The Bottle Inn
The Bottle Inn is a 16th-century public house in Marshwood in Dorset, England which hosts the World Nettle Eating Championship. The building started life as an ale house being close to a church where people came to pay their tithes. It was named The Bottle Inn sometime late in the 18th Century when it became the first inn in the area to sell bottled beers. During its history the building has also housed the village shop and during World War II, the village school.
World Nettle Eating Championship
The Bottle Inn hosts the annual World Nettle Eating Championships as part of a charity beer festival.[1] Competitors are served 2-foot (0.61 m) long stalks of stinging nettles from which they pluck and eat the leaves. After an hour the bare stalks are measured and the winner is the competitor with the greatest accumulated length of nettles. The contest began in the late 1980s when two farmers argued over who had the longest stinging nettles in their field and evolved into the World Nettle Eating Championships when one of the farmers promised to eat any nettle which was longer than his. The championship has separate men’s and women’s sections and attracts competitors from as far afield as Canada and Australia.[2]
In June 2010 Sam Cunningham, a fishmonger from Somerset won the contest, after eating 74 feet (23 m) of nettles.[3]
In June 2014 Phillip Thorne, a chef from Colyton, Devon won the contest, after eating 80 feet (24 m) of nettles.[4]
References
- ↑ "World nettle eating championships". BBC. 8 November 2005. Retrieved 2010-03-14.
- ↑ Langley, William (14 June 2009). "World Stinging Nettle Eating Championship attracts record crowd". The Daily Telegraph (London). Retrieved 2010-03-14.
- ↑ World Stinging Nettle Eating Championships at themorningstarr.co.uk
- ↑
External links
Coordinates: 50°47′38″N 2°53′02″W / 50.7939°N 2.8838°W