An interview at Bridport Arts Centre with the artist Brian Rice, exhumed from the archives to celebrate the current exhibition at the Redfern Gallery in London – Brian Rice: Early Works 1959-1970.

Brian was born in Yeovil in 1936 and grew up in the nearby villages of Tintinhull and Montacute. On his father’s side, his family came from South Somerset. On his mother’s side, from Dorset, from Lyme Regis and from Whitchurch Canonicorum in the Marshwood Vale. “We were peasants,” he says.

Brian went to Yeovil Grammar School, Yeovil School of Art, did two years of National Service with the Army and then trained as a art teacher at Goldsmiths College in London. He did a year’s teaching at a secondary school in High Wycombe, and then resigned in the summer of 1960 and went to the Sahara desert. “It just came to me sitting out in the desert waiting for lifts that being a painter was what I wanted to do more than anything else.”

He cycled back from Gibraltar to Montacute (he was a superb cyclist and used to race for the army) and a disused chicken shed next to his parent’s house became his studio. Brian also worked as a gardener; one of his jobs was to maintain the graveyard at West Coker. He was disgusted by the racism of the vicar’s wife at West Coker, and his painting “Persil For Whites Only”, in the Redfern Gallery show, is a rare, explicitly political work. Otherwise, as Ian Massey remarks in the excellent show catalogue, there is in some of the work from this period “a residual neo-romanticism… informed by the landscapes of Piper and Sutherland.”

Through 1961, Brian had paintings accepted for several group shows. The Bath and Wilts Evening Chronicle praised the “strength and virility” in his work.

Early in 1962, keen to develop his artistic career, he moved back to London… and that is some of the background to the chat in the video above, which covers subjects including the impact of London on Brian and his art, how he used to hire out works for movies, magazine shoots and adverts, how he was part of a working-class grouping that felt it was changing the visual face of Britain – and so on.

There’s a great selection of images on the Redfern Gallery website:http://www.redfern-gallery.com/brian-… Having a look there is highly recommended. The exhibition itself is on until March 1.

NB: These notes above also draw on an essay by Sara Hudston (http://www.watershedpr.co.uk) in the 2001 University of Brighton Gallery catalogue Brian Rice: Retrospective Exhibition. The video above was filmed when this exhibition travelled to Bridport Arts Centre in 2002. We’ll also see if we can exhume from the archives another interview with Brian in which he talks about returning to the South West to live in Dorset at the end of the Sixties and the start of the Seventies.

That’s why in Chideock, late this afternoon, Dave Symonds – captain of the bells at St Giles’ church – has been up the tower there, muffling the clappers. See the video below.

The bells will be rung more quietly before midnight – there’ll be a break for refreshments in The Clock House over the road – then the muffles will be taken off and the bells rung loud and clear.

Chideock’s bells were restored earlier this year, so tonight will be the first time they’ve been rung on a New Year’s Eve. It should – as Dave Symonds suggests – be quite a party. Chideock’s bellringers are due to be joined by a small group from Whitchurch Canonicorum, including Dave’s nephew Mark Symonds, who is Captain of the Bells at the church of St Candida and Holy Cross in Whitchurch Canonicorum.

The new oak bench made for Tudor Arcade in Dorchester by Simon Thomas Pirie Furniture of Dorset has been installed and is now “officially open”, as a smiling John Beaves tells a smiling passer-by at the end of this video.

Click here to see how the bench was steam-bent and scorched, and read why.

Note: this video was filmed and edited by Stephen Banks (“Dorset Scouser“) with me (Jonathan Hudston) chipping in from the sidelines in a manner that I like to think was sometimes useful.

When we there, we were approached by a rather belligerent old man who pointed at the bench and said: “I hope this isn’t being paid for on the rates.” Momentarily, it was tempting to say YES, to see his reaction, but it was obvious what it would have been, and anyway,  it wouldn’t have been true. It’s paid for by the private owners of the arcade.

Personally, I think it’s good to have features that add character to a place.

