The Swan in the Rushes, Loughborough

Swan in the Rushes is a Castle Rock Brewery pub with left and right-hand bars, so hearing some noise coming from the wooden floored right-hand bar I decided to give that a go first. There were five or six customers sat at the counter across the rear, that extends across both bars, and a couple of young ladies were sat at a table. It soon became apparent that everyone either worked in the pub, was family or was staying in rooms upstairs. I ordered a pint of Harvest Pale and sat on the banquettes that run under the front window and up the right-hand wall. I noted fairy lights across the ceiling and a jukebox in the right rear corner before deciding to give the empty parquet floored left-hand bar a try where banquettes run around the walls and a fireplace sits on the left-hand wall. There are five hand pumps on each counter, in addition to Castle Rock’s Harvest Pale were Wainwright Gold, Tollgate Brewery’s Billy’s Best, Milestone’s Italia and Honey Porter as well as Little Brewing’s Taj. I think this is the weakest CR pub I’ve visited, much like their Harvest Pale.

Housed in an impressive, built 1932 building, a two bar pub belonging to Castle Rock. I used the bar to the right but they’re both similar, five pulls on the counter in each bar with four in use, a brace from Castle Rock plus one from Brewsters and one from Grainstore, a low T-Bar has a quartet of national keg brands. They sometimes have different beers on in each bar so check the blackboards. Another blackboard lists 11 kegs so that’s mostly in the left hand room. There’s a fridge with bottles and cans behind the counter, but largely uninteresting. The room has a lived in look and is equipped with screen, machine and juke box, banquette seating round two walls with cast iron based tables and brown wood chairs so fairly traditional. No modern toys in the left hand bar, you could be in the 1930s in a quiet moment.  There’s a selection of odd pictures, maps and adverts on one wall otherwise the walls are blank dirty white. The left hand bar has more older photos including one when it was called the Charnwood and another when the site was occupied by the Charnwood Railway Hotel. It’s GBG 2025 listed and the beer was impeccable, Camra also list it as an Heritage pub due I guess to the unspoilt 1930s fittings. It has a games room that’s at the back accessed via the left hand bar with pool and darts. Upstairs has a function room called the Hoploft. Merv’s kitchen supplies burgers, wings, dogs, pizza and stuff in the evenings.

Official site of The Swan in the Rushes - www.castlerockbrewery.co.uk

Official site of The Swan in the Rushes - www.castlerockbrewery.co.uk

This is a nice traditional two bar pub opposite the town’s main shopping centre. You enter via a porch with some beer engines mounted to the rear and doors for each bar on either side, each with etched glass panes with a swan in rushes motif. The doors lead into roughly equal sized rooms on either side of the centrally positioned servery, with fixed bench seating around the perimeter and plenty of chairs in support. The walls are painted in plain colours, with large bay windows to the front with Castle Rock branded panes, and scuffed parquet flooring throughout. The walls have been decorated with some nice arty photos of the local area, a few framed certificates, well stocked bookshelves, and plenty of blackboards listing the beers, ciders and snacks on offer. A nice fireplace in the left-hand room looks like it gets plenty of use in the colder months, with large buckets of old newspapers stood on the hearth. The right-hand room has a decent juke box judging by the tunes that periodically became audible from that side of the pub, and I spotted a few TV screens here and there, although none were in use at the time of my visit. The servery spans both rooms and has a modern timber fronted counter and somewhat chopped out bar back. A door to the rear leads through to a games room, dominated by a centrally positioned pool table. Castle Rock beers accounted for most of the cask range, with Harvest pale, Preservation, Elsie Mo and Our House available alongside Charnwood Black Fox and Salvation plus one from Nene Valley, the name of which I didn’t catch. There were also a few real cider options and the friendly, if somewhat bored looking, barman poured me a good pint of the Preservation, which I enjoyed supping in near isolation, with just one other customer on my side of the bar. I thought this was a decent enough Castel Rock pub which perhaps doesn’t quite measure up to some of the brewery’s best houses, but was a decent enough place to start my crawl from. The interesting beer selection and pleasant two bar layout were big plus points for me and perhaps I’d have felt even more favourably towards the place had I caught it at a busier time.

Was looking forward to this one as a Castle Rock run CAMRA National Inventory pub but sadly what I got was a down-at-heel place. There’s a bit of heritage over the two rooms off an impressive entrance porch. The lounge was deserted but in the public bar were a smattering of punters. Quite shabby here with the banquette fabric worn to the quick and scuffed magnolia woodchip wallpaper. Tinny modern music to detract further from the ambience. Three Castle Rock beers and a guest in the form of Charnwood Vixen which was in good shape (NBSS 3.5), saving the visit a bit. The brewery need to pull their finger out of their shive and spend a few quid getting this place back up to muster. It’s GBG’22 listed.