By Rosemary Bailey

This article was originally published in the April 2013 edition of Soul Search, the journal of The Sole Society

At the last committee meeting Tony Storey handed me a bottle of beer. Now, I like the odd drink at weekends, but not in the middle of the day! Then he pointed out that it was Sole Star beer from the Adnams Brewery at Southwold in Suffolk – so that made sense, and at least I wasn’t supposed to drink it.

The Adnams Brewery is known as the Sole Bay Brewery because Southwold is on the Sole Bay.

Sole Star Beer is just one of their speciality beers they produce. Maureen Storey, our research co-ordinator for the surname Sole, says she isn’t aware of any Sole families living in the area who may have given their name to the bay or taken their name from it. I have emailed the Southwold Museum to enquire if they know of the origins of the name of the bay but haven’t had a reply. They are shut for the winter so I suspect they aren’t picking up their emails.

Adnams have kindly given me permission to reproduce the beer label here