One of the reasons that Lyme Regis has fared well in recent years is that the resort has been able to secure some eye-catching and distinctive street furniture; the famous ammonite lamp-posts, for example.

Or E: All of those things and more? The answer, of course, is E, certainly in the eyes of its makers – the team at Simon Thomas Pirie Furniture at Briantspuddle near Bere Regis in Dorset. The oak bench they’ve steam-bent and scorched is going to be installed in Dorchester’s Tudor Arcade, outside of Waitrose and Fat Face, at the start of May.  So how does Simon Pirie hope his creation will impress the eyes of its beholders and the backsides of its users?

He said: “I hope people will get a sense of fun out of it, I hope it will be visually stimulating, and I also hope it will spark conversation, because in a sense it is a conversation piece.

“It’s a practical piece of furniture with a few quirks, but it is first and foremost a conversation piece, somewhere people can meet and talk and people watch.”

In the video above Simon explains that the bench is partly inspired by traditional love seats, in which people sit side-by-side but back-to-back, so the bench is divided into a series of separate chairs.

Simon said: “The chair that you see as you walk down the arcade towards the supermarket will be face on towards you and the idea is that it will feel quite throne-like. The person who gets that seat is going to feel quite important because they are going to have the whole vista of the shopping arcade coming towards them. I’m looking forward to getting that kind of long shot down the arcade to see who’s got that prime seat.

“It might be me on occasions, I suppose.”

Simon Pirie trained in the 1990s at Hooke Park College near Beaminster in West Dorset. The college was set up by the internationally renowned furniture maker John Makepeace to encourage a generation of “entrepreneurs in wood”. Simon has been running his own fine furniture business for 12 years, until now working largely with individual clients.

The Dorchester bench is different. The result of a public art commission, it’s a significant new venture.

Simon said:  “We wanted to create something special for this. I mean, we’re known as fine furniture makers. Public art is relatively new for us, and it’s an area we’re looking to expand into.

“This is the first piece that will actually go in situ, so it’s an important job for us.

“We’re working with architects and commercial companies rather than individual clients and that’s a little bit different for us, so it’s a groundbreaker.

“It also manages to encompass lots of other areas of interest, like steambending, like high-tech manufacturing techniques, and like scorching, so there’s lots of elements in there which are very exciting for us as furniture makers.

“And I guess the slightly quirky joke from my perspective is that, if you look at it from above, it’s actually in the shape of a question mark.

“So, there is that kind of question – What should it be used for? How can it be used? Hopefully it has that sense of fun about it, because you don’t want want to be too po-faced and serious.”

Simon said that he has always had a hankering to do outside furniture, and the chance to fulfill that wish in Dorchester has been gratifying.

“It’s our county town, it’s where local and regional government is based, so it’s good to do it in Dorchester.

“It’s a gem of a little town, it’s a beautiful place, and the arcade where it’s going to be the visual centrepiece is having a refresh.

“Despite the general air of gloom about the economy there’s actually quite a lot of optimism in Dorchester, there’s new projects and new buildings, so it’s an exciting place to be.

“It’s our local county town, six or seven miles away from our workshop; it feels very nice.”

Editor’s Note: I’ve been interested in Hooke Park College and people associated with it ever since I first went there about 18 years ago. Simon Pirie is part of the group of people who’ve spread out from there across Dorset… I made the video above with Stephen Banks (“Dorset Scouser“).

CAMRA spokesman Michel Hooper-Immins said: “Members nominate their favourite pubs – then a panel of judges goes round individually to inspect each of them.

“This year our judges reported that The King’s Arms at Thornford and The Tiger Inn at Bridport were too close to separate, so we decided – exceptionally this year – to name both a Rural and a Town Pub of the Year.”

Members will, however, have to decide which pub to put forward for the title of Wessex Regional Pub of the Year against 10 other pubs from East Dorset, Hampshire, parts of Somerset and Wiltshire, the Isle of Wight and the Channel Islands.

I wonder how they will do it? Name from a hat? Toss of a coin? They’re the classic tie-breaking methods but there could be so many others. Pause for a moment and let your imagination do its thing… Oh boy, could you have some fun.

