CAMPAIGN FOR REAL ALE

Issue 139 Summer 2009

• Local Pubs of the Year
• Booze on the Ouse Success
• Brewing in Huntingdonshire

‘Brewers and Brewing in Huntingdonshire — A social and economic history’ by Evelyn Lord was published in 2008. This comprehensive book starts with an outline description of the brewing process from the perspective of brewing in centuries past.

It continues with a chronicle of brewing in the middle ages, including an excellent account of the historic St Ives fair. What sets this book apart from the typical catalogue of brewing history is that the author brings the topic alive and places brewing in it’s historical context. Tales of fairs, trading between brewers, and alewives appearing in court for debts paint a clear picture of medieval St Ives. Brewing did not just take place in towns of the size of St Ives. In medieval times each village would have had a number of alewives, often prominent members of their community.

In the late medieval period, inns and taverns created greater demand for ale, and brewing started to become a concentrated production activity. The Lion, Buckden and the George, Huntingdon are noted as early inns.

The narrative continues with the introduction of hops from Flanders, and the migration from ale to beer, but its probable that such new fangled ideas were not introduced into Huntingdonshire until much later. The licensing of brewing in the 1600’s saw the real commercialisation of the industry, and a large number of town breweries were set up in Huntingdonshire at this time. Common brewers as they were known, typically distributed within a 6 mile radius, clearly nowadays this would meet CAMRA’s criteria for LocAle.

The 17th century also saw the establishment of many local inns, taverns and alehouses that still exist today, including many coaching inns along the Great North Road. The establishment of the breweries of John Day, James Paine and William Herbert is described in colourful detail, as are the accounts of famous travellers the day such as Daniel Defoe.