Everyone in Helston knows the Blue
Sitting near the lowest end of Coinagehall Street, the Blue Anchor has been a centerpiece in the lives of Helstonians for centuries. While there can be no doubt as to its long history, the details of the pub's past are often debated.
One of the most famous aspects of this small, traditional pub, is the presence of a functioning brewery behind the main building. Here, successive brewers have used traditional techniques to craft an ale known as Spingo.
While the current building dates from the 18th Century, the existence of an inn at 50 Coinagehall Street is widely thought to date back at least as far as the 1400s. At this time the nearby St Michael's Mount housed a monastery, and the Blue Anchor was used by monks travelling to and from there as a rest stop. Brewing beer was a common practice among monks of this era, suggesting this is where the story of Spingo began.
The first thing you notice when walking through the wooden blue door into the Blue Anchor is that you're not actually quite inside yet. Rather than entering into a single conventional building, you emerge into an enclosed alley. Immediately to your right is the front bar, effectively the main bar. Further on behind that is a cosy fireplace-warmed room. The main bar runs through both of these rooms, with the main counter in the front bar and a smaller hatch in the rear room.
To the left are two more rooms featuring chairs, tables and various pieces of memorabilia. Directly at the end of the alleyway, you find yourself at the bottom of a set of stone steps. At the top of the steps sits the brewery, with the cellar underneath holding fermenting tanks. Around the corner to the right is a large marquee-covered beer garden with its own bar. To the left of here, you find the skittle alley, still used for the odd game of skittles, as well as occasional live entertainment (shared with the beer garden).
Although the pandemic has not allowed for such events to be held for a number of years, the Blue Anchor is usually host to the Heart:Beats Festival in April, raising money for the British Heart Foundation. In July the pub hosts Helstonbury Festival, a staple of Helston's year since 2001, notable for playing host to many young musicians (including myself!) through its connection with the late, great Alan Rideout.
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times
The Blue's time as a public ale house has not been without turbulent times.
No fewer than four people, including two of the pub's landlords, have met their deaths on the grounds. 1717 saw the landlord stabbed to death during a heated argument, while in the 1790s Yorkshire Regiment soldiers Ben Willoughby and John Taylor were found guilty of the murder of landlord James 'Jimmy' James (alternatively listed as James Jones). The pair were subsequently publicly hanged at Bodmin.
In 1828 a man was found in the pub's well, towards where used to be the stables. The cover of the well had reportedly been left off, causing the father of four to fall to his death.
Finally, in 1849, Thomas Risden, a local hairdresser, was found in the skittle alley at the back of the inn having taken his own life. A plaque remains in the skittle alley listing this event.
Cementing the Blue Anchor's place in Helston life was its frequent use by the large community of Cornish tin miners in the 19th Century. It was common for mine owners to pay their workers using high value banknotes. While this simplified the payroll, it could be difficult for the workers to use this currency. Many pubs, therefore, began to offer the exchange of these notes into more practical amounts of currency with an understanding that the miner might then use their money while drinking at the establishment.
Smooth, reddish, malty & lightly hopped
Spingo today is served in various strengths and styles to suit different tastes. Many of these come and go with different seasons, or new head brewers. Ben Stone, son of current landlords Simon and Kim, serves as the present head brewer.
The Blue Anchor has the distinction of having been one of the four existing pub breweries during the founding of the Campaign for Real Ales (CAMRA) and their Good Beer Guide in 1971. Certificates from CAMRA spanning several decades are proudly pasted around the pub. Uniquely among the four pubs, the Blue Anchor is the only one to have continued their brewery operation without interruption in the years since.
The traditional pint of Spingo is the Middle, sitting at 5% ABV. The lighter Flora Daze comes in at 4% ABV, while Spingo Special is a hefty 6% ABV. In winter, the recipe is tweaked further to produce Extra Special, taking the crown at 7.4% ABV. Middle's recipe dates from over a century ago, first brewed as a welcome home drink for soldiers returning from the First World War. Special was created in honor of the wedding of Prince Charles to Diana Spencer, while Flora Daze takes its name from Helston's annual Flora Day celebration.
At different times you might also find Jubilee, a 4.5% ABV IPA first brewed for Queen Elizabeth II's 2002 Golden Jubilee. There's also Bragget, a 6.1% ABV beer celebrating the 800th Anniversary of Helston's town charter in 2002, brewed with apple and fermented honey. Meanwhile, a recent addition to the Blue Anchor's lineup is Ben's Stout, a 4.8% ABV beer named after its creator.
Joining Ben as he produced a batch of Middle, he spoke of the known origins of the current brewery. The giant copper-lined boiling kettle sits in the corner of the room, fixed almost as part of the building itself, and dates from the 1950s. Having been scrubbed clean many a time since, it's had to receive some repairs from a local coppersmith. The Blue's mash-tun, said to be a (now fibreglass-covered) barrel washed ashore from a ship in the 1920s, is where hot water, sourced from the pub's well, fresh from the boiler, meets ground malt. In a modern brewery, this process would be almost effortless, using pumps and pipes. For Ben, it's a long slog involving 36 buckets of water transferred and poured by hand.
One brew produces around 900 litres of Spingo. After the fermenting process, which takes place in the cellar below the main brewery, the beer is piped into eighteen gallon barrels, enough to serve 144 pints each.
For most of its history, the Blue Anchor has only had to consider its own production demands, but with a changing commercial landscape the business has needed to branch out. In 2013, the Blue Anchor took over the former clubhouse of Porthleven FC. Now known as Out of the Blue, it serves the very same Spingo ale but on a larger premises, featuring more modern pub features as well as its own campsite.
Outside of the business, Spingo has also been in high demand from other establishments - no longer an exclusive beer to Helston, Spingo can now be found on tap across Cornwall. Ben told of one pub in Plymouth which receives occasional deliveries, as the beer was being taken into the building some pub-goers inquired as to what beer was being delivered. On hearing that it was Spingo, the small crowd gave a cheer.
Spingo can now also be purchased in bottles, both from the Blue Anchor and Out of the Blue bars themselves, as well as online. Although the COVID-19 pandemic and its resulting lockdowns did lead to some entire brews of Spingo being tipped down the drain, this diversification certainly helped the Blue make its way through the pandemic.
In October 2021, plans were revealed to construct a bespoke facility at the Water-ma-Trout industrial estate on the outskirts of Helston to produce Spingo ales on a larger scale to meet new demands. Many locals feared the end of not only centuries of brewing at the pub, but also that their favorite pint might never be the same again. However, Ben assures me that the pub brewery will be staying firmly put, with its produce dedicated to the Blue Anchor itself alongside Out of the Blue. The new brewery would be tasked with supplying the increasingly long list of other establishments looking to stock the unique Helstonian beers, ensuring a healthy supply of Spingo for many years to come.
Written, researched and photographed by Kai Greet
Acknowledgements
Thank you to the Blue Anchor for allowing me access to photograph behind the scenes at their wonderful pub, and to Ben for being an excellent and informative host. You can visit their website via the link below.
Alongside the information gathered at the pub, and pre-existing local knowledge, I used the resources listed below to research this piece.
A Day in the Life of the Brewers of Helston, 1982, available via the BFI here
Helstonia - The Blue Anchor: Demythologizing My Local, 2011, Patrick Carroll