Insider Media Limited

Four microbreweries in Shropshire have secured investment totalling more than £130,000. The businesses each successfully applied for European funding assistance from the Rural Enterprise Grant (REG) programme.

The Ludlow Brewing Company, in Ludlow, established by husband and wife team Gary and Alison Walters, has received a grant of £62,500 to help establish a 20 barrel brewing plant in a redundant railway shed.

Bishops Castle-based Six Bells Brewery has received a grant of £53,000 to help treble its brewing capacity, replacing the existing eight-hectolitre brew plant with a new 25-hectolitre model using new energy saving technology.

A second brewery in Bishop's Castle has secured investment from the scheme. The Three Tuns Brewery hopes to improve its brewing process by installing a 24-barrel cold liquor storage vessel and new internal cooling radiator, supported by a grant of £9,000.

The Clun Brewery in Clun is a new micro business started up by business partners Jack Limond and Matthew Williamson. The business has secured a grant of £8,000 to help them install a 2.5 barrel micro brewery at the rear of the White Horse Inn, owned and managed by Limond since 2001.

The REG programme is an element of the Rural Development Programme for England (RDPE) which is managed by Advantage West Midlands (AWM) and administered by Herefordshire Council.

Mark Foley, director of European programmes at AWM, said: “The food and drink sector is a vital part of the rural economy in the West Midlands and I am delighted that the Rural Enterprise Grant Programme is playing an instrumental role in boosting Shropshire’s thriving micro brewery industry.”