F.A.Cripps

F A Cripps, Bromham Brewery, Bromham, Wiltshire.

Acquired by Wadworth & Co. Ltd. 1896.

An assortment of images of the brewery in 1999

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The Bromham Brewery by Dennis Powney

A branch of the Banks family of Lacock had been established in Bromham ever since James Banks married Abigail Webb at Bromham on 15 June 1713. There is a fine 18th century memorial in Bromham Church to their son, John Banks, who died in 1785, and his wife Ann, who was the daughter of John Rogers, a maltster, of Wyatts House, Bromham. Ann received a large inheritance from her father.

Their son, also named John, was baptised at Bromham in1749. He married Ann Trotman at Bromham in 1780 and they had six children. John served as Churchwarden from 1798 to 1818. There is a monument in Bromham Church to this John and Ann; and it also mentions their children and grandchildren.

There is a lease between Sir Edward Bayntun and Walter Gaby the churchwardens of Bromham, and John Banks, of a ‘Dwelling House’; it is dated 17 May 1784.1 This lease is for Church House, now 26 High Street, and John and his family lived there until 1821. It was about this time that John established the Bromham brewery, situated in Church Hill; and the Banks family home, called Bankside’ is believed to date from the 1820s. It is the only house on the northern side of the road. The brewery was erected in 1811, it stood beside the road, east of the house; it consisted of two separate buildings, and no doubt one was the malt-house.2 There was a pathway between these buildings that lead, up-hill, to the coopers’ shop, the stable and other brewery associated buildings. Vehicular access to these buildings was via an entrance, with double wooden gates, from the road at the top of Church Hill beside the churchyard wall; the site of these gates is now number 10 Church Hill Rise.

At the time of his death, in 1824 John was quite a prosperous brewer, as is indicated by his will. To his wife, Ann, he left two houses and an annuity of £50. John, his eldest son, was left £500, Ann, his daughter, £600, Elizabeth, his other daughter £900. His son, James received the residue and this included Bankside, and the brewery.

During the re flooring of the church in 1987 the vault of the Banks family was exposed and the coffins of John and Ann Banks could be seen. The name of Ann could be clearly read on the brass plate on her coffin; John is in the coffin below Ann. The coffins were studded with brass tacks, which looked very neat, as if they had just been laid, instead of a hundred and sixty years ago! The vault was not disturbed, but covered with concrete beams and the stone floor. The vault is in the south transept of the church, close to the entrance to the chantry chapel.

James Banks, brewer, was the youngest child of the above John & Ann Banks. He gives his trade as brewer, at the time of the 1831 census. He married Susannah, but they had no children. He, like his father, also served several years as Churchwarden. At the 1851 census he is described as a ‘Brewer and maltster, employing six men’.

James owned several inns including The Lamb, and The Oddfellows Arms, both in Devizes, The New Inn at Chippenham, The Carpenters Arms at Lacock, The Raven at Poulshot and The George at Rowde. Also inns that were not tied to other breweries and many off licences around the area were supplied with Bromham brewed beer. The Shoulder of Mutton Inn in Bromham High Street was one such.

Susannah, the wife of James, died in1861 and he died two years later. That James was a wealthy man at the time of his death is shown by his will where he leaves his house and the brewery, 24 acres of land and five cottages in Bromham and six inns to his nephew, John, the son of his late brother John. He left £500 to each of the other children of this brother. He gave £200 each to Jane Stugg of Bon’s Cottage (now 18 Horsepool), Bromham and too her two children. He gave to - ‘Margaret Beames, spinster, now residing with me, £500.’

John Banks, the nephew and beneficiary, of the above James married Mary Ann Gee at Bromham in 1865 and they made their home at Bankside. They were soon blessed with two daughters, Mary and Ellen. Sadly, Mary Ann died in May 1870, aged 29. The next year, 1871, the census shows John, a brewer, living at Bankside, he is given as being aged 40 and as a widower. Also living there at this time is his mother Betty, and his two young daughters, Mary aged three, and Ellen aged one. Later John married again, this time to Harriett. The 1881 census shows that there were only two persons at Bankside on census day. They were John and Harriett; it is likely that his daughters were away at boarding school. At this time John is described as a brewer employing six men and two boys.

