will also be raising awareness of the need for pub protection efforts to be stepped up.
The Crooked House also features on publicity material and T-shirts, hoodies and beanies on sale at the festival which is being sponsored by The Red Pub Company, which has many real ale pubs across the Black Country.
Chairman of the branch, John Corser, said: "We hope that people will come along to try the range of great beers that are brewed across the West Midlands.
"We are hosting two competitions for West Midlands CAMRA on the opening day and real ale fans from all over the country are coming in the wake of the loss of The Crooked House. We wanted to ensure they got a taste of the beers brewed by the great breweries we have in this area.
"We hope it will encourage people to support their local pubs and encourage them to continue to offer cask ale.
"The committee, especially festival organiser Robin Shields, has worked really hard in putting on the winter ales fayre this year."
Members of the Save The Crooked House (Let's Get It Re-built) Facebook group will be attending to publicise their campaign.
The festival opens on Thursday at 3pm. It will be open from 11am on the Friday and Saturday and close at 10pm each night or when the beer runs out on the Saturday.
Admission is free for CAMRA members and £10 for non-members on Thursday and Friday. Anyone joining CAMRA at the festival will get four half-pint tokens which will cover the cost of admission.
There is free entry for everyone on the Saturday.
The limited edition Crooked House glasses are on sale for £3 in advance from dudley.camra.org.uk and at the event.
There will also be cider and wine on sale and entertainment on the Friday and Saturday. The Empty Can and the Ian Sutherland Band perform on Friday and The Headshrinkers and rock choir Voice Unlimited - The Might VU on Saturday.
