Colonial Grass Could Become a Bumper Crop Even with Salty Soil, and Stop Coastal Erosion

Move over corn and soy, a colonial crop known as 'salt hay' may be the future for farmers on America's mid-Atlantic coast. Rising sea levels and coastal erosion are threatening farmlands, but salt hay can thrive in saltier fields and even give lamb a unique salty flavor. As more land becomes inundated with salt, farmers are looking to revive this age-old crop that has multiple uses from fodder to mulch. With modern harvesting techniques, some farmers are working towards a renaissance of salt hay to combat economic losses and prevent soil erosion.

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Tony Hawk’s Legacy Goes Beyond Tricks — It’s Building Skateparks, Communities and Hope Worldwide

Tony Hawk might have stepped off the board competitively, but he’s still pushing the limits — this time, through philanthropy. Through his nonprofit, The Skatepark Project, Hawk has helped fund nearly 700 public skateparks across all 50 U.S. states. Since 2002, the organization has awarded $13 million in grants, making safe skating spaces available to an estimated 17 million people every year. But Hawk isn’t just building ramps and rails. He’s also trying to build leaders. “We’re not just helping to build skateparks. We’re also working to build community in entirely new ways,” Hawk said in a video for the nonprofit. Through fellowships and advocacy training, the organization equips young people with the tools to create their own skate spaces, especially in underserved communities. The idea is simple: skateparks are more than places to land tricks — they’re places where young people build confidence, community, and resilience. That spirit has extended far beyond the U.S. In recent years, The Skatepark Project has supported skateboarding initiatives in Afghanistan, Cambodia, and South Africa. Meanwhile, other grassroots skateboarding groups have taken root in regions affected by conflict, using the sport as a lifeline. In Gaza, where daily life is shaped by war and occupation, SkatePal is giving young Palestinians a place to learn, play, and breathe. The nonprofit has built four skateparks over the last 11 years, hosted summer camps, and created programs to bring more girls into the sport. “Skateboarding is not for a specific type of person,” said Malak, a volunteer in Ramallah, on the organization’s website. “Skateboarding is for everyone, no matter what religion, color, or place.” Lately, much of SkatePal’s focus has shifted toward basic survival. Amid ongoing violence, the group has redirected funds to help with essentials, while also supporting local skate groups like Gaza Skate Team and skateboarding.ps with gear and equipment. Despite the destruction, photos and videos on SkatePal’s social media show kids still skating — smiling, learning tricks, and finding moments of joy on crumbling pavement. “It’s a tool to escape everything,” said Mahmoud Kilani, founder of skateboarding.ps, in an interview with DAZED Magazine. “Because we don’t have freedom here. We are surrounded by walls. Sometimes we can’t go to the park because they say we can’t, so we take our boards and we go skate somewhere else. It’s just a break from the occupation.” Thousands of kilometers away in Mukono, Uganda, another DIY movement is gaining momentum. What began with a teenager’s dream has grown into the Uganda Skateboard Society, a youth-led effort to build skateparks and provide free lessons and gear to kids in low-income communities. “Skateboarding has existed… in Uganda, but no one was there to promote it and get companies or individuals to come on board to make the youth more interested,” co-founder Gerald Gose told Jenkem Magazine. “So we decided to make it the DIY way.” Gose, now the head coach of Uganda’s Olympic skateboarding team, said it’s about more than just tricks. When one young skater couldn’t afford school, the community stepped in and raised the money. The skatepark has also become a safe space where kids can pursue their passion and stay away from crime. “When I leave here, I hope to be able to look around and say we have done a good job and made a good foundation for the future,” Gose said. “I believe Ugandan skateboarders have the potential, and we have set goals for what we intend to achieve.” From California to Gaza to Uganda, skateboarding is proving it doesn’t just build balance — it builds communities. And for many young people, a skateboard isn’t just a toy. It’s a tool for freedom, belonging, and possibility.

