Burton | Abbot Of

It makes you wonder about the weight of leadership in such a place. To be the Abbot was to stand at the intersection of: Overseeing the relics of St. Modwenna.

Managing the market charters and the famous bridge that built the town.

Navigating a world where the line between the living and the dead was as thin as the mist over the River Trent. Abbot of Burton

There is a quiet, heavy irony in the stones of Burton Abbey.

But the history of the Abbot runs deeper than brewing. In the 12th century, Abbot Geoffrey recorded the . He told of villagers who died in dispute with the Abbey, only to rise from their graves at night, carrying their wooden coffins on their backs and banging on the doors of the living. It makes you wonder about the weight of

We remember the through an old ditty: he brewed the finest ale in the land on Fridays—the days of fasting—yet he never tasted a drop of his own craft. It’s a haunting image of a man surrounded by the "spirit" of his labor while being spiritually forbidden from consuming it.

The Abbot of Burton (specifically Geoffrey of Burton in the 12th century) is famously tied to some of the earliest "vampire" or revenant accounts in English history. 🕯️ Managing the market charters and the famous bridge

Next time you hold a glass of Burton ale, remember the Abbot: the man who provided for everyone else’s thirst while staying forever, deeply, dry. Burton-on-Trent. | The Oxford Companion to Beer