IT’S either a labour of love, or nice work if you can get it.

Matthew Bullock has spent the past six months visiting 320 pubs across Oxfordshire – and having a drink in each – to compile a new encyclopaedic pub guide.

The 40-year-old architect is the editor of the Oxford Campaign for Real Ale’s new guide to pubs and bars in Oxford, Witney, Abingdon, Carterton, Kidlington, Eynsham, and dozens of other villages.

And to take on the mammoth task, he vowed to visit every pub in the area covered by the Camra branch, in what he described as “the pub crawl to end all pub crawls”.

Although 30 Camra volunteers sent back reports from the pubs, Mr Bullock took his job as editor so seriously that he vowed to visit all the pubs in his spare time, stretching from Kelmscott in the west to Cuddesdon in the east.

The Charlbury resident said: “I needed to know what I was writing about.

“I went out two, three or four times a week, and had big days on Saturday or Sunday when I could go on longer crawls.

“Sometimes I would just visit one or two pubs. The most I managed in a day was 15.

“I always tried the real ale if they had it; sometimes a pint, sometimes a half.

“I must confess that once or twice, if there was nothing worth drinking, I had a cola.

“It was quite some pub crawl, but one I was very lucky to do.”

Mr Bullock, who said he managed to get away with completing the task because he is single, estimates the six-month project cost him £1,000 in bar bills, plus added expenses in travelling repeatedly across the county.

He said: “I do not think I’ll be repeating it in the near future, but there are a lot of places which I found and would like to go back to.”

“I found five out of six pubs now serve real ale, which is more than I expected, and shows real ale is getting more popular.

“Some of the pubs are treading on a cliff-edge unfortunately, but in terms of beer, Oxfordshire is still a fantastic place because there are so many good pubs.”

The new 112-page guide includes opening times, food service times and a description of every pub or bar in the area.

It also lists which real ales and real ciders are available. It will be published in mid-October, and will be on sale at the Oxford Beer Festival, from Thursday, October 27 to Saturday, October 29.