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Woman Rescues Puffin Displaced By Storms

A puffin blown far off course by recent storms has been rescued from a beach in the south of England — hundreds of kilometres from its usual habitat. The seabird was spotted by Sonia Meachen, who was walking her dog Ernie on Gorleston beach near Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, when she noticed the small puffin struggling on the sand. “I just couldn’t believe it,” she said. “Her wings were out, but she couldn’t fly. She let me pick her up with my hat.” After carrying the bird to the car park, Meachen alerted passersby, including the owner of a nearby coffee van who contacted Marine and Wildlife Rescue. Volunteer Dan Goldsmith responded immediately and collected the bird. The puffin — later identified as male — is now being treated at the RSPCA’s East Winch centre near King’s Lynn. But the outlook is uncertain. “He is under veterinary supervision and we are doing all we can to save him,” said an RSPCA spokesperson. “But the puffin is extremely thin and very weak, so his prognosis at the moment is very guarded.” Goldsmith said it was the first time his rescue group had encountered a puffin. “A few have shown up across this region in the past, but unfortunately, they are normally deceased,” he said. “This bird was somewhat cold and exhausted as a result of being battered by the sea.” Puffins usually live in cold waters across the North Atlantic and are rarely seen along England’s southeastern coast. When they come to shore, it’s typically in the far north and west of the UK — particularly in places like Skomer Island in Wales, where they nest in cliff faces. There are an estimated 580,000 breeding pairs in the UK, according to the RSPB. Their diet consists mainly of small fish, including sand eels, and they rely on strong, cold-water currents to support feeding. Listed as a red-status bird in the UK, puffins are considered of high conservation concern due to declining numbers. Climate change, overfishing, and habitat loss have all been cited as contributing threats. Goldsmith said the rescued puffin would need time to build strength before it could be considered for release. “Most wild animals have challenges to overcome as part of their onward rehabilitation,” he said. “Hopefully if it builds its strength and has no lasting damage, it can make a full recovery.” For now, Meachen is just glad the puffin has a fighting chance. “I’m just so relieved he wasn’t left out there on his own,” she said.

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Harry Styles Launches 'Together, Together' Tour, While Supporting Global Nonprofits Around the World

Harry Styles is stepping back into the spotlight with new music, a new tour, and the same flair fans have come to expect. The pop icon announced last week that his fourth studio album, Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally, will drop on March 6. And on Monday morning, he revealed something even bigger: a global residency tour dubbed Together, Together, with 50 shows across seven cities from May through December. Styles will set up shop in Amsterdam, London, São Paulo, Mexico City, New York, Melbourne, and Sydney, performing multiple nights in each location. The New York stretch alone includes a whopping 30 performances at Madison Square Garden. Alongside the music, the tour will carry a strong philanthropic focus. According to concert promoter Live Nation, Styles is partnering with three nonprofits during the run: Choose Love, LIVE Trust, and HeadCount. Choose Love, a humanitarian aid group that provides food, shelter, and education to displaced people, has been a longtime cause for Styles. While the specific plans for this tour weren’t detailed, Live Nation said they will “continue that work” during Together, Together. In London, £1 from every ticket will go to LIVE Trust, an organization that supports grassroots music in the UK. And in New York, HeadCount will set up at Madison Square Garden to help concert-goers register to vote. Fans will be able to sign up on-site at a special pop-up station during the shows. Styles is also teaming up with Green Nation, Live Nation’s sustainability arm, to explore ways of reducing the tour’s environmental footprint.

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Scientists Are Using Earthquake Tech to Track Falling Space Junk in Real Time

