Brew House Steps

Lacock Abbey, Wiltshire: The Brew House. The Brew House, as it is known, in the courtyard of Lacock Abbey was one of the additions made by Sir William Sharington when he acquired the building in 1539. Previously Lacock was a monastery. It was secularised after the Reformation. People of the sixteenth century drank beer in preference to water because it was safer.

The Brew House was sympathetically restored during the 1970s, having lain derelict for many years. The equipment would still be capable of brewing beer if desired, but it would not be to the standards of the modern brewing industry. However reviled some of today’s makers of beer have the misfortune to be, the absence of hygiene would not be a criticism they would expect to endure.

Photographed with a Nikon D700 and a Nikkor 20mm f/3.5 AI-S lens.