Bass Charrington Ltd (Runcorn)

Bass Charrington Ltd, Preston Brook Brewery, Whitehouse Industrial Estate, Runcorn, Cheshire.

A large scale brewery which opened in 1973. Brewing commenced in 1974, but the brewery was closed in 1991.

A short essay on the brewery by Ray Anderson

Opened 1974, renamed as Preston Brook in 1986. Closed August 1991 and demolished.

Intended to be Bass’s prestige mega brewery when it was planned, it soon became an embarrassment. It was badly designed, built in the wrong place with constant industrial unrest, and became renowned for the poor quality of its beer. Although Bass’s greatest failure, Runcorn was a classic example of how the company worked. Decisions were taken at the top with little room for individual initiative further down the line. This rigid, centralised management approach generally worked well for Bass, sparing them from the confusion that confounded some other, inadequately managed, national brewers. Bass became a big, boring but successful company with hubris unmatched by any other UK brewer. The down side was that when they got it wrong, which they did at Runcorn from the start, it was very difficult to turn the bureaucratic, hierarchical leviathan around even when they sent their best people in to try and make it work.

Sources: B Nov 1988 pp 490-493; B Aug 1989 p950; B Sept 1989 p994; B Apr 1990 p180; B May 1990 pp195-197; B Jun 1990 p272, p275; B Nov 1990 p514; B Dec 1990 p549, p559; BM 1990 p55; GBG 1990 p99; B Mar 1991 p132; B Apr 1991 p232, p234; B Jul 1991 p321; B Sept 1991 pp345-348, p352;

An assortment of views of the brewery.

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
•