The Beer Tree was founded in 2001 when Richard Naisby
(owner of Milton
Brewery), at that time rowing for the Free Press, thought it would
be a jolly good wheeze to put a barrel of his beer in a tree on the
first night of the Town bumps. The beer was left over from a
rained-off cricket match and nobody had any idea that the concept
would prove popular...
That first night the plucky rowers of the St Radegund Metric Tonne — a Corinthian crowd, whose training mostly consisted of late night drinking sessions — achieved the near impossible — they got a bump! And promptly drank the beer tree dry. Thus setting a precedent that continues to this day.
After the startling success of the first night Richard (who owing
to the later arrival of his boat hardly got a drink) decided that
something good was happening and continued to put beer in the tree.
Word got around the rowing community that the beer was there for all —
and the amount of beer got bigger!
In 2002, it was suggested that though the beer was free it would be a good idea to collect for charity. So we did!
By 2003 the amount of beer being drunk at the beer tree was so much
that "friends of the beer tree" rallied around to help with the cost
of staging it (borne up to this point entirely by Milton Brewery).
Nearly a thousand pounds were raised for charities over the course of
the week and a record amount of beer was drunk (aided immeasurably by
the fact that the St Radegund Beer boat, now containing the brewer,
got blades!)
2004 saw over a thousand pounds raised for Cancer Research UK. Generous support from the friends of the Beer Tree ensured that ever more beer was drunk.
2005 saw the highest (and lowest) point in the life of the Beer
Tree. A record number of rowers stopped, more pints than ever were
drunk and £1800 was raised for the Milton Children's Hospice. And
then some prat ruined what should have been a fun week by picking a
fight with the charity bucket collectors.
And so to 2006. After the contretemps on the last night in 2005, Richard was frankly fed up with the whole idea of the beer tree. Organising such an undertaking is not to be underestimated. In the four days of its annual life the Tree gets through more beer than most pubs. Getting it to the tree (and bringing the empties home) is now a major operation in itself and since offers of help were thin on the ground it was decided to let the tree have a rest.
Until... the thirsty rowers of CSR
came to the rescue and offered to run the tree on the Friday of the
2006 bumps! The Beer Tree lives!
Thanks to the generous support of CSR and Rowdata the 2006 Beer Tree
was a major success — over 400 pints of beer were greedily devoured
and a sum of £1100 was raised for Leukemia Research — and
everyone had a fun time!
In 2007 the Beer Tree went back to the full four-day format. Over £2300 was raised for Milton Children's Hospice.
Sponsors in 2007
If you would like to support the Beer Tree in 2008 or 2009 please contact the
brewery.
The beer tree is in flower! See you at the beer tree!
Sponsors of the Beer Tree in 2008
