Leicestershire Breweries


Cavendish Bridge in 1985


Breweries flourished in practically all the large town and villages of the county. Loughborough had several breweries in the 19th century and one had flourished in Derby Road since before 1791. In 1865 this became the Midland Brewery Co. with stores in Humberstone Gate, Leicester. Around the turn of the century the brewery took over Thomas Nuttall’s North Leicestershire Brewery Co. at Beeby. The M.B.C. ceased brewing at the end of the First World War. Brewing also took place in Wellington Street between the early years of this century and Frederick Stenson brewed and bottled in King Edward Road from 1910 until 1958. Leicestershire’s last homebrew pub, the Britannia Inn (Pinfold Gate) ceased brewing in 1972.

Melton Mowbray had seen the establishment of several breweries during the 19th century – the most celebrated being Adcock, Pacey and Co. at the Egerton Brewery and Langton and Sons at Thorpe End.(5) Adcocks dated back to about 1855 but were bought and closed by Ind Coope in 1919. The brewery of George and Henry Langton at Thorpe End was founded by a George Adcock in 1865. Langton and Sons, brewers of the "Celebrated A.K. Ale", took over the premises in 1890 but went out of business in 1910.(6)

Hinckley’s brewery, Beardsmore and Co., succumbed to Marstons at the turn of the century. Members of the Beardsmore family (who were also brickmakers) had brewed at Stockwell Head since about 1850. Daniel Pettifor’s Old Brewery at Anstey, dating back at least to 1846, was also purchased by Marstons (in 1900). Part of the brewery today acts as a carpet showroom. The Market Harborough firm of Eady and Dulley (dating back to 1881-1884) was taken over by the Northampton Brewery Company in 1929 and was closed in 1938.

Thomas Palmer Buck started brewing behind the Windmill P.H. (near Kimcote) in the late 1880s. During the first decade of the twentieth century he moved to George Street, Lutterworth. In the 1930s the firm concentrated on bottling and finally went out of business in the early 1980s. Egbert Lavender, amongst other things, brewed and stored beer (for the Northampton Brewery Co. and T. Salt of Burton), first in the High Street and then in Station Road Lutterworth between 1894 and 1930.

Brewing at Castle Donington dates back to about 1828 when Fletcher and Son were producing beer at Cavendish Bridge on the Leicestershire/Derbyshire border. In the 1840s George Trussell Eaton took over the business and Offilers of Derby bought the brewery in 1896, continuing here until 1922. Extensive remains of the brewery survive by the side of the River Trent. It is now the home of the Shardlow brewery.

Brewing at Kegworth followed a similar pattern to Castle Donington and dates back to 1828/9 when Thomas Crane and Robert Osbourne were active in the village. About 1850 the Wells family started brewing here and Sidney Wells' Market Place brewery survived until 1924 when Worthington’s bought the business. A "Steam Brewery" in Derby Road, Kegworth offered Wells’ brewery competition in the 1870s and 1880s. This brewery was first operated by the Barrow Brothers but from 1875 Peter Sullins and Sons were in command. In 1885 Hugh Wilson was the proprietor of the brewery now known as the "Springs well" or "Springwell" Brewery. By 1895 the site was storing beer for Marstons who had presumably bought the company. The brewery eventually became a hosiery factory which was burnt down in the 1920s. The brewer's house survives on Derby Road.

Ashby-de-la-Zouch did not possess a brewery of any note, though the Burton Brewery Co. malted there until the mid-1920s. William Sharpe started brewing behind the Duke of York P.H. in Sileby about 1870. In 1920 the Sileby Brewery was taken over by the Derby firm of Strettons, who themselves were acquired by Samuel Allsopp and Sons in 1927. The Sileby Brewery was famed for its stout and its buildings were used until the 1980s by a maltster.

John Harley Berry started brewing at Acresford near Donisthorpe (on the Derbyshire border) about 1860. The Cooper family operated the plant from 1876 until 1900 when Sidney Evershed of Burton purchased and closed the brewery. The Coopers then turned their attention to milling. The brewery survives (altered) as a depot for Staffordshire Farmers (1985). Smaller breweries operated in Rearsby, Huncote, Harby, Belton, Cropston, Syston and Mountsorrel during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Notes
5. Did a family dispute cause the Adcock family to run two breweries in Melton? In 1863 W. and G. Adcock were operating the Egerton Brewery but by 1865 the executors of George Adcock were running brewing operations at Thorpe End and William Adcock was still at the Egerton Brewery. In 1875 George Adcock junior is listed as brewer at Thorpe end. Today remains of both breweries survive (1985).

6. Langtons served 14 tied houses in Melton and the surrounding area. The sales catalogue can be viewed at the Leicestershire Record Office.


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