04/09/2015

MUNITIONETTES: CALLING WOMEN OF CASTLE ROCK

  • Written by Lewis Townsend
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TWENTY CASTLE ROCK WOMEN AND THE NOTTINGHAM WOMEN’S HISTORY GROUP HAVE BREWED THE FIFTH BEER FROM THE COMMEMORATION COLLECTION, A SERIES OF TWELVE CHARITY BREWS MARKING THE CENTENARY OF THE GREAT WAR.

For the release of Munitionettes, project leader Liv Auckland invited her women colleagues to brew the beer ready for sale from September. On a sunny Wednesday morning, twenty women gathered at the Vat and Fiddle brewery tap for breakfast, before heading off to the brewery. The team of brewsters included the Nottingham Women’s History Group alongside Castle Rock chefs, bar staff, managers and teams from head office.

“Brewing has a long history of prominent women.  Think of the brewsters, the medieval women who made water fit to drink by turning it into beer,” she says. “I wanted to do something a bit unusual for this beer, and something other women could get involved in.

Munitionettes has been created in homage to the women of the First World War. They risked their lives filling shells at Chilwell, took poorly paid employment in administration and teaching, running hospitals, driving trams and more. The force of the home front was one to be reckoned with, and these women paved the way for a more equal and prosperous life for us all.”

It’s estimated that over 35,000 women were engaged in government war contracts in Nottingham alone.  Many came to enjoy their new found freedom, both financial and of movement, in the city’s cafes and pubs.

“I think most British women have an almost constant awareness of what our ancestors did for future generations. I wanted to bring that from the back of our minds to the forefront: life for women was very different not so long ago.”

Donations from the beer’s sale are being made to the Royal British Legion and Amnesty International.  The beer itself is golden in colour, very hoppy and 3.9 per cent ABV.

Please enjoy a pint and remember the women of the Great War.

Cheers!

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