The Bombay Sapphire experience

For my Hb's birthday in January our daughter sent a gift voucher for the Bombay Sapphire Experience at Laverstoke Mill in Whitchurch, Hampshire. As keen gin drinkers Bombay Sapphire is one of our favourite brands and I love their iconic blue bottle.
We decided to wait until the spring to visit and booked tickets on their web site for a tour last Wednesday.

We could not have picked a better day as the sun shone and the sky was a clear blue. The drive from our house took an hour and a half and we arrived in the car park in plenty of time for our 10.45am tour. We were delighted by the sight of the restored mill buildings which are now the home for Bombay Sapphire and where it is distilled.

We  had time to sit by the river and have a coffee in the sunshine.

We knew nothing about the history of Laverstoke Mill and were very pleased that we had booked on the heritage tour. Our guide was so knowledgeable and we were surprised to find out that this beautiful mill is recorded in the Domesday book. In a previous life it was used and for the production of paper for none other that the Bank of England for bank notes. The Portal family continued to manufacture at Laverstoke for over 200 years. However in 1995 De La Rue bought out the company and the mill fell silent.

We were able to handle some beautiful artifacts (wearing white cotton gloves) from the days of paper making.

The Bombay Spirits company only bought the Mill in 2010 and saved the site from being demolished for housing. This is where all their gin is distilled. It is then transported to Warrington where it is bottled. The buildings have been so beautifully restored and there is still some buildings undergoing renovation. They opened the distillery to the public in 2014.

The river Test runs through the mill and has some of the clearest water I have ever seen.

We were shown some of the botanicals used in the making of the gin...the smells were delicious.

 I chose my favourites to find out what my ideal cocktail would be............

I went for The Laverstoke
Their design award winning glasshouses showcase those botanicals which I used in the gin production.

We also toured the actual distillery (no photos allowed of this for security reasons) and marvelled at the copper stills. We saw a display of the various bottles used over the years. The Bombay Sapphire gin heritage goes back to 1761 when the Dakin family started making gin in Warrington, Cheshire. The iconic blue bottle did not appear on the shop shelves until it was re branded in the 90s.

And at the end of our brilliant 3 hour tour we were served a complementary gin cocktail (well my Hb drove so he had an alcohol free one and was given a take home miniature) and sat looking out to the river as we relaxed and reflected on our visit. Yes that's me sitting upstairs reading the cocktail menu

and here is my delicious cocktail bought upstairs by the waiter.

It was delicious.

There is a small gift shop and of course we had to take something home didn't we.....a bottle of Bombay East, a gin stirrer and 2 lovely tumblers fell into our basket. When we got home you can guess what we finished off our day with ;0)

It really was the most wonderful day and when I got home I knew I had to make a mixed media "Moment" of our time there.

To represent the history of paper making at the mill I used a sheet of my very special Fabriano paper I bought in Sicily last year. If you missed that post this is a link to it.

My moment just had to be blue so I got out several shades of blue distress inks.
I blended and spritzed my Tim Holtz blue inks on my paper until I was happy with the background.

Then I added some simple floral stamping.

To represent the gorgeous restored brickwork of the mill I added some Decoart crackle paste through my Wendy Vecchi brick stencil.

I needed a way to make my own " gin bottles" so I die cut bottles which I stamped and stencilled. I found the perfect "Bombay Sapphire" blue shade of ink was TH's  Broken China.

To remember the clock outside the mill I die cut a weathered clock.

For the botanicals I die cut lots of TH sizzix wild flowers.

I stamped and embossed a very apt Visible Image sentiment and also embossed a Visible Image dragonfly whose wings I glittered and then added glossy accents for even more dimension.

It was then time to put on my creative hat and put my Moment together...

Here it is

I would like to enter my Moment into the following challenges;

More than words Moment and clocks

Anything but cute Earth day I was inspired by the gorgeous blues and the whole feel of Mother Nature especially the flowers.
Crafty Boots monochrome
Penny Black and More 1/3 anything goes with stamping
WOW use heat embossing my dragonfly and sentiment are both heat embossed.
The Artistic Stamper 1/3 collage
Pile it on garden creatures
Rhedd's creative challenge altered art/mixed media
Pixie's snippets playground #227
Noor spring flowers
We love to Create 1/2 anything mixed media

We really did have such a great day and when I drink my G+T now I can transport myself back to the beautiful Laverstock Mill and memories of that delightful sunny April day.

Thanks for visiting today and for taking the time to leave your kind comments.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x