The CAMRA West Dorset Town Pub of the Year 2012

The CAMRA West Dorset Town Pub of the Year 2012 is the Tiger Inn in Barrack Street, Bridport.

“This bright and cheerful Victorian ale house offers a frequently changing beer list,” says the 2012 CAMRA Good Beer Guide. “The Tiger is a well hidden secret, worth seeking out.”

Over the last week, seven real ales have been served from four hand pumps, including St. Austell Tribute from Cornwall, Jimmy Riddle from the Dorset Piddle brewery, Stargazer from Yeovil and Wickwar Brand Oak Bitter from Gloucestershire.

Londoners Graham and Jacqueline Taylor have been in the licensed trade for 22 years, coming to the Bridport free house five years ago, from a King & Barnes tenancy in Horsham.

“We’re a community pub and our customers are very fond of rugby,” said Graham Taylor. “I am gobsmacked to win this Town Pub award and we are both very pleased.”

The West Dorset 2012 Pub of the Year certificates were presented by CAMRA’s Rich Gabe at the Dorchester Beer Festival.

The CAMRA West Dorset Rural Pub of the Year 2012

The CAMRA West Dorset Rural Pub of the Year 2012 is the King’s Arms at Thornford, three miles south of Sherborne. A traditional free house in the centre of the village and built in 1905, it is owned by the Digby estate.

The 2012 CAMRA Good Beer Guide says: “The bar area is simple in decor, but offers a warm welcome to drinkers and diners alike.”

Over the last week This week, the three handpumps are dispensing Otter Bitter from Devon, Skinners Spriggan Ale from Cornwall and Fuller’s London Pride.

Licensees Andrew and Ann Evans took over the King’s Arms in 2008 and bought the lease from the former Hidden Brewery two years later. Born at Keswick in the Lake District, Andrew is a teetotaller – unusual in a licensee. Ann is from Wiltshire.

She said: “We are just building a new restaurant and we are naturally delighted and encouraged at winning this CAMRA accolade.”

WEST DORSET RURAL PUB OF THE YEAR 2012

The King’s Arms, Pound Road, Thornford. DT9 6QD. Tel. 01935 872294.

Licensees: Andrew and Ann Evans.

WEST DORSET TOWN PUB OF THE YEAR 2012

Tiger Inn, 14/16 Barrack Street, Bridport. DT6 3LY. Tel. 01308 427543.

Licensees: Graham and Jacqueline Taylor.

Ms Dean is involved with the Road for the Future project, which has been set up to look at ideas about the countryside, transport and access.

As Powerstock Hut is not itself the most easily accessible place in the world, especially on a Sunday afternoon, a free minibus will run from Bridport to Powerstock (and back again).

Passengers are promised “a special intervention” by Ms Dean to entertain them during the journey.

The minibus will leave the Nationwide bus stop, West Street, Bridport at 4.00pm sharp on Sunday, November 27, and the return trip will arrive back in Bridport by 7.45pm. Seats are bookable on a first come, first served basis.  Anyone interested is advised to book early with project manager Jo Morland on 01305 860461 or via joanna@jomorland.f9.co.uk.

According to Ms Morland: “Judith responds to different contexts using a wide range of media, including sculpture, installation, video and performance. She’s particularly interested in ideas of territory and claiming, and is often concerned with questions of behaviour, including her own. Judith will be showing images of recent projects and discussing their relevance to her work for Powerstock Common.”

Road for the Future is a year-long project offering artists’ residencies and commissions and educational workshops on the disused railway line between Maiden Newton and Bridport.

Sustrans is working to develop the route as a multi-use Trailway.

Powerstock Common nature reserve, long-leased by Dorset Wildlife Trust, is at the centre of the Trailway and is the focus for these collaborations between artists, educators, architects, makers and the community.

Road for the Future continues until May 2012.  Its first event was a residency by the Energy Café on Powerstock Common in April 2011, offering lunches using foraged and local produced ingredients.

The Energy Cafe can be seen in the video above by John Holman of Transition Vision TV, the online TV service for Dorset, Somerset and Wiltshire.

