Oxford City host the Brakes

 

Featuring a couple of pubs in Marston and a second visit this season to Oxford City's MGroup Stadium.

Amongst very intermitent posts of late, non-league football seems to be featuring quite a bit.  All being well I'll be rocking up at a couple of third division German matches in the near future, putting Prop Up the Bar in danger of becoming a lower league football blog.  One that spends a fair bit of time in the pub and never mentions the Premiership or Ange Postecoglou.

My autumnal Satuday started in Marston old village at the closest pub to Oxford City's ground... 

The Red Lion (42 Oxford Rd, Oxford OX3 0PH)
Dating back to the 1800's, this is a village pub within the Oxford ring-road.
When I first visited it consisted two seperate rooms served by the one bar, but a makeover has opened this up into one space.  It's a little smarter and dining-room-like to the right of the front door, whilst the other direction sees high tables and blokes propping up the bar.  

Four cask ales on offer: Abbot, Tribute, 6X, and a Greene King/Belhaven seasonal special.

It's Halloween - the 'Caution Dead Keep Out' tape is wrapped around the pillar - so I picked the Belhaven 'Haunted Highlander' which turned out to be a surprisingly quoffable mild red ale.

I tucked myself into the corner bench by the fireplace.  A group of away supporters met up at the bar and compared journeys here via different means.  One of them pointed out that Truro Town were up in Gateshead on the same day - the longest trip in the football leagues - a fair bit further than the 50-miles from the south of Warwickshire.
That said, never underestimate the challenges of travelling two stops on Cross Country trains.

Finishing my pint, I made the ten-minute stroll through the pleasant streets of Marston Village, the smell of wood smoke in the air, the sun shining on the wedding party emerging from St Nicholas' Church.

Up at the ground, a lederhosen-clad oompah band greeted punters through the turnstiles (all 702 of 'em) with a bit of George Michael's 'Faith', which I don't think counts as traditional German beer fest music.  

Next to them were two very friendly and enthusiastic ladies staffing the mini beer festival where you could ply yourself with Greene King wares in plastic glasses.

I procurred a £5.00 pint of the 'Genieve' West Coast IPA, a collab with Thornbridge which was a fairly decent drop to sip on the barriers as I waited for kick-off.

Today's visitors are in their second season in the National League North having yo-yo'ed between divisions a bit in the past few years.
They date back to 1933 when they were formed as the works team for Lockheed Borg & Beck, their nickname 'The Brakes' coming from the equipment made in the now defunct automobile factory.

Leamington's support may not have been huge in numbers, but they gathered on the seats in the corner of the groud by the goal they were attacking in the first half, banged a drum, and made a fair bit of noise.

Morning rain showers disappeared and the game was played under brilliant autumnal blue skies.  Both teams were on a run of bad form, with Oxford coming closer to breaking the deadlock in the first half.  So everything was looking good for them when the ref produced a red card on the stroke of half time and reduced the Brakes to 10-men.

10-stubborn men...it took right until the latter stages of the second half for Captain Josh Ashby to finally find the back of the net for City.  Only for Ant Lynn to head in a Leamington equaliser in time added on.

I ambled out the ground, politely turning down the frantic attempts of the young lady at the beer fest bar to sell me an 'Old Session Hen'.  I suspect there was a fair bit still left in those barrels.
A 15-minute walk back toward the city centre took me to one of the cities pubs that I haven't visited in ages...

The Up In Arms (241 Marston Rd, Headington, Oxford OX3 0EN)
This was previously a 1930s pub called The Somerset that closed in 2009 and spent several years as a Chinese restaurant.  It looked lost as a pub forever, despite some sturdy local campaigning.  Then in came Dodo to give it a modern makeover and offer up pizza and Arkells ales.

You also get a bit of old Halls Brewery livery on the exterior...

...dogs providing a trip hazzard on the way to the gents...

...cask ale in the form of Arkell's 'Belt Driver IPA' or the local 'Hooky'.

But what you've really come for is the "seriously gushing taps"!

Dodo don't really go in for the traditional pub look, but every time I've visited there has been a decent number of varied customers in.  And whatever I may think of the alarmingly big billboard promoting Burger & Chips above the bar...at least it re-emerged as a pub and wasn't lost forever.
And the Arkell's was a decent enough pint, soundtracked by a bit of Happy Monday and Stereo MCs.

