History of The Colchester Brewery Co Ltd
Colchester Brewing Co. Ltd History
The information below was all gained from information within the Public Domain that has mostly come from the web.
History
A masterful Quaker, Robert Hurnard, of Kelvedon, together with his one time apprentice, Christopher Stopes, opened a brewery on East Hill ‘on a humble scale’ in 1829 (it was only in 1834 that slavery was abolished in all of our territories and the railway only got to Colchester in 1843, Thorpe-le-Soken 1866 and Clacton-on-Sea 1882). They were later joined by Robert’s son James and ‘stove to brew the best in all the thirsty town of Colchester’. On his father’s death in 1866 at the age of 91, James sold his interest to Christopher Stopes and retired from business. The brewery was now known as the Eagle brewery, hence the use of the eagle emblem of the later Colchester Brewing Company.
The Beerhouse Act of 1830 (Queen Victoria came to the throne in 1837) was introduced with the intention of curbing the consumption of spirits especially gin, which was the scourge of many a working class family. Consequently many private houses opened as Beerhouses, but couldn’t sell wine or spirits. The last Colchester beerhouse (The Stockwell Arms, West Stockwell Street) was granted its full licence as a public house in 1958, its earliest known date was 1871. I can remember this as a very popular, packed lunch time favorite with many office workers before it became PC not to drink at lunch times and more often than not to work through your lunch break!!, that’s probably why it closed early in 2007 and is now up for sale. Also at this time another popular Colchester lunch time pub was the “Bay & Say” next to the Hippodrome in the High Street, this is still a licensed house but called “After Office Hours” yet another sign of the times!
Kimber, Gross & Nicholl’s, was founded in 1830 as a porter brewery behind St Botolph’s Street in Colchester and had by 1851 become Charrington, Nicholl & Co. Ltd and moved to the bottom of East Hill. St Botolph’s Beer Brewery, north of St Giles church was bought by J.P.Osborne c 1835 and converted to a vinegar brewery, but ceased manufacture c. 1854.
In 1851 there were three maltings at the Hythe in Colchester, convenient for the import of barley and the export to London of malt.
Before the 1872 Licensing laws, most ale and beer was brewed in outhouses (brew houses) at the rear of Ale Houses, Public Houses and Inns. The 1872 Act prohibited “brewing in sheds and backhouses” which gave the larger breweries a great advantage; I wonder if the law was brought in to increase the government’s duty it could raise?
The larger breweries, using new mechanized methods, grew at the expense of the smaller ones. The Stopes family, by now owners of the Eagle Brewery on East Hill, took over Cobbold’s on North Hill in 1882. Those two breweries were merged in 1886 with the firm of Arthur T Osborne, son of J P Osborne. Then in 1887 this brewery was acquired by the Norfolk and Suffolk Brewing Company, a company which had been formed only the previous year as an amalgamation of various brewing interests in the area. In that same year, the company was given the new name of ‘The Colchester Brewing Company, Ltd’ with the head office and brewery at the Eagle Brewery on East Hill. It owned 319 licensed houses, 63 of them in Colchester.
In 1888 the Eagle Brewery on East Hill was rebuilt, with a red sandstone tablet inscribed ‘12th May 1888, H Stopes, Architect’. At this time one Arthur Othniel Stopes was Managing Director of the Colchester Brewing Company. He was born in 1850 and died in 1916 being buried in Colchester Cemetery.
The first record I could find of The Apple Tree in Little Clacton was the census of 1886 when a George Payne ‘Beer Retailer’ was listed as living there. Tim believes the Apple Tree was once owned by The Colchester Brewing Company. I can remember the pub in the 1970’s when it was run by Mr. & Mrs. Lewis (my wife used to do Mrs. Lewis’ hair). At that time the pub hadn’t been extended to the left, only having two bay windows. As you walked into the pub the left had side was the public bar and to the right was the smaller saloon. The car park was at the front of the building as in the aerial photograph hanging in the bar shows. The Lewis’ had two sons, one of which still lives in the village, he runs a building firm having constructed several local properties.