New artworks made in response to different aspects of Powerstock Common will be shown to the public during April or May 2012.

Project partners are Dorset Wildlife Trust, Sustrans, the Architectural Association at Hooke Park, PVA MediaLab and Treewise Co-op.

Road for the Future is funded by the National Lottery through Arts Council England, West Dorset District Council, Artsway Associates and The Dorset Design and Heritage Forum.

For further information contact Anna Best, 07810 374745, me@annabest.info

London-based creative studio Proboscis have been commissioned by the Dorset visual arts collective Big Picture to respond to the Jurassic Coast.

Proboscis describe themselves as “pioneers of pie in the sky – makers of mischief”.

They’re getting £6,500 and production costs of up to £1,500 to – in the words of the brief – “engage with users of the Hive Beach Café at Burton Bradstock and explore the human story of the Jurassic coast, and how the physical and the social influence and impact upon each other.”

The cafe is described as “a real-time social networking site directly on the coast. Its clientele varies greatly through the year, which provides an interesting scope to foster engagement with and between different social groups who are interacting with the coast – influencing it and being influenced by it.”

Amateur and professional scientists are also expected to feature.

The Hive Beach Café, the nearby National Trust car park and the beach will be “the main site of activity”, but art could spread around Burton Bradstock, over to the Watch House Cafe at West Bay and into Bridport.

Hive Beach at Burton Bradstock, with the cafe and the car park to the right. Photograph by Eugene Birchall, reused under Creative Comons Licence.

More from the brief: “The commission managers Bridport Arts Centre and PVA MediaLab are interested in socially engaged artistic practice, engaging with a non-arts audience and presenting art in non-traditional spaces.

“Possible outcome and location suggestions include:

“Content for café surfaces [e.g. table menus], information spaces [menu boards, NT parking tickets etc] and packaging [food labelling]

“Projections in Bridport Arts Centre windows

“Audio-visual [live] performance on Bridport Arts Centre forecourt

“Possible Gallery exhibition after the main project time.”

That was the come-on. How might the project actually develop?

Carolyn Black, producer of the new Ex Lab (Exploratory Laboratory) project, said: “Proboscis will focus on the social science of the area and how people relate to this very particular place.

“They are inspired by the rich mix of physical and social history, folklore, scientific knowledge (amateur and professional) and contemporary stories unique to the area.”

The Hive Beach scheme looks to me like it will slot into a five-year programme called Public Goods, recently begun by Proboscis with the aim of “making and sharing tangible representations of the intangible things we feel are most precious about the places and communities we belong to, such as stories, skills, games, songs, techniques, memories, local lore and experiential knowledge of local environment and ecology.”

Personally, I’m looking forward to this very much indeed. Could it be like one of Common Ground’s old projects – I’ve always been a fan of Common Ground – but with more of an edge? Next summer, we’ll see.

(I’ve been idly wondering what the reaction might be if Proboscis turned out to be disciples of Mr Tourette, Master Signwriter, but that level of mischief seems extremely unlikely).

Anyway, more than 200 artists and organisations submitted proposals to Ex Lab.

Aside from Proboscis, four were successful.

Again in the words of Carolyn Black: “Portland Bill will engage artist Simon Ryder in an exciting challenge to address the variety and complexity of Portland, dealing with the many layers that coexists there – geological, historical, ecological, military.”

And: “Painter Simon Callery will work on a commission that links the geology inland with that visible on the coast. Simon will follow a geological journey from Sherborne to the sea, creating an artwork that reflects the experience of walking these landscapes and engaging with people who live along the route.”

The other two winners will be based in the eastern half of Dorset. Sculptor Mat Chivers plans to work with the National Trust on Purbeck to create art for Bournemouth town centre. Multi-material artist Zachary Eastwood-Bloom will collaborate with the Applied Science department at Bournemouth University on a project at Durlston Country Park that – according to Ex Lab – will explore “the diverse possibilities of using scientific data and instrumentation to stimulate form creation”.

All five Ex Labbers now intend to conduct research and development with scientists and the public.

