In July 1975 Bass planned to withdraw Wolverhampton brewed Springfield Bitter from the Stafford area. Committee members of CAMRA Stafford and Stone Branch met Bass representatives who then reversed their decision. The 1036 o.g. Springfield Bitter remained in local pubs for a further sixteen years, but the Springfield Brewery was finally closed by Bass in 1991.
Also in July, a Stafford and Stone Branch social was held at the Unicorn, Stafford, which stocked 'the only Draught Bass in the town". The Lammascote Road pub closed the following January to make way for the Queensway ring road, with licensees Brian and Pauline Deakin moving on to the Sun in nearby Lichfield Road. Draught Bass was then "a well-hopped distinctive beer", but with Bass's closure of the. Burton Union system in 1982 it soon became "a shadow of its former self".

The July 1980 edition of "Pints of View", the local CAMRA newsletter, reported that Bass were selling the Stafford Arms, together with two adjoining cottages, for £45,000. The Railway Street pub remained licensed, but no-one then could have predicted that it was to become one of Stafford's leading pubs throughout the 1990s, winning the CAMRA Stafford and Stone Branch Pub of the Year award twice.
The Branch Pub of the Month for July 1980 was the Railway, Penkridge, then "one of our new Aston Ale outlets". The 1042 o.g. Aston Ale had been launched following the success of Burton Ale, but it only survived until 1981, when Ansell's Aston brewery was closed by Allied Breweries.