The Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) has named the Haydock Reading Room in St Helens as one of the four best member clubs in the UK as part of the Club of the Year 2024 competition. The four finalists will now have a chance to win the overall Club of the Year title, which will be announced in early 2025.
Providing a warm and welcoming place for all who like a well-maintained pint with good company since 1884, there are three cask beers are available with at least one from a local brewery. The club hosts live music and other events for the community over weekends.
Club Steward Nigel Arnold said: “It has been an incredible achievement from everybody involved at the Haydock Reading Room. We set out each year to get nominated for Club of the Year and everything beyond that is a bonus to us and the job we do here. I have a great team of staff that are all fully trained on looking after and serving real ales. As well as that, we have a great committee supporting the work we do.
“In the last three years since I took over, we have gone from strength to strength, progressing in this competition and it’s just wonderful to get the recognition from CAMRA that we have. The St Helens branch has been great in supporting us and advising when they can. It’s just an incredible achievement for all of us involved at the Reading Room.”
Ian Garner, Merseyside and Cheshire Regional Director of CAMRA said:
“This award for the Haydock Reading Room is absolutely deserved. Their reputation for good quality, local beers and a welcoming atmosphere, as well as providing live music and community events, has landed them with the claim of being one of the top four clubs in the whole of the UK.
“This accomplishment, along with the inclusion of the Turks Head pub in St Helens as one of the top 17 pubs in CAMRA’s Pub of the Year competition this year, is a great source of pride for all those on Merseyside. Congratulations to Steward Nigel Arnold and his team, whose commitment to cask beer was commended by the local branch two years ago, and to all the staff at the club!”
Notes to editors
Full list of the super-regional winners:
Haydock Reading Room - Merseyside and Cheshire
Kettering Midland Band Club – East Central
Marden Village Club – South East
Firs Club – West Midlands
For images, contact CAMRA's Press Office at: press@camra.org.uk
CAMRA campaigns to protect and promote clubs, as well as pubs, which are important community assets that promote the social wellbeing of their local area. The Club of the Year competition is run in conjunction with Club Mirror magazine and is the highest honour the campaigning organisation can award a social club.
All of the clubs in the competition are selected by CAMRA volunteers and judged on their atmosphere, decor, welcome, service, value for money, customer mix and most importantly – quality of beer.
