The Spirit of Nuthurst
St Andrew’s Nuthurst School Association has been working on a new fundraising venture – creating their very own limited-edition gin! In collaboration with Hawkridge Distillers, they are producing a blackberry dry gin with locally sourced botanicals from the Nuthurst area called “The Spirit of Nuthurst”.
SANSA co-chairs Laura and Amy explained that fundraising has been really hard in the last 18 months and that they have been looking for a way to boost funds in a fun and creative way. “Craft gin is very popular at the moment, and we were lucky to get a recommendation from a fellow PTA who had already worked with Hawkridge to create their own gin – the idea appealed to us as many parents at the school and members of the community said they would be interested in a local product”.
The PTA has tried to involve the whole school in parts of the process – Ken Boddy, a grandparent and guardian at the school, took photos for the label and the children came voluntarily after school to collect blackberry leaves to send off to the distillers. “We’ve obviously been careful around the topic of alcohol, the children have not been involved in any conversations around that. But we wanted them to feel part of the process, so they picked the leaves. They know it is going towards a local product.”
The gin is based on an award-winning London Dry but is unique to Nuthurst village and is produced as a limited edition. “Hawkridge kindly produce a small run of gin for organisations like us that can’t afford a large run. We have already sold half our bottles on pre-sales alone which is amazing. With Christmas coming, we’re hoping the rest of the bottles will make the perfect gift for everyone in our local community.”
Pre-sale of the bottles has started, anyone interested in buying a bottle should email contactstandrewspta@gmail.com. SANSA will be at the Nuthurst Society fireworks on 6th November and gin will be available to purchase at the Christmas Fair at St Andrew’s school on 27th November.
Photograph credits to Ken Boddy.
