A COLOURFUL ale testing ceremony which has its roots in the Andover of the Middle Ages will be given a new lease of life later this month.

On Saturday 21 July town crier Allan Travell, who has recently sworn the 'Aletesters Othe', will visit The Globe public house in Andover High Street to test the ale.

Dressing in his traditional uniform he will call the crowd, recite the oath, buy a quart of ale for a penny and test the ale.

If it passes his test, he will award the publican a certificate stating that 'the beer in this house has passed the leather breeches test'.

The ceremony goes back a long way, says Mr Travell.

"To make sure that publicans sold beer of the correct quality Andover had its own official tester whose duties and obligations were laid down in the town's great charter of 1599," he said.

"The ale tester's duties included a visit to each alehouse and testing the brews."

In the days before specific gravity, testing of ale was a simple if messy science.

The tester would pour a small quantity of ale on a wooden bench and sit in it.

If his leather breeches stuck to the seat then the beer was all right.

The law makers of the Elizabethan age were most concerned that beer should 'be good and wholesome for men's bodyes' and the tester promised to 'well and trewly behave my selfe in my office'.

It is more than a century since the last ale test was carried out in the traditional manner in the town although the title of ale tester was carried by the town crier, and later the mace bearer, until Andover Borough Council was abolished in the 1970s.

Bearing in mind the town crier's surname it gives a new meaning to the phase ' the beer travels well'.