I admit that it wasn’t my idea but as my life in philanthropy and development has featured a lot of beer I was very pleased when a cheering summer brew crossed my desk at Campion Hall in Oxford.
The Hall is named after Edmund Campion, the foremost scholar in Oxford of his time who became a Jesuit priest and was renowned in as a great teacher and a captivating orator until his martyrdom in 1581.
His published writing includes a document known as Campion’s Brag, a manifesto written in 1580 when he returned to England from the continent as a Jesuit priest and in which he outlined the basis of his faith, hence the name Brag for this beer that has been enjoyed at events in the Hall over this summer.
Would he have appreciated having a beer named in his honour?
Well, the label features a line from his battels for 1568 at St John’s College in Oxford where he was a scholar and fellow; so basically his bill for food and ale. It’s a very nice touch and a reminder that saints are human first of all.
And for ninety years Campion Hall has occupied a site on Brewer St in the heart of Oxford. Brewer St because it had been home to malthouses, small breweries, and to William Hall, founder of Hall’s Brewery – long gone but its hare trademark can still be seen on a few pubs around the city.
One of the many things I am pleased to have learned from friends at Hall and Woodhouse in Dorset is that longevity as a family-owned brewing business requires long-term planning, planning for the next century and not just for the next five years. And that’s a lesson we’ve been applying at Campion Hall as we work through our vision for the institution and identify needs, and a few hopes, for the coming decades.
So here’s to beer, bragging, and philanthropy!
Colin Brady 