Rutland Breweries


Whissendine Brewery -1880s


During the 19th century the Vale of Belvoir produced barley suitable for malting and the proximity of Rutland to this area encouraged the establishment of a number of small breweries in the county. Oakham had the largest brewery known appropriately as the "Rutland Brewery". The brewery was founded in 1842 by John Crowson but in 1866 the Morris Brothers acquired the Cross Street site. (7) In 1905 Morris & Co. sold the brewery to Warwicks and Richardsons of Newarke who ceased brewing here in 1907. The brewery was used as a distribution depot until the late 1920s and has now been demolished.

The Whissendine Brewery Company famed for its "Cottesmore Hunt Ales" had a much shorter history. Founded in the early 1870s the brewery had failed by 1893 when it was converted into a dwelling known as the "Red House". The Langham Brewery was established in 1858 by Richard Westbrook Baker. Three years later Edward George Baker, who described himself as a brewer and farmer, inherited the brewery from his father. In 1876 the firm was bought by George Harrison, a prominent Leicester maltster. His stay was short because by 1881 the firm was being run by the partnership of Boys and Style who also brewed at the Shakespeare Brewery behind the Shakespeare’s Head in Southgate Street, Leicester. A further takeover in 1886 gave the brewery to Henry H. Parry. Parry also owned the Brunswick Brewery in Christow Street, Leicester.(8) In 1896 George Ruddle became the brewery manager and eventually purchased the brewery in 1911. Ruddles beers gained countrywide fame in the 1970s but after several changes of ownership brewing at Langham has now come to an end.

Three other Rutland breweries are worth noting and all operated in the Ketton area. Thomas Molesworth started brewing in Ketton around 1860; by 1877 this had become the "Rutland Brewery" and in the late 1890s William Bean was taken into partnership. There is no mention of the brewery after 1908 and in 1926 the buildings were demolished. Behind the Northwick Arms P.H., the Ketton Brewery Company was operated from the mid 1870s until about 1900 by first the Whincup family and then the Wilde Brothers (Frederick and Henry). Around the turn of the century it amalgamated with the King's Cliffe Brewery in Northants.(9)

Just over the River Chater from Ketton is the tiny hamlet of Geeston where Francis Whincup started brewing in the early 1860s. The last recorded brewer on these premises, Claude Walker, went to war in 1914 and presumably never came back as brewing had definitely ceased here by 1916. Until 1970 the charming brewery buildings served as the Geeston Tap P.H. and today they form, much altered, a private residence.

Notes
7. Morris and Co. brewed at Northgate Street, Oakham, from about 1850-1866. The history of the Oakham brewery is well covered in "Oakham in Rutland" Vol. 2 (Rutland Local History Society, 1977) and the Leicestershire Industrial History Society Bulletin No. 6, 1983.

8. The Brunswick Brewery in Leicester was built in 1858 and considerably extended in 1864 by Thomas Crane (of Kegworth?). It was operated by John Flewitt (1882) and Henry Parry (1888-mid 1890s see Langham). It concentrated on bottling about 1900 and was demolished between 1912 and 1920. Its site is now occupied by the St Matthew’s housing complex.

9. The Ketton & King's Cliffe brewery was purchased by Smiths of Oundle about 1910.


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