A. L. S. Sellon & Co
A L S Sellon & Co, Station Road, Bracknell, Berkshire
Established by 1866, and by 1887 run by Bickerton Bros. The Brewers’ Journal November 1893 reported their stout at the Brewex. The 5-quarter plant with three inns, off-licence and wine & spirits business was for sale 24th October 1901. It was then bought by Alexander Sellon, trading as above.
Acquired by Fuller, Story & Co. Ltd in 1906. Offices and entrance gate remained until 1990s.
Bracknell Brewery, Station Road by Mike Brown
The first record that can be found of the Bracknell Brewery is for 1866, although the business was already established by this time. The brewery had its own well dug in order to supply the water used in brewing. Within a few years, Robert Raxworthy had left the brewery and by 1869 his son Frank, who was only 24, had taken over.
The brewery was located in Station Road next to the gas works, a short distance down from the Station Hotel and was of significant proportions considering Bracknell was a small village at this time. Frank Raxworthy appears to have run the business until 1876 when it was taken over by Henry Moore Vincent. Henry Vincent was born near Andover in Hampshire in 1843. In 1877 he was living just north of Bracknell in a large house called ‘The Cedars’ in Wick Hill but by 1878 a house had been built next to the brewery in Station Road where he lived with his wife, Emily.
A cooperage and steam engine were installed while Henry Vincent was at the brewery and the steam engine’s large industrial chimney could be seen from some distance away. From Station Road, alongside the Station Hotel was a small road called Searle Street where the brewery’s cooper lived and on the opposite side of the entrance to Searle Street from the hotel, a brewery office was established.
The Bickerton Brothers were next to run the brewery, taking over before 1887. The family came from the St. Giles area of Oxford and during their time of operating the brewery, Joseph William Bickerton lived in the brewery house.
A mystery surrounds a reference in the brewery’s advertising, which regularly announced ‘Under Royal & Distinguished Patronage’. No crest or coat of arms accompanied the statement and quite who the royal and distinguished patrons were remains unknown.
Nonetheless, the brewers were ambitious and their beer was sold in Reading through an agency in George Street and from the Bull Hotel in Broad Street. From 1892 they began bottling their beer, adding two bottled pale ales and a stout to the range of eleven cask ales. In 1899, the expanding business was selling spirits and an agency had been established in far-off Oxford. Maybe this caused the business to become over-stretched or perhaps it was for some other reason that the business was sold shortly afterwards.
The last resident of the Bracknell Brewery was Alexander Sellon who operated as A.L.S. Sellon & Company. He continued with the wine and spirits side of the business and put particular emphasis on his bottled beers, using his own embossed bottles, to be later replaced by the use of labels. In 1906, the brewery was sold to Fuller, Story & Co. of Maidenhead when it was closed, although the property continued in use as a depot for some time.
The buildings lay derelict for a number of years and were demolished in the 1980s. The site has been scheduled for redevelopment for some time but part of the old red-brick brewery wall still stands facing the town’s bus station.