This wasn't about to become an epic tour of Oxford pubs post football.  The fact that I'd quaffed three pints of festival beers throughout the match when I'd usually be having a break from the ale put paid to that.
Instead I was heading home at an early hour, stopping at Lidl's to buy pretzl's for Mrs PropUptheBar to accompany her German bottled beer.

With a quick stop at the Cowley Spooons...

For a late sighting of one of the more unusual options on the recent Wetherspoon's beer festival list.

Yuck!  I probably should have just gone straight home.

Pubs & Beer & 3-points for Oxford City

Oxford, August 2025
Becoming a little disillusioned by football's elite clubs (by which I mean Forest and Oxford United, of course) I set off on a Saturday lunchtime to watch Oxford's second team in action.
With a couple of pints in Headington beforehand and a couple of pints in the centre afterward, here's how the day panned out.

First point of call was the city's sole micro pub, the Tile Shop Alehouse, situated in a row of shops alongside barbers, printing press, charity shop and pizzaria.

The Tileshop Alehouse (10 Windmill Road, Headington, OX3 7BX)
We chatted to one of the owners when this first opened, who told us they'd sourced beers initially from Tring but would be expanding the choice in the future.  That never materialised, so the Tile Shop is still your Oxford go-to for the Hertforshire beer and not a lot else...

To be fair, the 'Ridgeway' was on decent form: a robust malty best bitter, poured straight from the barrel into your choice of handled or straight glass.  The cask coolers were just about doing their job in the unpredictable August weather, although I'd be wary on a day the thermometre tips past 30°.

The colourful tiled section in the picture of my pint is a memento of the former guise of these premises.  There were just half-a-dozen in on a Saturday lunchtime, 'Side Pocket for a Toad' and Franz Ferdinand's debut played in full not drawing in the masses.

A short stroll around the corner took me to the Royal Standard, a Greene King inn that I figured was worth popping my head into for a bit of footy on TV and to see what beers they had on.

Royal Standard (78 London Road, Headington, OX3 9AA)
Ah, not a lot..

"Coming soon" your house beer or 'IPA'.  Bet you can't wait.
Lilleys cider fans were well catered for with a dozen or so varieties boxed in the fridge.
I opted for the GK 'Level Head' on keg, a citrussy refreshing IPA which isn't a bad option in the summer months but always seems to be fiendishly expensive.  £6.10 in this case. 💸😲

I'd have done better with another sub-£5 pint in the micro, but then I wouldn't have gotten to watch the second half of the Villa-Newcastle match.
Here's Oxford's Villa contingent, claret and blue flag draped over another chair out of shot, just about to shout at the Magpie's keeper for breaking the 8-second rule.

The Royal Standard used to be one of Oxford's less appealing pubs but has benefitted vastly from a refurb a couple of years ago.  Okay, there's a lot of grey paint and dubious wallpaper, but some decent comfy seating, pool table, and small enclosed patio to the rear.

Villa's opening game of the season wasn't a thrilling affair and Newcastle playing in green was an oddity.  As it rumbled on to a 0-0 conclusion I drank up and walked into Old Headington village.
Time for a quick beer in the White Hart?

The White Hart (12 St Andrews Road, Headington, OX3 9DL)
This historic inn opposite the Parish church is somewhere I don't tend to get to very often, other than the annual trek to its wonderful back garden in May for their beer festival.
It's a three-roomed trad pub, with the most of the chatter eminating from the front bar where the locals congregate.

An Everard's pub, the ale choice was 'Tiger', 'Old Original' or a seasonal strong blonde called 'Predator'.  The staff member declared the 'Predator' to be at the end of the barrel and not servable - fair play for not trying to palm it off on me.  Except the 'Old Original' had a bit of an odd tang to it that I only noticed half-way through, so a bad day for the cask ale on this occasion.

And did I really need a hasty 5.2% ruby ale with kick-off 45 minutes away?  No, probably not.
At least it's all downhill from Headington to the MGroup Stadium, previosuly the RAW Charging stadium, probably best referred to as Court Farm.
Straight through the turnstiles, I poked my head in the club bar where I sensibly decided not to join the polite queue for keg fizz in plastic pots.

