About Beer

What's in a Name?

The name Beer has nothing to do with the drink. It derives from the Old English word bearu, meaning 'grove' or 'wood' - a reminder of the great forests that once surrounded this sheltered valley. The brook that still runs openly alongside Beer's main street, flowing from the chalk hills down to the sea, has been there just as long.

A Village Built on Stone - Literally

Beer sits atop one of the most remarkable geological stories in Britain. The Beer Quarry Caves, just a mile from the village, have been mined for over 2,000 years. The creamy yellow limestone known as Beer Stone has been used to build some of England's most iconic buildings: Exeter Cathedral, Westminster Abbey, St Paul's Cathedral, Winchester Cathedral, the Tower of London, and no fewer than 24 cathedrals across Britain.

The stone was prized not only for its beauty but for the way it hardens gradually on exposure to air - allowing it to be carved while soft, then becoming durable once set in place.

The Kings of Smugglers

Beer's geography made it a natural smugglers' cove. Protected from westerly winds by Beer Head - the westernmost chalk headland in England - the village could operate in weather that closed every other harbour on the coast. The caves were perfect for storing contraband; the locals were perfect for running it.

"In former days when the coastguard were inefficient and the excise man lax, the Beer men were the very kings of smugglers. All the Beer trawlers were employed in 'the contraband'. They were celebrated, as they still are, for their sailing qualities."

- Village of Beer historical record

The most famous of them all was Jack Rattenbury - born in Beer in 1778 and dubbed 'The Rob Roy of the West.' Rattenbury began his adventures at age nine on a fishing boat, became crew of a privateer, and built a legendary smuggling operation headquartered in the Beer Quarry Caves. He eventually wrote his own memoirs - a rare first-person account of the golden age of Devon smuggling.

A Village of Extraordinary People

Beer women were famous for making Honiton lace - the finest in England. They made Queen Victoria's wedding dress, bridesmaids' dresses for the Princess of Wales and Princess Alice, and their designs were destroyed after each commission to prevent copying.

More recently, the village has produced Innes FitzGerald - the British cross-country running sensation who has won the European Under-20 Cross Country Championship three times consecutively (2023, 2024, 2025). She has been dubbed 'the Greta Thunberg of Sport' by The Times and The Telegraph. She grew up in Beer and attended Colyton Grammar School Sixth Form.

In 2008, bacteria scraped from Beer's Jurassic Coast cliffs were launched to the International Space Station as part of a European Space Agency experiment. Exposed in space for 553 days, many survived and are now reproducing in a laboratory at the Open University. Beer: small village, cosmic ambitions.

The Jurassic Coast: Britain's First Natural World Heritage Site

Beer sits at the heart of the Jurassic Coast - England's first and only natural UNESCO World Heritage Site. The 95-mile stretch of coastline from Exmouth to Studland Bay in Dorset displays 185 million years of Earth's geological history in a single continuous sequence of cliffs. Beer Head itself is the westernmost chalk outcrop in the entire South West. Walking the coast path from Beer, you literally walk through geological time.