Thanks Derek please report any changes and keep us posted.
The first planned meet of 2019 is now only 2 months away and:
> We currently have no venue
> There is no response from the brewery
> They are stepping up security which will prevent us just turning up and using the car park ( an option I do not favour anyway )
So I am going to visit the Bradford Arms within the next week to suss out exact details about using that as a venue going forward and I will post back on here. I will ask about cost ( likely to be £2 per car for 1 day or whole weekend and the charge per car removes any obligation to use the pub in exchange for using the field for free) and camping ( possibly £5 per night ) plus toilet use etc, if anyone wants me to ask anything else please post on here but note that the pub do not do breakfasts but the food is recommended.
I have looked into the implications of charging and it seems that as this will always be a voluntary event and not a public one we should be ok without any 3rd party insurance and we can always introduce a waiver or a sign on the gate if necessary to make sure we are covered
The pictures below are courtesy of Steve ( Devilish ) and the idea to use as a venue from Keith so thanks to both of them, the last picture compares the Ashes to the Bradford Arms and as you will see there are lots of similarities.
The Bradford Arms is situated about 4/5 miles from the Ashes and is on the A5 heading towards Telford.
I am not making a final decision here so comments are welcome but just making sure we have an alternative venue which is looking the more likely scenario.
The scheduled dates for 2019 are below but as we cannot confirm them until we have a venue we have not publicised them more widely:
March 16/17
May 11/12
June 22/23
July 20/21
September 14/15
October 19/20