About The English Distillery

The English Distillery is England's oldest registered whisky distillery. Founded by the Nelstrop family in 2006, the Norfolk distillery is still independent and creates multi-award-winning whisky from honest, local ingredients. In 2006 it became the first registered, operational whisky distillery in England for over 100 years. Founder James Nelstrop, was the younger son of a Lincolnshire farmer. James returned to England from Australia in 1976 and went to work the land in Norfolk, Suffolk and Lincolnshire. As James neared retirement, a lifetime's dream to make whisky became a possibility. The dream had grown from a throwaway comment made by James' father, who said it was a "shame all this barley has to go to Scotland to be turned into whisky." The decision to build the distillery was quick and with only one caveat: The distillery would produce only the very finest single malt whiskies, regardless of the time it took to get there. This mantra has become the foundation of everything that we do at The English Distillery. Read their story