Chic, wholesome Lewes might be a world away from Brighton on Saturday nights but it was not always thus.

A hundred years ago there still existed a reformation school in the town for women who had fallen into the evils of drinking alcohol and had been arrested for lewd behaviour.

As penance, the deviants had to wear the same outfits and do laundry to earn their keep.

The puritanical Temperance Movement reached the East Sussex locale and there was a Temperance Hotel in the town to help those whose lives were ruined by alcohol.

That there were nine breweries – including Tamplin & Sons, Southdown Brewery, Lyells, Beards Brewery, Harvey’s, Verralls, Ballards and the Bear Yard Brewery – huddled around the River Ouse can’t have helped.

Nicola Benge, whose community arts and heri-tage company Strike A Light is behind a year-long social history project of brewing in Lewes – which finishes this weekend with a ceremony featuring music, talks and films – says the town was built on brewing.

“It made its fortune through the creation of ale and ginger beer and there is a rich ale-drinking tradition in the town.

“It used to have 180 pubs – there used to be a couple of pubs per street – but there are less than half that now.

“The pub was people’s social life before television.”

You don’t need to walk for long through Lewes to see the impact the brewing industry has had on the town.

Harvey’s Brewery, which amalgamated with Beards in the 1960s, still dominates the skyline, though nowadays it is the sole remaining brewery. Others have become art galleries, studio spaces or houses.

It is thanks to the river that Lewes became a brewing and distribution hub and was self-sufficient.

“Lewes was a very industrialised place at one time. It had all the breweries and beer and hops going up and down the river.

“Some were really little breweries in the backs of people’s houses and they would supply the pub next door or the pubs in their street.

“But that industrialisation has completely gone. In a 40 to 50 year period, it is down to one brewery in the area, so we have looked at ways to celebrate that.”

Responding to the fact there are few records about hop picking and ale as opposed to pubs, Strike A Light collected oral histories from breweries, hop pickers, drinkers, historians; worked with East Sussex Records Office and libraries; and found vintage footage from British Pathé.

“There is nothing in books about this area to do with brewing ale or picking hops so we really wanted to celebrate that and add new information.

“What we soon realised was that actually brewing is on the increase again.”

New craft and micro breweries are springing up – responding to punters’ preference for more choice than mass-produced lagers and pubs with the same standardised products.

“Brewing changed in the 1950s and 1960s when we began to mass produce lager. New processes made it easier to store it for longer, easier to sell it out of the pump and easier to transport.

“Many of these new artisan beers are more finely crafted and interesting.”

Rectory Ales, run by Rev Godfrey Broster of All Saints Church in Plumpton Green, is one example.

He has begun to brew cask ales from his farmhouse on the Sussex Downs and has been using the proceeds to patch up three churches – one Saxon, one 12th century and one 19th century.

One penny from every pint sold goes to church funds.

Rev Broster, a former customs and excise officer who has contributed to the Ale And Hearty project, says his brewing is a throwback to the long monastic tradition of brewing beer.

“It’s not about the money, though that helps. It’s more about raising the profile of the parish and the problems we face.”

  • Ale And Hearty, Central Lewes Location, Saturday, January 18
     
  • Free. Email aleandheartylewes@gmail.com for tickets. For more details or to contribute, visit www.strikealight.org/projects/ale-and-hearty