When in 1886 the Shoulder of Mutton Inn, in Bromham High Street, closed the members of the Bromham Working Men’s Club found themselves without a meeting place. Hearing of this John Banks turned one of his properties; now number 2 The Chantry, into a licensed clubhouse with his brewery providing the drink. The drinks licence was transferred to the new premises. Ever after that the licence for the club read: ‘Bromham Working Men’s Club, The Shoulder of Mutton’.

John is still brewing beer at the time of the census in 1891; shown living with him at Bankside then is his second wife, and his two daughters from the first marriage. In 1893 John was owed £362 5s 0d by Thomas Hughes of the Heddington beer house (now the Ivy Inn), this sum was made up of £282 5s 0d for beer, and £80 for eight years rent. Therefore, it appears from this that John owned the Heddington pub and had been rather lax about collecting his dues.

The Brewery Closes

About 1896 the Bromham brewery ceased to brew beer; and then Messrs Wadworth & Co. Ltd, the brewers of Devizes, supplied the inns and the club-house with drink. John Banks died on 4 July 1903, intestate, leaving his wife, Harriett Susan Banks, and his, now married, daughters Mrs Mary Nuth and Mrs Ellen Dore as his co-heiresses. Bankside, and the garden was then leased, on 25 March 1904, to Mrs Elizabeth Catherine Wiltshire, at the yearly rent of £35.

A sale was held on 4 July 1912, at the Bear Hotel, Devizes (3). Included in the sale was Bankside, the Working Men’s Club house and the other lands and buildings that lately belonged to John Banks. The sale was held on behalf of his two daughters.

Two of the cottages that originally belonged to James Banks (died 1863), and were mentioned in his will, were included in this sale. These were at (present numbers 94 and 96) The Common; and they were purchased by John Spicer, of Spye Park.

Bankside and the brewery buildings were purchased by William James Rendell, a builder, of Devizes. In the sales catalogue mention was made that:

‘Anyone considering the purchase of this Lot should give careful thought to the amount of building material contained in the Brewery Buildings, which if removed and converted into cash would realise a considerable sum’.

It was during Mr Rendell’s ownership that the actual brewery buildings were demolished. The associated brewery outhouses, stables, coopers workshop, etc that stood to the east, near the top of the hill, remained and continued in use as farm sheds etc until they were demolished prior to the dwellings at Church Hill Rise being erected on the site; this was in the 1980s.

Mr Rendell sold Bankside, the house, outbuildings and land totalling two acres and three perches, on 23 March 1922 to Francis Jesse Hughes, a Bromham butcher and farmer, for £950. Soon after this F. ‘Jesse’ Hughes and his wife Lena moved to live at a farm at Seagry, Wilts. Their daughter Vera had just married Bertram Akerman and so the newly weds then lived at Bankside, with ‘Bert’ farming the land at nearby Common Farm; this also belonged to his father-in-law, Jesse Hughes.

Jesse Hughes died on 12 May 1936, aged 65, and then his widow and their younger daughter, also called Lena, returned to live at Bankside; and Bert and Vera Akerman moved to farm at Kington Down, West Kington, Wilts.

Later that same year Jesse and Lena’s daughter, Lena M. Hughes, married Ivor Thomas at Bromham Church and they made their home at Bankside. Lena E. Hughes, the elder, died on the 17 July 1959, aged 86. Her son and two daughters were her executors and Trustees. On 27 April 1960 the property ‘Bankside’ was transferred to Lena M. Thomas, she having purchased it from her brother and sister.

Ivor and Lena M. Thomas had two daughters, Shirley and Juliet. Lena died in December 1964 and the house passed to her husband and two daughters. Juliet married Stuart Nash and they made their home at Bankside along with her father.

On 1 September 1966 H. R. ’Ron’ Sutton, a builder, of Calne, purchased from Ivor Thomas the area of land that lay between Bankside and the parish church, which was at one time part of the brewery complex, the coopers shop, stables, etc. On 3 October 1969 outline planning permission was given for ten dwellings to be erected thereon. This development is known as ‘Church Hill Rise’.

Juliet, Stuart and their family continued to live at Bankside until 1992 when Ivor, Juliet and her sister Shirley, Mrs Roger Pope, sold the house to Mr Michael Wey. Juliet and Stuart then moved to a house in Hunts Mead. Michael Wey lives at Bankside today.

References

• 1. WSHC. 518/12. Leases etc. cottages and property, 1630 – 1819.

• 2. H.E.D. page 172.

3*. WSRO 2816/155/5. Sales details, 1912.

© Dennis Powney, Bromham