I’ve been in lockdown in Buxton since mid-March. No not the well-known Buxton in Derbyshire of Buxton Water fame. The other Buxton, just north of Norwich in Norfolk, home of Wild Craft Brewery.
The decline of the pub
Buxton is a sleepy rural village and get sleepier each time I visit. There used to be two great pubs in the village, one was in the old water mill with a shaded patio overlooking the local river—ideal for a balmy summer evening pint. The other was a traditional village pub with a relaxed environment called The Old Crown, which was our first choice for an evening meal when we wanted to eat and drink but not drive.
Both of these pubs were converted to residential use, and there’s only one pub left in the village. It’s so uninviting I’m not even going to mention the name.
The decline of the pub isn’t just limited to our tiny village. The 2007 smoking ban, the 2008 recession, and increased taxation have all played their role in the disappearance of the local pubs. I wonder what 2020 is going to bring to this great British social institution? They pubs are allowed to open again on July 4th—let’s see how they fare.
So what have the locals been doing for social activities the past few months in isolation? When it’s a toss up between lining up to get into a supermarket to buy a drink or get it delivered, I know which option seems the best option.
But don’t despair, there’s a party in the bottle waiting for you at Wild Craft Brewery, and they’re supporting your BYOB house-party by offering door-to-door deliveries.
Wild Craft Brewery
If we weren’t on lockdown, I would have taken a short drive up the gravel driveway to explore this craft brewery on my doorstep. I’ve been driving past a handmade Wild Craft sign for the past couple of months. It’s the kind of sign you’d notice and ignore, because it looks like a craft project make by a home-schooled kid during lockdown.
It’s not what you’d call professionally hand-lettered, but it grabbed my attention and jolted my imagination to visualize the team behind this local craft brewery. You can’t see the brewery premises from the main road, so I imagined a shaded dell in the middle of forest clearing, with a bearded Norfolk good ol’boy in a checked shirt and beard, hunched over an old wooden barrel reeking of simmering hops.
But when I visited one of their weekly live music events they host in an adjacent field, there wasn’t a checked shirt or beard in sight.
Website: https://wildcraftbrewery.co.uk
Community Support
As well as relying on a crowdfunding campaign to get they business up and running they also rely on the local community to help keep the company ticking along, in the shape of foraging. Throughout the year they are looking for people to forage for stinging nettles, elderflower, raspberries, cherries, strawberries, blackcurrants, plums, blackberries, sloes, hops, and many more seasonal ingredients. Take these raw ingredients to them and they’ll swap them for beer
If you’re going foraging on your own, here’s the Wild Craft guidelines:
Foraging Guidelines
Foraging is a way of life in the country. My brother and I spent our weekends being driven around the countryside by my Mum. We’d forage for elderflowers, blackberries, blackcurrants, redcurrants, gooseberries, raspberries and rose hips, which would be made into homemade wine.
As a treat on Saturday night, dinner was always sirloin steak, chips and peas, and we were always allowed a glass of home made wine.
All of these fruits could be found on the roadside, and it was before the heavy use of pesticides, so it was all safe to pick. Unfortunately you don’t as many of these fruits along the grass verges anymore, so you really need to know where to look.
There’s one thing you can rely on in life—change.
