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You left our party departing the GBG-listed Rose and headingalong to Elgoods brewery for the commencement of the tour. Elgood’s breweryoverlooks the river Nene and has an imposing Georgian façade. The buildingstarted life as a granary and a mill before being converted into a brewery inthe late 1700s. The brewery was acquired by the Elgood family in 1878, and thecompany is still controlled by the same family today. We assembled in thecourtyard at the rear of the brewery where we met by our host for the visit,Belinda Elgood, daughter of then chairman, Nigel Elgood.
We we're led to a recently constructed, purpose-builtvisitor centre, equipped with its own bar and decorated with numerous exhibitsconnected with the company and it's 120 years of existence. After a brief runthrough of the history of the brewery, we were conducted around the plant bythe Head Brewer, who we met earlier. Amongst objects of particular interestwere a cast iron mash tun – most are constructed from wood, and copper, plus avery rare open cooler, known as a “cool ship”.
This in effect is a large, flat, open, copper tray, whichcreates a large surface area to allow the hot wort to cool as quickly aspossible. In the days before modern, “counter-flow” chillers, cool ships were acommon feature of Victorian breweries, but despite being a fairly common sightin Belgium (Flanders, in particular), the one at Elgoods, remains as the only example Ihave witnessed in the UK. It is situated at the very top level of the brewery where a number ofvertical wooden slats can be opened, when necessary, allowing the cold easterlywinds that have blown straight across the Fens, all the way from Siberia, tocool the wort. Such open coolers were once commonplace, certainly in the daysbefore refrigeration and heat exchangers.
Most breweries have long abandoned this method, owing to therisk of exposing the cooling wort to airborne contamination, but the sight ofthe wort gushing out of a row of brightly polished copper pipes, and into thecool ship, - a process that also helps aerate the wort, was certainly one wellworth seeing. The clouds of steam rising from the surface of the cooling workedcompleted the picture, and I was left wishing that I’d brought my camera withme. Don’t forget though, this was in the days before mobile phones, and digitalcameras! We were then shown the recently installed microbrewery whichenabled Elgoods to produce a series of seasonal and one-off, special brews,including low-volume beers, such as Black Dog Mild, Golden Newt, and Pageant. Atthe end of the tour, we were ushered back to the visitor centre where we wereable to try the company’s strong GSB Bitter, their Pageant Ale as well as more Cambridge Bitter.
It was a hot day, so I decided to take my pint outside, andat the far end of the yard were some steps leading down to a large and welllaid out garden. It seemed so peaceful and cool there, with plenty of maturetrees and shrubs providing some welcome shade. I soon became totally divorcedfrom the fact that I was actually visiting a brewery. The entire garden was anoasis of calm that seemed light years away from the 20th century,indeed the whole affair was in complete contrast to the bleak and somewhatwindswept scene at the front of the brewery. On that hot and sultry July day,the garden seemed just the right place to enjoy a refreshing glass of beerwhilst wandering around admiring the plants.
Whilst ambling around the garden, I bumped into someone whoturned out to be the head gardener. Iexplained I was visiting the brewery and asked if he minded me looking around.Seeing that I was interested in plants and gardens, this fine fellow offered toshow me around himself, explaining that the garden was originally laid out in Georgiantimes, as part of the house that was the home, initially of the mill owner, andlater the Elgood family. After being neglectedfor many years, the garden was slowly being restored.
It had taken severalyears of hard work to get the garden into its present pristine condition, andthe ultimate aim was to restore the grounds as closely as possible to theiroriginal Georgian layout. He claimed this would involve several more years ofhard work, but on the plus side the glass houses had already been restored, ashad an ornamental pond. In addition, many of the trees planted a century and ahalf ago were only now starting to show their full glory, including aspectacular and rare Tulip tree. Also being planted was a series of hedges thatwould constitute a maze, when fully grown.
As we wandered back towards the house at the rear of thebrewery, we were joined by several members of our party who, like me, hadwandered out for some fresh air before falling under the garden's spell.Realising that the gardener had other duties to attend to, I thanked him forhis time, and for making my brief visit to these gardens, so memorable. Threedecades on, the gardens at Elgoods have been restored to something resemblingtheir former glory, I say that because all gardens are, in effect, works inprogress. They are open to the public, as certain times of the year, so check onthe website for further details, including dates and times.
It was soon time todepart, and we boarded our minibus for the ride back to Kent. Our, driver madea brief stop in Ely, primarily to allow many of us to syphon off the excessbeer! We ended up visiting the Prince ofWales, a Ridley's pub, situated just off the M25, at Mountnessing. There weenjoyed a glass or two of Ridley’s PA and ESX. We also partook of a meal, althoughno record of what we ate exists. The pub made a welcome break in our journey,even if it did mean almost missing the last train back from Maidstone toTonbridge!

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