Our Name

By Lucy Hine

‘Futtle’ is an old Scots word, specifically from this part of the East coast, that refers to the noise that stones make when they hit against one another as the sea drags them up and down the shore.

The percussion of pebbles.

Yes, there’s a word for that.

Suitably abstract, nice to say and very connected to this beautiful corner of coastline, it felt like it would make a good name for the sort of business and beer we wanted to make.

Stephen and I are both avid collectors of words. I keep constant notes on my phone and Stephen scribbles on any available scrap of paper when we come across new bits of language we haven’t heard before.

Our favourites are words, like ‘futtle’, which are very rooted in a particular time or place, that have fallen out of everyday use. They tend to be so precise when it comes to describing something quite ordinary and familiar, that it makes you wonder why you’d never known that they were there to be used.