In a new twist on an old tool, scientists have figured out how to track falling space debris using the same networks of sensors designed to detect earthquakes. The method could offer a crucial way to monitor growing numbers of uncontrolled reentries from space, as the global pace of rocket launches accelerates—and with it, the risk of debris slamming back to Earth. Most space junk burns up harmlessly in the atmosphere. But larger objects, like rocket boosters and space station modules, sometimes make it through. When space agencies don’t control those descents, they can land anywhere—posing threats to people, planes, and even the environment. Now researchers have found that sonic booms created by reentering debris can be picked up by seismic sensors already in place around the world. By analyzing the shockwaves these objects produce, scientists can reconstruct their speed, angle, and trajectory, and even estimate where they break apart in the atmosphere or crash on the ground. “This is a very useful extra tool in our toolbox,” said Jonathan McDowell, a spaceflight tracker at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, who was not involved in the study. Optical and radar systems help track objects before they enter the atmosphere, but both struggle once those objects begin breaking up. Sonic booms, on the other hand, “should work whether it’s day or night,” McDowell said. The idea emerged after a dramatic incident in April 2024, when a 1.5-ton module from China’s Shenzhou-15 mission reentered Earth’s atmosphere at supersonic speed. U.S. Space Command predicted the debris would land in the North Atlantic—but it ended up passing over six continents and likely burned up over southern California or crashed into the Pacific. That event caught the attention of Benjamin Fernando, a postdoctoral fellow at Johns Hopkins University. Working with Constantinos Charalambous at Imperial College London, Fernando sifted through public seismic data from California and found sonic booms from the reentry recorded at more than 120 monitoring stations. By mapping how the shockwaves arrived at each sensor, the researchers were able to calculate the module’s trajectory in detail. “We were able to work out its speed, descent, angle and trajectory—and also probe how it broke apart in the atmosphere,” Fernando said. If the method is automated and scaled, it could provide near real-time alerts within seconds of a reentry—exactly when accuracy matters most. “Once an object is burning and breaking up within the atmosphere, it actually becomes quite difficult to track,” Fernando said. “Which also makes it harder to understand its impacts on the atmosphere, the risk it poses to aviation and the threat it represents wherever it may hit the ground.” While sonic booms won’t offer enough advance warning for planes to change course, they could prove vital for locating where debris lands and understanding what happens when objects disintegrate. That data could help spacecraft engineers improve future designs so that more debris burns up safely before reaching the surface. Some debris isn’t just dangerous because of its mass—many pieces carry toxic rocket fuel or radioactive materials used in nuclear-powered space missions. Even near misses with air traffic have already occurred. A 2025 SpaceX test flight scattered debris across the Caribbean, forcing aircraft to divert. Fernando and Charalambous published their findings in Science, and they’re now exploring two options to expand the system. One involves upgrading analysis methods on the already-extensive seismic networks in places like the U.S. West Coast, where many reentries occur due to orbital patterns. The other is setting up low-cost seismic sensors in high-risk areas—such as Australia’s northeastern coast near the Great Barrier Reef, where Chinese rocket stages often fall. Installing seismometers there, Fernando argues, would be cheaper than building radar stations and could offer better ground-truth data. “This could work almost for free once you know how to do the analysis,” McDowell said. But the real question is whether global space agencies and policymakers are ready to take action. “For 60 years, we’ve been letting things reenter uncontrolled,” McDowell said. “We’ve just been hoping that it doesn’t hit anyone on the head or cause other harm. But eventually we’re going to run out of luck.” Fernando agrees. “It’s only going to get worse,” he said. “I fear space debris isn’t going to get the attention it deserves until something truly catastrophic occurs—and I’d guess the probability of that happening is 100 percent.”

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Strange Metal From Beyond Our Planet Was Just Found In an Ancient Treasure Stash

Two rusty, unassuming objects long overshadowed by gold may turn out to be the real prize in one of Europe’s most significant Bronze Age hoards. A new study led by Salvador Rovira-Llorens, former head of conservation at Spain’s National Archaeological Museum, suggests that a bracelet and a small, hollow cap from the Treasure of Villena were forged not from earthly metal, but from iron that fell from the sky. That is, they were made from meteorites. The Treasure of Villena was discovered in 1963 near Alicante, in southeastern Spain. It contains 66 objects—most of them dazzling gold items—dating back more than 3,000 years. It’s been hailed as one of the most important prehistoric finds in Europe, especially for what it revealed about Iberian craftsmanship during the Late Bronze Age. But for decades, two pieces in the hoard stood out for entirely different reasons: they didn’t look like the others. One was a dull, torc-like bracelet. The other, a corroded, hollow hemisphere, was possibly part of a scepter or sword hilt. Both appeared to be made of iron, despite the fact that ironworking in Iberia didn’t begin until around 850 BCE. The rest of the Villena treasure dates to between 1500 and 1200 BCE—centuries before the start of the Iron Age in the region. That discrepancy raised a long-standing puzzle: what were two iron-looking objects doing in a Bronze Age collection? The answer, it turns out, may lie in space. While widespread smelting of terrestrial iron hadn’t yet taken hold, Bronze Age artisans in several parts of the world are known to have worked with meteoritic iron—metal from space rocks that survived their fiery plunge through Earth’s atmosphere. One of the most famous examples is the dagger buried with Pharaoh Tutankhamun, forged from meteoritic iron more than 3,000 years ago. These rare objects weren’t just functional. They were revered. “Bronze Age societies often treated meteoritic iron as a luxury material,” Rovira-Llorens and his team note in their study. “Its origin from the heavens may have given it ritual or symbolic value.” To test whether the bracelet and cap from Villena were made the same way, researchers obtained small samples and analyzed their composition using mass spectrometry. Corrosion made it tricky—the artifacts are heavily degraded after thousands of years—but the analysis still revealed an unusually high nickel content. That’s the key marker: meteoritic iron tends to have far more nickel than iron found in Earth’s crust. The results, published in the journal Trabajos de Prehistoria, strongly suggest both objects were made from space iron, placing them among the earliest such examples ever found in the Iberian Peninsula. The researchers dated them to between 1400 and 1200 BCE, aligning with the rest of the Villena hoard and helping to resolve the mystery of their presence. “The available data suggest that the cap and bracelet from the Treasure of Villena would currently be the first two pieces attributable to meteoritic iron in the Iberian Peninsula,” the authors write, “which is compatible with a Late Bronze chronology, prior to the beginning of the widespread production of terrestrial iron.” The team cautions that the findings aren’t definitive. More advanced, non-invasive imaging techniques—such as neutron diffraction or synchrotron-based analysis—could help confirm the origin without damaging the already fragile pieces. They’re hopeful that future testing will allow for more precise confirmation. In the meantime, the discovery adds a cosmic twist to the story of Iberian metalworking. Not only were Bronze Age artisans capable of crafting intricate goldwork, but they may also have been skilled enough to forge objects from rare and difficult meteorite material—centuries before iron tools became common. And while the gold in the Treasure of Villena may still catch the eye, it's the two rusted pieces—once dismissed as out of place—that may hold the richest clues about a time when even the stars were part of human craftsmanship.

