Briggs Brothers

Briggs Brothers, West Scholes Brewery, Lane Side, Queensbury, West Yorkshire.

Recorded in 1902.

Trading as John Briggs & Son here from at least 1866, with John Briggs in 1879 and Haley Briggs in 1883. New brewery built 1888. Brothers John William, Joseph Henry and Samuel Briggs bought the business in 1889. However, brewing ceased after that date and before Morton & Drake, fire brick manufacturers were recorded at site c.1921.

Converted to a mill in 1926. Brewery tower remained until mid 1980s and reduced to 2 floors.

Malcolm Toft writes:-

In 1866 listed as John Briggs & Son, 1879 John Briggs, 1883 Haley Briggs and 1887 Briggs Brothers. The brewery had been offered for sale at auction in May 1883 when the property was occupied by John Briggs, and sold for £1,635. Tenders were invited in October 1888 for the various works required for the erection of a brewery at Westscholes, Thornton, and sometime later a four storey tower brewery was built. The brothers, John William Briggs, Joseph Henry Briggs and Samuel Briggs, all of West Scholes, purchased for a nominal fee of £100 the brewery from William Briggs of Wellfield, Clayton, their father, and lately a colliery owner, in June 1889.

Nothing is known of the trade carried on by the brothers or when trade ceased. John William Briggs died in July 1915, his daughter Sarah Briggs in December 1920 and Samuel Briggs in February 1925 Morton & Drake, fire brick manufacturers, were listed at the premises in 1921 and 1924. Joseph H. Briggs and others sold the brewery to Messrs Fearnley, Ramsden & Co. pile fabric manufacturers, in October 1926.(81) The top two floors were then removed and that is how the property remains today. Now owned by M & C Spooner Ltd wool and synthetic fibre reprocessors.