100-Year-Old Beer Bottle Found at Ancient Church Site

PERRANPORTH, ENGLAND—An intact beer bottle dating to the early twentieth century has been recovered from St. Piran’s Oratory, a sixth-century church in Cornwall. Archaeologist James Gossip thinks that the beer, brewed by Walter Hicks & Company, may have been left behind by a worker in 1910, when the ruins of the oratory were encased in a concrete structure to protect them from sand and waves. In the 1980s, the ruins were covered in sand. Now, the church site is being excavated by archaeologists and a team of volunteers. “There are plenty of stories about St. Piran and his fondness of the hop, so it’s sort of appropriate that some quality local ale managed to find its way on to such a hallowed site,” Chris Knight, archivist of St. Austell Brewery, told the Western Morning News. The contents of the bottle will be tested at St. Austell Brewery.