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This Photographer Just Captured a Stunning Image Of a Rare Black Leopard Giza From Kenya

British wildlife photographer Andy Rouse has achieved what he calls a long-standing dream: capturing images of one of Africa’s rarest big cats — a wild black leopard named Giza. The photos, taken at Kenya’s Laikipia Wildlife Conservancy, show Giza alongside her two cubs, who, unlike their mother, have the more familiar golden coats with black rosettes. Giza’s unique coloring, caused by a genetic condition called melanism, gives her a deep black and brown coat — with her spots still faintly visible when viewed up close. “It’s been an ambition of mine for several years to photograph her,” Rouse said. “She took my breath away the first time I saw her, probably the most beautiful cat I have ever seen, and I have seen a lot.” Black leopards — often called black panthers — are extremely rare in the wild, especially in Africa. Melanism results from an excess of black pigment in the skin and fur. While jaguars and leopards can both carry the gene, geography is usually the clearest way to distinguish them. Jaguars are found in Latin America, while leopards live across Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and parts of Russia. Giza is one of only a handful of confirmed black leopards ever documented in Africa, according to SWNS. Her fame has grown among wildlife watchers and conservationists alike, not just for her rare appearance but for her boldness and the maternal care she shows her cubs. “She has two normal colored cubs, both 12 months old and doing so well,” Rouse said. “She’s an incredible hunter and teacher. Everything a great mother should be.” Rouse, who has been recognized nine times in the Wildlife Photographer of the Year Awards, said the encounter was part of a larger project focused on leopards. He’s also the founder of The WildBunch Club and leads wildlife tours around the globe. “Spending time with her is just magical,” he said. “She’s very famous as she’s so bold and beautiful.” Black leopards are elusive by nature, and sightings in the wild are exceedingly rare — even more so when it comes to photographing them in daylight. Rouse’s images, which show Giza perched on rocks and blending into the African terrain, offer a rare glimpse into the life of a truly extraordinary animal. “She’s got such a unique personality,” Rouse said. “This was an experience I’ll never forget.”

