Henry Skingley

Henry Skingley, Coggeshall, Essex.

Henry Skingley, Senior, bought his first public house, The Fleece, at Witham in 1769 and was then recorded as brewing at The Bell Little Coggeshall, with a cottage at Mans Green, Coggeshall converted to a small malthouse. He had a son also named Henry who was born at Coggeshall in 1801 and was involved with the brewing business, which continued to expand, his father having purchased the Hare and Hounds at Greenstead Green and the Rose and Crown, Halstead in the 1780's, also five houses in the Colchester area. The following were bought in 1788:-

• The White Lion, Fullbridge
• The Queen's Head, Nayland
• The Angel, Witham

Purchases of public houses continued in the 1790s, making this firm one of the earliest to be involved in the tied house system of public houses.

Henry Skingley Junior, who inherited the business from his father which included twenty-three licensed houses, sold out to Robert Tabor, of Colchester, in 1807, for the sum of £26,000.

In 1839 Henry purchased Wakes Hall and in 1863 he bought Lane Farm (Wakes Colne), no doubt from the profits from the sale of the brewery. He had at least two sons, the youngest named Walter. There is a family vault in Wakes Colne churchyard. In 1839 Directories, a Samuel Skingley is recorded as a limited company of brewers and maltster, so it is evident that Henry Skingley Junior's other son continued some brewing concern in Coggeshall after the main business had been sold. This was possibly at the malthouse at Man's Green.

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