The Romantic poet William Blake once said: “A good local pub has much in common with a church, except that a pub is warmer, and there’s more conversation.”

Father Lee Taylor, the associate vicar of Croydon Minster, heeded Mr Blake’s advice last Thursday, as he sought to revive the traditional “blessing of the beer” at The Dog and Bull.

The ceremony, the origins of which are thought to date back to medieval monasteries, began with a mass at Croydon Minster celebrating the pub’s licensees, Lesley and Mark Knight.

Father Taylor then led his congregation in a procession to the boozer – the oldest pub in Croydon – in nearby Surrey Street.

The vicar blessed the beer barrels and pumps with holy water and incense, using instructions from a 1614 manual for the benediction of everyday items, before about 35 attendees settled in for what was surely the most righteous drinking session in the history of the borough’s pubs.

The beer blessing involved holy water and incense

Father Taylor – who himself enjoys a pint of real ale or a gin and tonic – admitted the ceremony was "totally mad".

Speaking last month, he said: "It’s reviving an ancient tradition, and it’s a good way of connecting the church with the community. I had known about it, but I have just never put it into practice, and thought: why don’t we do something a bit fun and get Croydon out?”

After blessing the beer, he said this week: "It was great to see so many there. I spoke to many people over a pint or two afterwards.

“Before I left the pub, one regular asked: ‘Father, when are you going to do this again... perhaps we could bless the beer in all the Croydon pubs - make it a pub crawl.’"

The monks of Rochefort Abbey in Belgium, who brew Trappist beers using water from a well within the monastery walls, are thought to be among the the few to keep alive the tradition of blessing beer to this day.