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15-Year-Old Becomes Youngest Australian Snow Sport Medalist — and a Genuine Olympic Threat

When the clock struck midnight on New Year’s Eve in Calgary, 15-year-old Indra Brown had more on her mind than just fireworks. She was practicing how to pop champagne bottles — with her parents’ help, of course. “I got some practice over New Year's helping the parents pop from some bottles,” she said, laughing. “Which was pretty fun.” That practice came in handy just weeks earlier, when Brown stood on her first-ever World Cup podium after winning bronze in the Olympic halfpipe event at Secret Garden, China. At 15 years and 10 months old, she became the youngest Australian snow sport athlete to ever win a World Cup medal. Brown was joined on the podium by two of the sport’s biggest names: Olympic champion Eileen Gu and world champion Zoe Atkin. It was heady company — and surreal for a teenager competing in her World Cup debut. When it came time to pop the celebratory champagne, Brown hesitated. Gu stepped in to help, creating one of the most quietly charming moments of the freeski season. "Just to stand there with an idol that I've looked up to for so long… that big-sister moment with her helping me out with the champagne, that made it even better," Brown said. Brown’s debut season has been extraordinary. After that bronze in China, she followed it up with silver at Copper Mountain in Colorado, then struck gold in her third event — on home snow in Calgary. That made her just the second skier in history to medal in each of her first three World Cup events, equalling a record set by Sweden’s Jennie-Lee Burmansson. And now, with just five World Cup events under her belt, she’s heading to Milan as part of Australia’s second-largest Winter Olympic team ever. She’ll be the youngest Australian Winter Olympian since Scotty James and Britteny Cox, who also debuted at 15. Born in Melbourne, Brown first learned to ski on family trips to Mount Hotham. But it was five years living in Calgary that refined her freestyle abilities. “I think I just loved the thrill of it,” she said. “The fun aspect was a huge part of [pursuing freestyle skiing] and the creativity… there’s no right or wrong.” Despite her age, Brown hasn’t looked out of place competing alongside seasoned Olympians. “I think I just wanted to go in and land a run,” she said of her World Cup debut. “To get the result I got just made it even more incredible. It definitely gave me lots of confidence just to know that I do belong here.” She’s been traveling the circuit this season with her mum, Anne, and younger brother. Her father, Grant, remained in Melbourne with her two other siblings — though he made the trip to North America over Christmas and will be in Italy for the Games. "For us it's just wonderful," Grant said. "The happiness that the sport gives Indra. So long as she's still performing and genuinely enjoying it, and it’s her choice to do this… it’s a pretty special thing to be able to give a kid an opportunity to dare to dream.” He’s also been comforted by the support and camaraderie of the international tour. “That sense of community is a really, really important thing,” he said. “They genuinely enjoy seeing each other, hanging out, as well as being able to ski together. That’s been really reassuring for us as parents.” Brown’s community includes other young Australian stars like snowboarder Valentino Guseli, who made his Olympic debut at 16 and has since made history with World Cup medals across all three park and pipe disciplines. Guseli narrowly missed competing in all three events at Milan due to injury — a feat Brown hopes to attempt in 2030. For now, she’s focused on soaking in the experience. “It’s such a special, once-in-a-lifetime thing,” she said. “Just taking it in, not putting any pressure on myself, just having fun, enjoying the moment.” Even though she speaks with a slight Canadian twang, Brown insists her national allegiance was never in question. "I'm full Aussie," she said — a claim backed up by her two essential travel companions: Weetbix and Up and Go. And she’s not just a cute story. With a World Cup gold already to her name, Brown heads to Milan as a legitimate medal contender. “It’s a dream come true to be able to represent Australia at the Olympics,” she said. “To have this opportunity at my age and to be getting these experiences, it’s just incredible. I’m so excited to get to Milan.”

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In a Quiet Hong Kong Village, Murals of Migratory Birds are Turning Forgotten Walls into Art

