F. W. Soames & Co. Ltd
F W Soames & Co Ltd, Nag's Head Brewery, Mount Street, Wrexham, Clwyd.
Founded in about 1750 and was acquired by F W Soames in 1879.
Registered April 1931.
Formed part of Border Brewery Ltd in 1931.
The brewery chimney survives with a large "S" logo; and the Nags Head is still trading.
(The following information is from Wrexham Museums:)
The brewery straddles both sides of Tuttle street. The brewery building beingon your left and the old Nag's Head on your right, next to which were morebrewery buildings now demolished.The brewery had an excellent reputation. A 19th Century guide to thebreweries of Britain commented:
"A visitor who had passed through Wrexham without sampling the homebrewed of the Nag's Head would have been regarded as having failed in his principle and most obvious duty, and as a very eccentric personindeed."
The brewery was run by a successful father and son combination, William &Thomas Rowlands between 1834-74. The ambitious Henry Aspinall thenbought the brewery which he renamed The Wrexham Brewery Co. He boughtland by the church to expand his brewery and got into a big dispute with thetown as the locals thought this land off Tuttle Street was a public park. Hecame down to earth with a bump when declared bankrupt in 1879.The new buyer was Arthur Soames and he put his 21 year old son, Frederick,in charge as manager. In ten years Frederick had transformed the business,built a 50 quarter brewhouse and the bridled horse logo was getting knownwell beyond Wrexham. Barnard in his great 1892 tour of British brewerieswaxes so lyrically about Soames' brewery, you have to think that he mighthave written about his time in Wrexham after a liquid lunch at his hosts'expense.
In the First World War, the company had a lucky break when one of theirrequisitioned motorized drays was hit by a shell while on duty on the WesternFront. The firm managed to get hold of a picture and it made great patrioticadvertising for the rest of the war. Frederick Soames even had a new fivestorey brewhouse built in 1920.
Frederick's death and the depression led to hard times for the brewery. In1931 the company merged with Island Green (already passed) and DorsettOwen of Oswestry to form Border Brewery Ltd.
The brewery chimney in 2012. Photo Tony Beattie:
File:WrexhamWrexhamSoamesBry TB Jun12.jpg
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