Member Article

Raise a glass with ‘Ratty’

Raising a glass to Northumbrian wildlife has never been easier thanks to The First and Last Brewery in Elsdon. Earlier this year, brewery owners Sam and Red Kellie created a beer called ‘Ratty’ on behalf of Northumberland Wildlife Trust to mark the reintroduction of water voles to the Kielder area.

Since 2017, 965 water voles, brought to life as ‘Ratty’ in Kenneth Grahame’s Wind in the Willows, have been reintroduced by the ‘Restoring Ratty’ project, a five-year partnership which has all been made possible by National Lottery players through a grant of £421,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

The project team trialled 500 pints at the Bellingham Show in August and sold out in record time.
Now, bottles of the pale ale are currently available at Bellingham Garage Services on Station Road in Bellingham and Leaplish Waterside Park at Kielder… just in time for Christmas. With 20p from every bottle sold being donated to the project, Kelly Hollings and Graham Holyoak, Restoring Ratty Project Officers, are keen to hear from anybody with a licence who would be willing to sell bottles of the locally brewed ale on their behalf. They can be contacted at restoringratty@northwt.org.uk or via the Restoring Ratty Facebook page where details of suppliers getting on board will be listed.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Northumberland Wildlife Trust .