How it started
Bunty organised the very first ‘Brew With A View’ on a cold, wet New Year’s Day of 2017, in a farmer’s old tythe barn overlooking fields in the heart of the stunning south Oxfordshire Stonor valley. With the single desire to bring people together and with one spontaneous trial text message inviting friends to ‘Join us for a New Year’s Day ‘Brew With A View ‘- the kettle will be on and the teapot will be full, no reply or commitment necessary’.
Just add one humble Morris Minor laden with folding chairs and a table, a camp stove and kettle, a basket full of commemorative mugs, tea, cake, an elderly collie dog and fourteen open-minded, outdoor-loving unsuspecting friends wrapped up in woollies, hats and scarves miraculously heading out into the cold and the unknown on a quest to find the promise of a just brew with a view - and so the story starts. They came, they drank tea and chatted together for literally hours.
The inaugural brew was a resounding success, mission accomplished, without exception every single person headed home with a smile in their hearts and fresh conversations in the heads, and so the trial and the dream of bringing together people to drink tea outdoors in an increasingly disconnected, difficult and all too often lonely world was fulfilled.
How it's going
Nine years later and the regularity and popularity of the simple conscious act of getting outdoors to drink tea continues, with Brews With a View frequently bringing together over a hundred people to do just that whether in a field, by a river, on a beach or a far away hill.
Such days come with just two requests in one sentence – ‘No reply or commitment necessary, all we ever ask is that you please just bring a mug and a smile, and that you connect with a stranger. Everyone welcome.’ Refreshingly no replies, stress, pressure, commitment or expectations – there’s more than enough of that in our world already.
Today, several years later...
So, not just nine years but countless monthly brews later, the tea making kit continues to be kept busy and travel far and wide – from the West Country beach brews in Devon, Dorset and Cornwall, the metropolitan park-life brews in London to the heather topped hills of Scotland, any outdoor space or indeed place will do.
Support / Collaborate / Donate
To date, all Brews have been both willingly and very happily self-funded by Bunty since the movement’s creation in January 2017. With a key part of Brew’s manifesto being that every cup of ‘Brew With A View’ tea will be free, it has been suggested and requested by many that here lies an opportunity for creating partnerships and sponsorships in the name of Brews core values and the joyful spirit of paying it forward – the possibility for companies, organisations, trusts or individuals to help fund and pay for not only the next person’s cup of tea but hopefully a precious moment of conversation and company, connection and compassion – and possibly help in the rebuilding of community in every essence of the word and its meaning.
If you feel you can help or would like to get involved with ‘Brew With A View’ in any way we would love to have a conversation and a connection with you.