A NEW distillery promises new jobs for local people as what promises to be the largest whiskey producer in England took delivery of giant new stills.

Villagers have high hopes that the new Princetown Whiskey Distillery, currently still being fitted out, will boost the local economy, but the Station Road site been shrouded in mystery for years and the backers tight-lipped about its future.

However, last week distillery director Rowan Maule broke his years of silence since planning permission was granted - just before the pandemic which delayed building work, to thank villagers for their patience and predict opening in the spring. However, sales of the local whiskey will not happen until after a three-year maturing. A version of the spirit will be produced in the interim.

He said: ‘This is a substantial building, the largest whiskey distillery in England, which will also be the largest producer in the country. We will employ at least 22 full-time equivalent jobs, with most local. There could well be more, some full time and some time part time, and this will depend on demand for our product and on visitor numbers to our visitor centre. It’s a significant addition to a place as small as Princetown and certainly prestigious for the region and furthe because there’s nothing equivalent in England.’

The building has been delayed by a combination of the pandemic and planning hurdles and lack of adequate mains gas: ‘I’m really pleased we’ve got this far. Progress hasn’t been what we expected. But it’s all going to plan otherwise.

‘We’re employing small local contractors to decorate and fit out the inside, so, although people can’t see what is happening there’s a lot going on and we’ve reached a major milestone with the two copper stills being delivered from Scotland and being erected and fitted. It’s a great moment and we should be having some sort of ceremony, but this is very much business as normal.’

He said although there were gin and small-scale whiskey distilleries in the region, there was nothing similar on the big production scale of Scotland sites on which the Princetown site is based. This includes ensuring quality through two-stage distillation as the key process, alongside the ingredients which come with the special characteristics of Dartmoor - the water purity which is down to natural filtration through granite.

Rowan, a mining engineer, added: ‘This is the perfect site for us. It has all the ingredients, the physical ingredients and the ambience. It’s high up on a moor with the right climate and granite base producing the most perfect water without lime and limescale deposits.’

‘We are already employing small local contractors to decorate and fit out the inside, so, although people can’t see what is happening from the outside, there’s a lot going on and this is a major milestone with the two copper stills being delivered from Scotland and being erected and fitted to join our oak stills.’