Postlip Hall and tithe barn
The barn set it a quite paddock at the end of an unsealed drive just off the B4632, the road between Cheltenham and Winchcombe in Gloucestershire. There has been a house here since before the Norman Conquest which has been extended over many centuries and the tithe barn is very much part of its history
Postlip Hall is a Grade 1 listed medieval Hall House, which Giles Broadway, entrepreneur and chancer, built into a much grander Jacobean frontage in 1614. Postlip Housing Association – a cohousing community who maintain and share the the upkeep of the buildings and grounds divided it into eight separate units between 1970 and 1985.
The Grade II* listed Tithe Barn’s origins are a bit of a mystery, as no documents have survived. It might be as old as the 12C Chapel or could have been built at any point between 1140 and about 1400.
The Hall, the barn, a mile or so of tracks, several miles of drystone walling, a private water supply, a sewage treatment plant, a stream, ponds, and around twelve acres of land require residents to develop a range of skills to keep the place in shape. When we don’t have the skills or can’t learn them, we get skilled outsiders to help us.
The grounds
Those who have visited the Beer Festival understand that this is a unique and beautiful venue. Beers stack the high walls of the unmodernised barn whose doors are opened to a paddock with stream and pond right on the Cotswold Way.
Postlip Community and CAMRA
Working hard and playing hard are the origins of building a thriving cohousing community. The beer festival was born out of this ethos – maintaining the structure and landscape around the barn requires both time and materials and using the barn for events like the beer festival generates an funds to reinvest in the Hall and tithe barn.
The partnership between CAMRA and Postlip community has now lasted over 43 years because the passion of the original founders of the festival is alive today. The festival is planned, organised and hosted entirely by volunteers and without them Cotswold Beer Festival would end.