So what do I need to report on from this tie against National League North newcomers Macclesfield Town?
You'll be wanting to see the balloon arch creating jealousy for those without wristbands to get them to the VIP portacabin...

And you'll be wanting to see Wayne's brother John Rooney managing Macc...

But most important of all is that quick check of the cistern in the gents to assess the quality of stickers the away support have brought with them...

There were a decent amount of folks who'd made the trip down from Cheshire to cheer on the Silkmen. 

But to no avail, as Oxford came out 2-1 winners.
They did let a second half Macclesfield goal in to increase the jeopardy towards the end, but never really looked too threatened as Macc hit the reset button after Robbie Savage took his favourite players with him to Forest Green.

Exiting after the full time whistle was blown, I caught an X3 bus to the centre of Oxford and made my way to the nano-bar in the Covered Market where a couple of familiar local charaters were drinking.

Teardrop (Unit 21, Covered Market, Oxford, OX1 3DU)
Teardrop opened in 2019 and has been in the Good Beer Guide for the past couple of years.  Named after the shape of the dinky caravan bar which they used to transport to outdoor events, Teardrop is linked to west Oxfordshire's Church Hanbrewery. 
They offered a run of kegs covering a wide range of styles plus one cask - on this occasion their 'Ale X', a 4.5% IPA - murky, flavoursome, in good condition, and an ideal post-football beer.

Drinking up, we moved on to Broad Street and a visit to the White Horse...

White Horse (52 Broad Street, Oxford, OX1 3BB)
Somewhere that often slips off my radar being as it's small and perpetually busy.
However, the reclaim of a portion of Broad Street for flower boxes, bench seating, and various food and craft stalls has made securing a seat inside the White Horse much easier.
And look what I would have missed!...

Yep, Bass availability faltered a bit in Oxford, so great to find it on good form.  The Kirkstall got the thumbs-up from the members of our group who had it, whilst local Loose Cannon and London's Gypsy Hill completed a line-up that was one stout away from being exceptional.

Bass satisfaction complete, we moved on to the Lamb & Flag, now almost constantly busy, an impressive revivial since spending a few years closed.
I turned to the lip-puckering sour side there with a Holy Goat 'Bramble Smasher'.

Then we ended up in The Bear on pricey Gales 'HSB'.
A visit to the Bear did give me the chance for a first look at the extension that this old pub has made into the neighbouring one-time tanning salon.
It's very micro-pubby, isn't it?

That extension has provided some very posh new WCs though and will possibly be a draw on colder nights.  On this Saturday evening the crowds were squeezed onto the outdoor tables, leaving the original rooms inside, complete with collection of ties, remarkably quiet.
But really! Why would you sit outside or in a modern room converted from a shop when you can grab a table in a pub room like this...

Time to call it a night.
A day that had taken in a couple of Oxford suburban drinking spots, Oxford City's first three-points of the season, and visits to a couple of the centre's most historic inns.
I must have enjoyed myself, as I started hatching plans to return to the MGroup stadium and to make it to an away fixture soon.

The Bell at Upper Heyford

We spent a sunny April afternoon in North Oxfordshire, ambling alongside the canal and across fields and visiting three village inns.
Various recent woes have limited excursions to pubs in the past five months, plus we're now in charge of this fella..

Or he's in charge of us...I haven't quite worked out the dynamics yet.

Making the most of the Spring sunshine, we decided to expand his pub experiences beyond the dog-friendly establishments of East Oxford, whilst I could tick one of the 3 Good Beer Guide Oxfordshire entries that I still haven't got around to visiting.

Here's the planned route...

The Great Western slow train to Banbury took us the 10-minutes from Oxford's dreary station to the rather more picturesque surrounds of Heyford station.

We followed the canal path northbound for twenty minutes, the view across the water of Manor Farm tithe barn and St Mary's church spire signaling we'd made it to Upper Heyford. The signage by the bridge confirmed we were heading the right way. 

"Wet pub only, no food, beer garden, children + dogs welcome" - that'll do.
The Barley Mow is a short uphill walk through the village, located on the main road between the old bit of Heyford and the airbase.  Despite being constructed of old grey stone, it's not what you'd call a picture postcard pub.