Various events and activities will give people chance to follow what they are up to.

If you want to get involved, see www.bigpic.org.uk

Ex Lab is funded by Arts Council England, National Trust, Dorset County Council, West Dorset District Council and additionally supported by Bournemouth University, Exeter University, Aberystwyth University, Creative Coast 2012 and the Jurassic Coast Team.

Big Picture members are Artsreach, b-side, Bridport Arts Centre, Dorset Visual Arts, PVA MediaLab, Sherborne House Arts and Walford Mill Crafts. Their aim is to work with Dorset County Council “to sustain and develop vibrant visual arts in Dorset”.

Information about Ex Lab 2012 artists

(Details supplied by Ex Lab)

PROBOSCIS

The artists Proboscis (Alice Angus and Giles Lane) Gary Stewart, and Stefan Kueppers (designer and technologist) most often work outside galleries and like to work with local people and communities and in collaboration with scientists, technologists and architects. They blend craft with technology, video, sound and public art.

www.proboscis.org.uk

On Twitter @proboscisstudio

SIMON RYDER

Originally trained as a zoologist before turning to art, Simon Ryder’s work investigates how we interact with the places in which we live and work, and how they, in turn, shape us. He adopts ideas and methodologies drawn from science, art, natural history and geology in his work, often using one to transform another; so for one commission he turned birdsong into landscapes, and for another crystallized horsetail ferns as a form of keeping memory alive. Simon Ryder has produced work for a wide range of places, including Gloucester cathedral, Southmead Hospital, the National Wetlands Centre Wales, and is currently working in the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve North Devon and the Cotswold Water Park. People will be able to follow Simon’s progress on Portland through his blog which can be found at www.artnucleus.org

www.artnucleus.org

SIMON CALLERY

Simon Callery is a painter based in London. His work has been shown widely in the UK and internationally. Exhibitions include: Art Now 19, Tate Britain, Paper Assets, British Museum and Sensation, Royal Academy of Arts, London. He is currently included in Within/Beyond Borders, selected works from the European Investment Bank Collection, Luxembourg; at the Byzantine and Christian Museum, Athens and will be showing in a group painting show at Galerie B55, Budapest, in February 2012.

In developing new approaches to landscape based art Callery has worked in collaboration with archaeologists from Oxford Archaeology and the Institute of Archaeology, University of Oxford, over a number of years. This has resulted in the development of new forms for contemporary painting, which aim to engage the viewer on a multi-sensory level, akin to our experience of the material landscape.

http://simoncallery.wimbledon.ac.uk/

MAT CHIVERS

Mat Chivers is a sculptor and visual artist who lives and works on Dartmoor in Devon. His work as an artist combines traditional approaches to making, like carving by hand in stone and drawing on paper, with contemporary digital and science based technologies to make normally invisible processes visible.

He has works in private and public collections nationally and internationally. Recent exhibitions include ‘Fascination’ a solo exhibition curated by James Putnam at Maddox Arts, London; ‘The Knowledge’ at the Gervasuti Foundation, 54^th Biennale di Venezia; ‘Eleventh Plateau’ at the Historical Archives Museum, Hydra and The Athens Biennale, Greece and ‘Biliteral’ at Pertwee Anderson & Gold, London. He will be showing work in ‘Material Matters’ at the Courtauld Institute, London in 2012 and is currently involved in an ongoing project with research scientists at The University of Bristol.

www.matchivers.com

ZACHARY EASTWOOD-BLOOM

Zachary Eastwood-Bloom is a multi-material artist working with and exploring materials such as concrete, ceramic, bronze, wood and resin. He combines both traditional and contemporary processes such as casting, CNC milling, 3D printing and laser cutting, making objects that question the delicate balance between the material and the digital. After discovering the possibilities of making and the three-dimensional form, Zachary went to study at Edinburgh College of Art where he began experimenting with 3D design software. He further explored digital processes and fabrication at the Royal College of Art graduating in 2010.

