History was made in Northumberland as two stills for the county's first whisky distillery arrived in Wooler, with a parade on the town's high street to welcome them.
The stills are set to form the 'beating heart' of the Ad Gefrin distillery, one part of the new £10.4m visitor centre, which is one of the largest ever investment projects seen in north Northumberland. As well as the distillery, there will also be a a museum which explores the Golden Age of Northumbria, a bistro restaurant, a bar and a gift shop.
A Northumbrian piper and fiddler led a parade on Thursday, followed by two vintage trucks and two articulated lorries, which carried the stills to Ad Gefrin, a new multi-million pound visitor centre due to open in north Northumberland this autumn. Locals lined the streets waving Northumberland and Ad Gefrin flags under clear blue skies to an almost carnival atmosphere.
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It's expected that Ad Gefrin will create around 50 jobs and put the town of Wooler, which is often referred to as both the gateway to the Cheviot Hills and one of many gateways to Northumberland National Park, on the map. Northumberland County Council announced a £650,000 investment in the town's infrastructure to create more car parking and refurbish public toilets in anticipation of the tourists the new museum is expected to bring.
And for Alan and Eileen Ferguson, the founders of Ad Gefrin who have lived and worked in Northumberland for four generations, the museum has been in the making long before it was announced in 2018.
Eileen Ferguson said: "I'm absolutely ecstatic. And humbled and really emotional.
"When I saw the parade coming down the High Street, tears were in my eyes. Particularly when I saw Naomi, because I thought that's my little girl driving a huge truck through Wooler!"
Naomi Ferguson, 25, and Ian Tait, who lives in Wooler, drove the two whisky stills down from Rothes in Speyside, with the precious cargo on the back of each truck weighing around three tonnes. They will provide Ad Gefrin with another capacity to make approximately 14 casks of whisky per week.
Ben Murphy, Head Distiller, is in charge of the fit out process which is expected to take around three months. He said: "We've got a long way to go but it's the first step to making Ad Gefrin Whisky.
"It (the taste) is going to be interesting and intriguing. It's going to be evolving and changing, we're not looking to create something that's just a single profile. We're looking to keep evolving like the region we're in.
"We've got our own bore hole which is 200 metres deep and that's bringing us water straight from the Cheviots, and all our barley is being grown on the fields around us and being malted at Simpsons in Berwick. It's Northumberland, we're distilling Northumberland."
However, the distillery is just one part of the grand plan.
Eileen continued: "My vision and sincere hope is that it (Ad Gefrin) gives a lot of employment and we get regeneration in the area. We’re going to be hopefully having 50,000 visitors per annum and that’s quite a lot. We’ll be hosting that through Ad Gefrin but there’ll be a lot of opportunities for all of the other businesses in the surrounding area too.
Though there's a clear buzz around Ad Gefrin in the town, it has also been highlighted on the international stage. Back in January, it was named one of the most anticipated museum openings of 2022 by the Smithsonian Magazine, alongside the National Museum of Norway in Oslo and the Museum of Modern Electronic Music in Frankfurt.
But it's hoped that it will be the local community who benefits from it the most.
Mark Mather, Wooler County Councillor said: " I think we’ve seen today what it means to the community, the turnout that we’ve had of all ages. The schoolkids are enthusiastic to be here, the street full of all different backgrounds.
"It’s the future of not only for Wooler but the whole are of north Northumberland. I think we’re going to be a fantastic tourist destination and that’s because of the work Ad Gefrin and Northumberland County Council have done together to make it such a success."
Alan Ferguson, Eileen's husband and co-founder said: "T he level of support from the locals is tremendous. Everybody’s behind us.
"This is going to bring tens of thousands of visitors every year into Wooler. It’s going to bring people who want to spend money in the cafes on the high street, the shops, this is going to make a massive difference.
"Today is about the stills coming and the distillery. But it’s also about the museum that we’re building alongside which is showing the Golden Age of Northumbria in the 7th century.
"It’s when Christianity came to the land, the saints came to Holy Island. This was the centre of the most important kingdom in all of Europe - Northumbria.
"Nobody knows about it! And we’ve got to really display that, it’s a massive story!"