The Barley Mow (Somerton Road, Upper Heyford, OX25 5LB)
This place had a recent refurbishment in 2024 when Admiral Taverns acquired it from Fullers.
So what interesting beers has that change of ownership brought? Hmmm, London Pride. 
And Marston's 'Wainwright' plus a third handpump which usually dispenses Tim Taylor 'Boltmaker'.  A pint of Wainwright for me which was hovering around the NBSS 3 mark - quite passable but probably not enough being poured to rise it higher than this.

Sometimes I fail miserably to find an opportunity to snap a picture of the pub interior. 
This was one of them...

We took our drinks outside to the pleasant beer garden, where most of the Saturday afternoon custom had gravitated.  Not many of them mind - the canal folk seem to want feeding and appear to be waiting for The Barley Mow's kitchen to kick back into life.
No mild smut in the WCs where the decoration will please wildlife stamp collectors...

Suitably rested and refreshed, we moved on, walking back through the village, across the canal and River Cherwell.  The path took us over rolling fields before depositing us a mile-or-so later at one end of the spread-out streets of Steeple Aston, where the blossom in the churchyard was looking good.

Steeple Aston is home to some 950 folks and used to have two pubs until the White Lion closed in 2012. That leaves us with the Red Lion.
Which is tricky to capture on camera due to being tucked away, the entrance and metalwork red lion above the door down that path between the buildings.

The Red Lion (South Side, Steeple Aston, OX25 4RY)
Once called The Chequers but renamed the Red Lion in 1830, this has been a pub since 1765 and a Hook Norton house for the past 20 years.
Step inside and there's a smartly furnished snug to the right and the main bar to the left.  A handful of customers had situated themselves in front of the TV in the rear extension ready for the Grand National, a few others on tables on the terrace; no-one in the bar, where the log fire kept burning despite the hint of summer outside.

Three hand pumps dispense Hook Norton beers which have travelled the 12-miles south to be here.

An 'Off the Hook' IPA for me...lovely pint, impressive branded glassware...

We were watching the time a bit due to trains back to Oxford from Heyford only running every couple of hours.  So we skipped the footpath option and stuck to the path that runs adjacent to the road back down to the canal and railway.  Leaving ourselves ample time to call into Lower Heyford's pub, last seen in the Beer Guide in 2021.

The Bell (21 Market Square, Lower Heyford, OX25 5NY)
This is a Grade II listed village pub, built sometime around the turn of the 18th century, previously part of Oxford brewery Halls' estate.

Outside is parked the kind of car that us Oxfordshire folk always rock up to the pub in...

Inside, it's sadly quiet at quarter-to-five on a Saturday afternoon, just a couple of people outside and a group of friendly locals in front of the bar.

Something was amiss in The Bell.  Several of the keg lines had glasses hung over them indicating they were off, whilst all the hand pumps had nothing on them and a blank space on the blackboard advertising "cask coming soon".  I asked the chap behind the bar if they usually had real ale and was told that the management were pulling out and running down stock.
So I had one of these...

The solitary staff member later mentioned he was rationing the remaining blue paper towel and that the wifi had been turned off.
All a bit sad - a perfectly pleasant village pub which I hope enjoys a revival and picks up the custom from the villagers and canal folk.

We finished the day with a visit to The Grapes on George Street for some fine beer and footy on the TV, then strolled down the High Street and across Magdalen Bridge to the revitalised Oranges and Lemons in St Clements...

Oranges and Lemons (30 St Clement's St, Oxford OX4 1AB)
This pub did make an appearance on the blog in June last year when it was still called the Angel and Greyhound and was looking rather too quiet on a Friday evening.
Since then Youngs have left the building and it's now in the hands of the Morgan Pub Company and being run by the same folks as The Grapes.
It reopened after a refurb in Feb this year and appears to have been doing a great trade since then.

There was a great beer selection over the six pump clips in action on this visit, including regular Harvey's 'Sussex Best' and beers from Tiny Rebel, Windsor & Eton, Liquid Light, Brew York and Green Duck.
A lovely pint of the Nottingham-brewed Liquid Light 'Winter Song' session IPA to start with, then we lost track of time a bit with more cask and concoctions from Yonder and Vault City on keg.
Overall, a pub that's now an essential stop for beer aficionados on a visit to Oxford.

Next up: I'm branching out of Oxford for visits to Birmingham and Oswestry.  Goodnight!