Tastes of the black stuff at Gosberton Winter Ale Festival

In fact, the village hall had two attractions for visitors with the Gosberton Winter Ale Festival on at the same time as a Christmas craft fair run by Gosberton Community Action Team.

Mick Pell, the hall’s chairman of trustees, said: “We were in unknown territory with the real ale festival as we didn’t know how many people we’d get through the doors.

“But community-wise, it was a huge success as we had people there who had never set foot in the hall before and others who hadn’t seen people in months or even years.

“We had six different varieties of real ale and two types of cider at the hall, with equipment donated by 8 Sail Brewery of Heckington.

“Virtually everybody who came said ‘you are going to do this again next year?’ and some even suggested that we should consider doing another one in the summer.

“It was nice to get two community groups together on one day and to get people out of their homes, enjoying themselves and tasting some local ales for a reasonable price.”