CAMRA Good Beer Guide 2024 contains pubs and breweries in Grantham, Castle Bytham, Barrowby, Great Gonerby and more, as well as foreword from Iron Maiden’s Bruce Dickinson

A popular beer guide has highlighted some stand-out pubs and breweries in the Grantham area.

The Campaign for Real Ale’s (CAMRA) Good Beer Guide – the UK’s best-selling beer and pub guide – is celebrating its 51st edition with a striking cover and a foreword supplied by Iron Maiden’s Bruce Dickinson.

The guide, which surveys 4,500 of the best pubs across the UK, is billed as “the definitive beer drinker’s guide” for those seeking the best pints in the nation’s pubs.

Dickinson’s foreword shines a spotlight on the cultural tradition of pubs within the United Kingdom, the importance of protecting the heritage, charm and welcoming nature of pubs and clubs, and not taking them for granted.

The Good Beer Guide, which is published annually by CAMRA, helps beer lovers take a barometer of the local beer scene.

As well as covering 398 of the very best pubs across Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire and Rutland, it keeps track of brewery numbers, and while the guide notes that seven breweries have opened, seven have also unfortunately closed across the counties.

In the Grantham area, several pubs and breweries have been named by the guide.

The White Swan in Barrowby is one such pub, praised in the guide for its two regular and two guest ales, “traditional home-made food” and “comfortable” lounge.

In Grantham, the Lord Harrowby is in the guide, described as “a friendly back-street community pub”.

Chequers, based in Market Place, is also in the guide, as is the Grantham Railway Club. The Recruiting Sergeant in Great Gonerby is also named.

Outside of Grantham, the Cholmeley Arms in Burton le Coggles is named, as well as Ropsley’s The Green Man, the Castle Inn in Castle Bytham, the Crown & Anchor in Welby and the Plough Inn at Wilsford.

In terms of local breweries that are named in the guide, Zest in Barkston Heath is mentioned, alongside Grantham’s Brewsters and Newby Wyke.

This year’s guide contains 910 newly-featured pubs, which CAMRA says is “a fantastic prospect for the pub trade which has been struggling to stay afloat in recent years following the pandemic and rising fuel costs”.

The trade also faces an impending threat from unlawful demolitions, which CAMRA has declared a “national scandal” in the wake of the demolition of the Crooked House in Himley.

CAMRA chairman Nik Antona said: “The last few years have been an incredibly difficult time for the industry, and we need more support than ever before to keep our nation’s pubs and breweries open and thriving.

“I’d encourage everyone to use this year’s guide to visit the very best pubs and breweries across the UK and support them for generations to come.”