Awarded ‘Best English London Dry Gin 2021’ at the World Gin Awards, ‘The Blowing Stone’ London Dry Gin is the first in our Ashdown Series and is a tribute to Alfred’s first victory over the Danish Vikings. Batch-distilled using our three-part process, we use a blend of beautifully balanced botanicals which could be found locally during the middle ages.

Its delicate and distinctive flavour comes from a blend of meadowsweet, elderflower and hand-picked wild gorse from the North Wessex Downs. In the 9th Century honey was a delicacy and as we are also beekeepers, we add a dash of our home-made local honey to help smooth the flavour and provide the sumptuous mouthfeel of our gin.

The second release in the Ashdown Series is our Wild Strawberry gin. Using our delicious London Dry recipe as a base, we have added wild strawberries to create a sweet and aromatic blush pink beauty.

Wild strawberries, known to the Anglo-Saxons as ‘streowberigan’ grew wild on grasslands and open woodland. Smaller and sweeter than today’s cultivated strawberries, they were a rare delicacy, providing a subtle burst of sweet berry flavour – very much like our gin.

The third release in the Ashdown Series is our Crabapple & Royal Ginger gin. Using our delicious London Dry recipe as a base, we use crab apples and fresh ginger to create an intriguing gin which is both sweet and smooth – balanced with a subtle gingery zing at the same time.

Soldiers from both the Anglo-Saxon and invading Viking armies would have foraged for wild apples – known as ‘crabbe’ – as they traversed the Kingdoms of England.

In the 9th Century, ginger was a luxury experienced almost exclusively by the Royal Courts and was most likely imported from the Mediterranean region by spice merchants. Alfred the Great would have certainly enjoyed a sumptuous combination of fresh fruits enriched with exotic spices such as ginger.

The fourth release in the Ashdown Series is our Nettle and Blackberry Gin. Batch-distilled using our three-part process, we use a blend of beautifully balanced botanicals which could be found locally during the middle ages.

Using our delicious London Dry recipe as a base, our recipe includes tender young nettles, used by Anglo Saxons and Vikings as an ingredient in food dishes as well as in fabric-making. Blackberries or ‘Brymbyl’ in old English were abundant, growing wild, with brambles often used as a form of defence against invaders.