Town’s trader in good spirits
The latest to join the growing number of Corporate
Friends of Fairlynch, 25-year-old James is a keen supporter of the Museum
because of his interest in the town’s heritage.
Budleigh-born, he feels a strong link with the local fishing industry
through his mother, a member of the Rogers
family.
Heritage in the drinks business is a fascinating
subject, says James. With the popularity of real ales and the rapid upsurge in
the number of micro-breweries all over Britain in recent years there’s
been a keen interest in traditional brewing recipes.
The Chester-based brewery Spitting Feathers has even
gone as far as using a recipe created by analysing residues found in pots
discovered at archaeological digs at Roman sites dating from around 100AD and
other research. Original ingredients
including oats, rye and bog myrtle make this is a real taste of ale as the
Romans brewed it in Britannia around the time of Christ’s birth.
Whatever next? A Bronze Age beer made from a recipe
discovered at a dig on Woodbury Common?
Distilleries have seen the same kind of growth as
breweries. I hadn’t realised how many gins there are on sale in shops like
Budleigh Wines. I wondered whether the Bombay Gins that James stocks
would have been popular with some of the Anglo-Indian ex-army types who
traditionally retired to Budleigh Salterton.
But my eye was caught particularly by the bottles of
Tanqueray gin because of its very local connection. The original London Dry Gin was launched in Bloomsbury in 1830 by Charles Tanqueray. When he died in
1868 his son Charles Waugh Tanqueray took over the business at the age of 20
and quickly built on his father’s success. 1898 saw a merger with another well
known name in the gin business, forming Tanqueray Gordon & Company. Today,
Tanqueray Gin’s largest market is North America,
where it is the highest selling gin import.
Above: The Tanqueray family grave at All Saints’ Church,
East Budleigh
Although based in London
the family must have had a home in East Budleigh
because it was here that Charles Henry Drought Tanqueray (1875-1928), the newly
formed company’s Secretary was born. In 1906 he married Stella Mary Green,
daughter of East Budleigh’s vicar, the Rev
William Frederick Green. Their daughter, Beryl Mary Tanqueray, married
Brigadier Robert Allen Elliott, whose widowed mother lived for a time in our
house after losing her husband Reginald, killed in action during World War
One.
On the strength of those local links I think I’d
better try out a bottle of Tanqueray gin. It’s a bit more expensive than my
usual brand, but James tells me that Tanqueray No.TEN is recognised for making
the most refreshing tasting martini cocktails. It won 'Best White Spirit' three
times in a row at the San Francisco World Spirits competition.
I might even branch out into an exploration of the
Tanqueray-inspired cocktails that you can find at www.tanqueray.com
To see what else Budleigh Wines has to offer click on
www.facebook.com/budleighwines
Photo credits: Ben Efros, WestportWiki, Craig Hatfield
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