CROWN Studio Gallery in Rothbury is the first recipient of the John Barleycorn Festival trophy for the best-dressed window.
The John Barleycorn Festival, now in its second year, celebrates the illicit stills of Upper Coquetdale and the trophy is in the form of a barrel.
The winning display was a light-hearted History of Tippling in Northumberland, featuring reproductio
n ceramics by potter and experimental archaeologist Graham Taylor.
It started with some of the earliest drinking vessels, beakers, which, along with food vessels, the people of the Bronze Age buried with their dead.
The display continued with the Romans, who enjoyed not only their imported wine but also the locally brewed Celtic beer.
The hills of Northumberland provided a good source of grain and it is certain that the local brew found its way into Roman flagons and cups.
Chaucer well documents the medieval love of drink and it was during this period that the Still was developed by alchemists in their search for the elixir of life and the philosopher's stone.
Graham's reconstruction of a medieval ceramic still fascinated visitors to the festival.
The window was completed by the Grey Hens stoneware bottles into which Black Rory and his fellow whiskey distillers placed their produce before hiding it from the excise man.
Planning has already started for the John Barleycorn Festival 2008.
The full article contains 228 words and appears in Northumberland Gazette newspaper.