Zachary is a founding member of London-based Studio Manifold and has recently exhibited with British Ceramics Biennial, The V&A Museum and The Royal British Society of Sculptors and his piece ‘Information Ate My Table’ is currently touring with the Crafts Council’s Lab Craft exhibition.

www.zacharyeastwood-bloom.co.uk

It’s at www.eggardon-colmers-view.org.uk and has a lot of content, including a tremendous picture of Colmer’s Hill by Higher Eype photographer Andy White, one of the best images of this famous West Dorset landmark I’ve ever seen.

Colmer's Hill photographed by Andy White for the Eggardon & Colmer's View Advent Calendar 2011.

The photograph is being used for the new Eggardon & Colmer’s View Advent Calendar, one of the annual treats of West Dorset life. That’s why there’s the 24 numbers scattered across it, each one hiding another picture.

It’s many years since Eggardon & Colmer’s View last had a website and the new one is sure to be popular with many people living away from the Bridport area who just couldn’t get hard copies of the magazine. There is always something in it worth reading and knowing.

Anyway, recommendation over, here’s Eggardon & Colmer’s View Editor Margaret Morgan-Grenville to explain more.

Margaret Morgan-Grenville on the Eggardon & Colmer’s View website

“The latest edition of Eggardon & Colmer’s View can be viewed online, subject to a simple registration process.

“Not only will there be no more worries about where the latest copy of the magazine is, you can also find up to date information on all the village events and church services.

“Viewers will find plenty to interest them, whether they are local residents, potential visitors or just browsing from anywhere in the world. 

“Users will be able to see details of Church Services taking place in any of the Churches and Chapels of the Benefice with maps of each parish, a monthly Diary, and details of special events.

“Villages have their own section with brief historic and current outlines of each, details of all Schools, Village Halls and other meeting places, together with relevant links.

“The site is also interactive, with a Message Board which it is hoped will become a virtual meeting place.

“How this part of the site develops will very much depend on the users: just general conversation, definitely a For Sale & Wanted forum, maybe a barter forum if users are so inclined.

“Particularly exciting will be the Photo Gallery, where photos of local events that I receive and just can’t get into the magazine will be displayed in glorious colour!

“And that’s not all: if anyone wants to be involved with moderating the message boards or the administration, they are asked to contact the Webmaster through the website.

“We could do with some help!

“So don’t delay; just click on www.eggardon-colmers-view.org.uk, sit back and enjoy!”

The Waste Land app for iPad will kick-start a debate – sponsored by Bridport-based Watershed PR – about The Future of the Word.

The event on Saturday, November 19 is a coup for the new Bridport Open Book Festival, set up by Bridport Arts Centre to tie in with the famous Bridport Prize and celebrate reading and writing.

Faber’s Head of Digital Henry Volans, who published the app with Touch Press, said: ‘Though it has been presented at industry conferences in New York, London and Frankfurt, The Waste Land for iPad has never been shown at a public event.

‘So this is an exciting opportunity. Publishers spend much of their lives discussing the digital future of books but they rarely ask readers what they want.

‘Here’s a rare chance to bridge that gap, to bring a pioneering digital book to a book festival and provoke debate around new ways of presenting literature. Sceptics welcome!’

Mr Volans will be on a panel at Bridport Arts Centre alongside Jonathan Hudston (who runs the Real West Dorset site and is a director of Watershed PR), The Bridport News’ news editor James Tourgout, Bridport writer Katherine Locke and Exeter-based poet and IT specialist Damian Furniss.

Fiona Shaw performing The Waste Land

The Waste Land app is much more than just an electronic book. It includes a specially-commissioned film of actor Fiona Shaw performing the poem, archive recordings by Alec Guinness, Ted Hughes and Eliot himself that are otherwise hard to find, a new reading by actor Viggo Mortenson, and numerous interviews with such luminaries as Nobel Prize winner Seamus Heaney, many of these filmed by the BBC.

The Waste Land app has just been shortlisted for a 2012 Interaction Award by the Interaction Design Association (IxDA) for Disrupting – Re-imagining completely an existing product or service by creating new behaviors, usages or markets. The app is up against products including the Ford SmartGauge, Nike+ GPS and the Morgan Stanley Matrix.

