Cook & Sons Ltd

The Halstead brewery

G E Cook & Sons Ltd, Tidings Hill Brewery, Halstead, Essex.

Founded 1885 at the Griffin, Parsonage Lane, but brewing ceased there in 1913. The Tidings Hill Brewery was built in 1908.

Registered in 1961. No tied houses but owned ten off-licences at closure.

Brewery closed October 1974. Their three beers - all bottled - were then produced by Ridley & Sons Ltd.

Some parts survive.

See also: Cook Brothers (Colchester).

The Griffin, Halstead, courtesy Paul Gunnell
The Griffin, Halstead, courtesy Paul Gunnell

From ESSEX BREWERS - The Malting and Hop Industries of the County by Ian P Peaty 1992 now out of print ISBN 978 1 873966 02 4

George Cook, the founder of the present company, was taught his brewing by a relative at The White Horse,, Parsonage Street, or as it was then known, Parson's Lane, Halstead, in 1870. Later he went to further his knowledge of brewing at Goslings Brewery, Bocking, see:- Gosling Family History, he then returned to Halstead as a brewer for Mr Burford, at his Mount Hill Brewery.

In 1885 he acquired the timber framed malthouse behind The Griffin public house in Parsonage Lane, a little further down the hill from the White Horse. Here he brewed some 10 barrels per week. His eldest son, George Ernest, one of four sons and one daughter, acquired an off licence in Tidings Hill on the other side of the valley to Parsonage Lane. He purchased beer from his father and filled 1 and 2 gallon stone jars and delivered these by wheelbarrow and later a horse and cart. Later land behind the off licence and cottages beside it were purchased and a brewery built in 1908, producing 15 barrels per brew. Quart bottles were introduced, priced at 4 quarts for 1/-. Weekly rounds to other off licences and the family trade continued.

Further extensions took place in 1913 with the introduction of mineral water manufacturing. In this year George Cook ceased brewing behind the Griffin and built a new brewery in Mersea Road, Colchester. The first motorised dray, a 30 hundredweight Maxwell, with solid rubber tyres, was purchased in 1921, the bodywork being built by Firmins Wheelwrights of Greenstead Green. Four years later a further five vehicles had been added to the transport fleet.

George Ernest Cook, the founder, died in 1934 and his four sons continued as the partnership of G.E. Cook and Sons. Two years later, to meet increased trade, extra conditioning tanks for 200 barrels were installed, and an artesian well sunk to 350 feet, the liquor replacing the previous town water supply. In 1946 a "Paxman" coal fired boiler and attendant 75 foot chimney stack were installed, the stack being finally demolished in 1981. Malt was supplied from Mays of Stisted, Gowers Farm Maltings and Kent and Worcestershire hops used to produce a single Pale Ale, with the remaining draught beers all dark, namely 2X (Mild), 3X (Strong Mild), Nourishing Stout and Double Stout, these in the 1920's giving way to the later Best Bitter. Remaining beers which were bottled, were chiefly produced for the off licence and home trade, for which they received a Diploma in 1957 and 1968 for the Nut Brown Ale and in 1963 the Best Bottled Beer, Oatmeal Stout.

There were depots at Tindal Street Chelmsford, Coggeshall Road, Braintree and Magdaline Street, Colchester.

In 1966, "Country Brew" was first produced as a high-class beer. A year later "Unibrew", a strong beer was exclusively on sale at the University of Essex. On the 7th October, 1974 the final brew took place, the range of Cooks bottled beers still available in the 15 Off Licences belonging to the company being brewed by T.D. Ridley & Sons Ltd, Hartford End. At the height of the brewing business the firm owned 15 vehicles, all Morris manufactured, either Dodges or Commercials.

There was never any trade mark registered, although the company has used on its bottle labels, a bushel of wheat, a barrel of beer, and a replica of the silver trophy from the Brewer's Exhibition. The plant included a copper which came from one of the Coggeshall breweries, a cooler by G.J. Warssan and Sons Ltd. coppersmiths of London, a hand corker by Dawson Brothers, Leeds, and a Crown Corking hand operated filler with 18 heads by Pontifex.

The Directors of the firm were George Ernest Cook, Chairman, one of ten sons and four daughters of the founder George Ernest; his son Richard Cook is Managing Director, with Clive Cook, Director of Sales, the son of Morton Cook, and Eric Cook, Director of Wine Cellars and the last Head Brewer, son of Ralph Cook, both Morton and Ralph being brothers of George Ernest, Senior.

At the peak of brewing there were some fifty employees, the most notable of whom was Henry Root who joined the firm in 1904 when he was a roundsman in a horse and cart. He retired after 50 years service in 1954, many of his customers further afield included brickfield workers and owners within an eight mile radius of the brewery. The original off-licence where the business in Tidings Hill commenced is still extant with the brewery behind, with on the left of the entranceway the offices, bottling and old racking department, now a wine and spirit stores.

An assortment of images of the Halstead brewery