ABOUT US

The building was purchased in 2021 with no particular objective or destination. It came attached to the flat above and was a good idea at the time, apparently.

 

A little while later three middle aged men, Quint, Rob and Ian, having spent too much time in the sunshine of a pub garden started hatching ideas.

One had his own distillery, one wanted his own microbrewery and one loved cooking with fire.

Bemoaning the fact that there were relatively few places for grown-ups to go out, enjoy different beer / gin and tonics and maybe have a bite to eat of interesting food without the intrusion of a big screen TV, loud music, and the absence of anything frozen or microwaved on the menu.

 

They devised a plan.

 

Why not do it ourselves.

 

We had the venue, we had motivation and we had the skills, well some of them. 

What we didn’t have to match the concept was a name.

 

All three love where we live and have all been connected to the river with two sharing ownership of a fishing boat so it had to be something to do with the Torridge.

To the west of Northam at the mouth of the Torridge lies the infamous Bar, a submerged sandbank in the mouth of the river, a navigational hazard spawning extreme waves and currents if the conditions are right. At the other end of the mouth of the river and to the east of Northam lies the exact opposite, Crow point, a lighthouse and navigational aid to help mariners home safely. 

 

It seemed right to incorporate these two to form Crowbar.

And so it was born.

 

As with all these things the reality six months later having left the sunny pub garden was a little different, the hard work began.

 

Life has a habit of getting in the way of adventures, and so the brewers commitments in the real world meant that he withdrew from the grand scheme of things but maintains an avid and active involvement in the project as the ‘Brewer in residence’ …..and so much more.

So then there were two.

 

Life then threw the worst curve ball of all, the distiller unexpectedly passed away.

What had started with sense of adventure now had no meaning at all, as did everything.

 

Mourning brings into focus the essence of what life is really about, and it became apparent that it had to happen, it was what we all wanted, it was he got excited about.

And so the decision was made that it would happen, somehow.

 

Through the small circles of North Devon other ‘resources’ became available and so the team from ‘The Yard’ in Appledore became involved. Filling the considerable skills gap the project has now been reborn with a renewed drive and dynamism and is presented before you, a continuation of the three men dicking about in a shed into the venue it is.

 

In memorandum.