TS Eliot (1888-1965) is buried not far from Bridport at East Coker in Somerset. He was voted the nation’s favourite poet in a BBC poll in 2009. The Waste Land, first published in 1922, is commonly regarded as the 20th century’s greatest poem.

Tickets (£5 / £6) are available from Bridport Arts Centre (01308 424204).

Brian Wood at Palmers Brewery in Bridport. His lorry has done more than 1.5 million miles. Above Brian's head is the trapdoor that leads though into Palmers' malt loft.

THIRTY years ago one of the unsung heroes of British brewing began criss-crossing the country with sacks of malt.

Brian Wood started carrying malt for Hugh Baird and Sons at Station Maltings in Witham in Essex in the Autumn of 1981. When Baird’s got taken over in the mid-1990s, he set up on his own.

I’ve met him a couple of times at Palmers Brewery in Bridport, where he’s been delivering malt since the early 1980s.

He’s a fine man, as I hope comes through in the video that I made about him for the Palmers Brewery YouTube channel.

Here, also, is a link to a story written about Brian Wood and Palmers.

What that story doesn’t contain is a list of all the UK breweries that Brian has been to.

It’s an evocative litany, so here it is. Fifty-nine different brewers, 63 separate breweries, some of them now shut for many years. Morrells’ Lion Brewery, for example, was converted into ‘luxury apartments’. Julia Hanson’s in Dudley was knocked down to make way for a Netto supermarket, turned this summer into an Asda.

• Whitbread (Sheffield, Cheltenham, Salford)
• Boddingtons (Manchester)
• Joseph Holt (Manchester)
• JW Lees (Manchester)
• Timothy Taylor (Keighley)
• Samuel Smith (Tadcaster)
• Bass (Burton)
• McMullens (Hertford)
• Julia Hanson (Dudley)
• Banks (Wolverhampton)
• Hardy Hanson (Kimberley)
• Brains (Cardiff)
• Buckleys (Llanelli)
• Felinfoel (Dyfed)
• Wadworth (Devizes)
• Hall & Woodhouse (Blandford)
• Palmers Brewery (Bridport)
• Otter Brewery (Blackdown Hills)
• Butcombe (Blagdon)
• Smiles (Bristol)
• Hook Norton (Oxon)
• Morrells (Oxford)
• Fullers (Chiswick )
• Tring (Hertford)
• Adnams (Southwold)
• Tolly’s (Ipswich)
• Harveys (Lewes)
• Hepworths (Horsham)
• King & Barnes (Horsham)
• Hull Brewery
• Batemans (Wainfleet)
• Robinsons (Stockport))
• Thwaites (Blackburn)
• Jennings (Cockermouth)
• Moorhouse (Burnley)
• Higsons (Liverpool)
• Burtonwood Brewery
• Everards (Leicester and Burton on Trent)
• Marstons (Burton on Trent)
• Ind Coope (Burton on Trent)
• Castlemaine (Wrexham)
• Oldham Brewery
• Hart Brewery (Preston)
• Mitchells (Lancaster)
• Vaux (Sunderland & Sheffield)
• Federation (Newcastle)
• Courage (Bristol & Reading)
• Crouch Brewery (Essex)
• Gales (Horndean)
• Devenish (Redruth)
• St Austell (Cornwall)
• Halls (Oxford)
• Tisbury Brewery (Wiltshire)
• Ringwood Brewery (Hampshire)
• Shepherd Neame (Faversham)
• Trough Brewery (Idle)
• Brakspears (Henley on Thames)
• Pilgrim (Reigate)
• Mendip Brewery (Somerset)

Imagine going to the Trough Brewery at Idle for the first time! And seeing this, when you got there.

Nowadays Brian delivers mostly to Palmers in Dorset, Arkell’s in Swindon, Felinfoel near Llanelli, Harveys in Lewes, Elgood’s in Wisbech, Wadworth in Devizes and Fuller’s in Chiswick.

Good reason, I’d say, to favour those seven brewers.