Good Honest Tales: 150 Years of Batemans Brewery

By Adam Cartwright, Amberley Publishing, paperback, £16.99

In the dark days of the late 1960s/ early 1970s, as the big breweries looked to be winning with keg beers and soulless hostelries, in Lincolnshire there was a beacon of hope – Batemans Brewery and its “good honest ales”. The castellated, ivy-covered former windmill tower at the Wainfleet All Saints headquarters stood like a defiant castle for cask and bottle ales amid the flood of mass-produced keg.

With the arrival and growth of the Campaign for Real Ale (Camra), Batemans seized the initiative, and its beers found a wider audience throughout the UK as the tide began to turn.

Not for the first time, Batemans battled to keep business buoyant, benefitting from a firm belief in its products – though keg beer was briefly allowed to be produced on the premises.

In the 1980s, there was a serious threat to the continued existence of Batemans, when two members of the family announced they wished to sell their shares and a takeover looked a distinct possibility. The fight to save the brewery was on and fortunately other family members and allies took up the fight with a costly battle, eventually winning and then successfully growing the business again.

This volume offers a good introduction to the fascinating story of Batemans and is guaranteed to make you thirsty.