In Wang Tong Village, nestled on Hong Kong’s Lantau Island, birds cling to crumbling stucco, rooftops, and moss-covered walls — not in flocks, but in paint. They’re part of the Flock Project, a growing series of bird murals created to celebrate Hong Kong’s migratory species and inject new life into the island’s abandoned architecture. The effort was started by Dominic Johnson-Hill, a longtime resident of the island, after a conversation with his ornithologist neighbor about the Amur falcon — a bird that travels thousands of kilometers from Manchuria to South Africa, stopping briefly in Lantau along the way. “I just assumed these birds lived on the island,” Johnson-Hill said. “But they’re not. They’re passing guests.” That idea — of transience, of migration, of presence and absence — sparked a creative vision. He imagined a red-billed blue magpie painted across the wall of an empty house next to his own. “They just seemed to belong there,” he said. To make the vision real, Johnson-Hill enlisted British muralist Rob Aspire, also known as “The Birdman,” whose lifelike bird paintings are known for their precision and emotion. The first mural led to another, and then seven more, each hand-picked to match the surroundings or carry an environmental message. A kingfisher, for example, was painted near a stream where fishing is now banned. A Swinhoe’s white-eye blends into village walls where its distinctive song still echoes through nearby trees. High on Sunset Peak, nearly 900 meters above sea level, a long-tailed shrike perches atop a 90-year-old stone rooftop, overlooking the mountains like it has always been there. Most of the birds live — or once lived — in Hong Kong. Some still migrate through. All of them were painted on abandoned homes except the shrike, which claims its perch on one of the highest surviving village houses in the region. The murals have turned Wang Tong into a quiet weekend destination. Visitors from the city’s high-rises hike through village trails and winding alleys to find them, sometimes chalking arrows to help others follow. It’s become part nature walk, part scavenger hunt. For Johnson-Hill, the impact is about more than aesthetics. “Sometimes noticing beauty is the first step toward wanting to protect it,” he said. He’s created an online map to help guide visitors and is already planning future installations. What comes next, he says, depends on what opportunities appear — a bird worth painting, a forgotten home worth reviving. Birds migrate. So do people. Villages empty out, but the walls remain — now with a painted bird, or the memory of one.

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Elephants Cool Down With a Spa Day as Melbourne Temperatures Set to Soar

Elephants were treated to the “ultimate” spa day at a zoo just outside Melbourne, as the area braced for “extreme heatwave conditions” to hit on Saturday, January 24. Stunning drone video shows a 4,526 kilogram (4.5 ton) elephant named Luk Chai splashing in the mud, while another video shows a three-year-old-calf named Aiyara playing and splashing with her grandmother Mek Kapah. The elephants are part of a nine-member herd at Werribee Open Range Zoo. “Ahead of the nearly 40 degree (104 Fahrenheit) day tomorrow, the elephants at Werribee Open Range Zoo are cooling down with the ultimate spa day - mud masks, pool-time and dust bathing,” Zoos Victoria said in a press release.

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Historic Pub Celebrates Record Third Win As Uk's Best

A Staffordshire pub has pulled off a feat no other has achieved: winning the title of the UK’s best pub for the third time. The Tamworth Tap has once again been crowned National Pub of the Year by the Campaign for Real Ale (Camra), marking a historic hat trick for the Tudor-era venue. It’s the first time any pub has earned the top prize three times since the competition began in 1988. For owners George and Louise Greenaway, the third win was "beyond our wildest dreams." “We don't just pour pints at the Tap,” they said, “we strive to give a true sense of community and give our beloved Tappers a place they like to call home, with the warmest welcome, great atmosphere and beautiful surroundings.” Located in the heart of Tamworth, the Tap sits beneath the shadow of the town’s Norman castle. The pub is known as much for its character as its cask ales, with a 16th-century shop front and historic courtyard that draws in both locals and visitors. Inside, the stairs have been turned into a staircase of Good Beer Guides, a nod to the pub’s proud place in the UK’s beer scene. Camra praised the venue for its "huge range of daily events", which include everything from painting nights and craft clubs to faith groups and tasting sessions. George and Louise opened the Tap in modest fashion: a pop-up in a shop window, with a makeshift counter and just two barrels of beer. It’s now also home to the Tamworth Brewing Co., and offers a broad range of cask beers from across the UK, along with ciders, gins, wines and bottled beers. “When we won the first time,” said the Greenaways, “we believed we'd reached the pinnacle of our achievements.” But they didn’t stop there. The Tap took the title in both 2022 and 2023, and beat out thousands of pubs to claim it again for 2025. Each year, Camra’s top award goes to the pub that best exemplifies what a good local should be. Judges consider everything from atmosphere, décor, and welcome, to inclusivity, service and the quality of cask beer, real cider and perry. Andrea Briers, who oversees the annual competition for Camra, said: “What can you possibly say about this fantastic pub that hasn't been said already?” This year’s finalists were no slouches either. The Blackfriars Tavern in Great Yarmouth, a Victorian pub and Camra’s National Cider and Perry Pub of the Year, made the shortlist. So did Gloucester’s Pelican Inn, a Grade-II listed venue that’s been operating since 1679, and Volunteer Arms (Staggs) in Musselburgh, which has been in the same family since 1858 and won Camra’s overall top prize back in 1998. But it was the Tamworth Tap, once again, that stood above them all.

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