York CAMRA hopes for more Sam Smith’s pubs to re-open

The campaign group of beer lovers is also hopeful that son Sam Smith taking over the Tadcaster-based brewery from father Humphrey Smith will open relations between both sides.

In recent weeks, preparations have been made to re-open several Sam Smith’s pubs in the area.

The Tankard Inn at Rufforth is due to re-open later this month, as is the Wellington Inn on Alma Terrace, Fishergate.

This follows the re-opening of the Ebor Inn at Bishopthorpe in May.

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Nick Love, pub protection officer for York CAMRA, says he has no inside knowledge of goings on at the brewery and he can only judge matters on how better the brewery’s London pubs are doing, which for several years have been run by  son Sam instead of dad Humphrey.

Nick said: “There are definite indications that there has been a significant increase in activity regarding re-opening their closed pubs and also widespread optimism that some of the outdated rules imposed by Humphrey will be relaxed under the tenure of his son Samuel Smith – evidenced by the removal of rules signs in The Royal Oak in Tadcaster recently.”

At present around half of the 300 or so pubs Sam Smith’s Brewery owns are said to be empty, according to a list compiled by Malton man Tom Taverner.

Humphrey Smith, who died last week aged 81. (Image: SWNS)

Social media groups that report matters concerning Sam Smith’s brewery have noted that the brewery is disposing of empty pubs.

Recently, the Corporation Brewery Tap in Doncaster was sold at auction.

The Old Brown Cow pub in Bradford was also recently sold.

Nick Love continued: “Because of the way Samuel Smiths does its business out of the public eye I don’t think we’ll get much transparency on how many pubs they choose to dispose of.

“All we would hope and urge them to do is make sure that any pubs they deem surplus to their estate are then offered to local independent breweries and operators rather than large pub companies and God forbid – property developers.”

In the meantime, York CAMRA is keen to develop better relations with the brewery, putting them on the same footing as other breweries in its area.

Branches of CAMRA typically have a brewery liaison officer that works with the brewery to inform each other of their activities and new products to look out for.

York’s brewery liaison officer Steve Gorton says the branch has received ‘no response’ from Sam Smith’s brewery.

Steve said he wondered if that would change now, adding he might now contact the brewery to find out.

He added: “CAMRA has good relations with the other brewers. We would hope to build a good working relationship with Sam Smith’s Brewery.”