The other village pub (The Blacksmith’s Arms) dates back even further, it is really nice to still have two pubs in the village when so many villages don’t even have one. For at least two hundred years the ‘The Blacksmith’s Arms’ must have borne its name after the nearby smithy. Often in the old days an inn-keeper was a blacksmith by trade. The front of the pub was the scene of the fair which was held each year at the Parish Church’s patronal festival, St James Day, July 25th, until abolished by order in 1872 due to rowdy behaviour. In 1806 (during the Napoleonic Wars) the Cameron Highlanders were stationed at Weeley. On the 25th July a party of them (in company with some local girls) visited the fair. At the Blacksmith’s Arms villagers were dancing and making merry. The landlord made another room available to keep the parties apart. The soldiers, probably the worst for drink, burst in on the locals, upon being challenged drew their bayonets. The countrymen seized any weapons to hand; the intruders were outnumbered, and staggered away up the street, with the villagers in hot pursuit. One of the Highlanders, Alexander McDonald, had hurt his foot in jumping from an upper window. He was overtaken near Amerell’s Farm and attacked and died of his wounds. The four men accused of his murder were acquitted by a jury at the County Assizes. A century later a bayonet, left behind in the fracas, was still being exhibited at the Blacksmith’s Arm’s. Alexander McDonald is buried in a shady corner of Weeley Churchyard. I have found reference to the land at the side of The Blacksmith’s Arms (which is now Hayes Garage) which during World War 2 was the site of an Artillery Battery.
The Colchester Brewing Co. Ltd was well known for brewing stout (they also brew ‘Old King Coel Strong Ale). The notion of a stout as an accompaniment to oysters seems to have been behind their “Oyster Feast Stout”, brewed around 1900 to celebrate the annual oyster harvest on the River Colne. This style of this beer is maintained by ‘The Stable Brewery’ home of ‘The Maldon Brewing Co Ltd’ also popularly known as ‘Farmers Ales’. They brew a ‘Maldon Oyster Stout’ that celebrates the Maldon Oyster Festival on 1st September. It is brewed with local Blackwater oysters supplied by the Maldon Oyster Company.
The larger breweries competed with each for control of tied houses whose numbers were limited by the licensing laws. Charrington, Nicholl & Co. Ltd’s at East Hill remained a family firm supplying its own public houses until it was taken over c 1920 by the Colchester Brewing Company, which in turn (as a result of the death of a major shareholder)in 1925 became part of Ind Coope Ltd, which merged with Allsopp & Sons Ltd in 1934. The takeovers were designed to accumulate more tied houses rather than more brewing plant (sounds familiar).
The old Eagle Brewery was towards the bottom of East Hill near the Nicholls Mineral Water Factory. Deliveries to their alehouses in and around Colchester were by a fleet of horses and carts. When Ind Coope took over in 1925 (as they had a brewery at Romford) the East Hill premises where just used for storage and local distribution which continued until 1987. I can clearly recall the large gateway (very like a Roman Triumphal Arch) into the yard which stored beer barrels in the 70’s and 80’s. The Romford Brewery site (beside Romford Railway station) is now a shopping mail. Ind Coope Ltd in Romford was the largest brewer in Essex. In the early 70’s Essex still had three small independents, however two of them (GE Cook & Sons of Halstead and Gray & Sons of Chelmsford) closed in 1974. The third (TD Ridley & Sons Ltd of Hartford End) was taken over by Greene King in 2005. However the name of the Colchester company lived on as the Colchester Brewing Company Ltd of 120 Station Street, Burton-on Trent, and became Ind Coope (East Anglia) Ltd, around 1962.
The Brewery building was both listed (grade II) and in one of the town's conservation areas. It dated back to the original brewery started by C Stopes in 1828 and re-built 1888; it ended up being some 7,000 sq ft of space. On the façade of the building there is now a sign showing three dates 1928 (started) 1888 (re-built) and 1988 (renovated). After the old brewery was sold it was turned into multi-occupancy offices and renamed as Eaglegate, harping back to the original name of the brewery on that site. There was an unsuccessful spell on the lettings market as offices. Then in 2003 Developers Mersea Homes applied to turn the grade II listed Eaglegate building into ten new homes. They also wanted to put up a new building in the adjacent yard to take five more apartments.
The once golden eagle perched high up on the building’s façade (having become a less impressive black), is still perched there as a lasting testament to the building’s former glory! The foundation tablet (mentioned above) on the right hand side of the building at pavement level, had the name of The “Colchester” Brewing Company erased during World War 2 as a precaution against invading Germans knowing which town they had reached. One might have thought any invading Germans would have a shrewd idea where they were thereby avoiding the need for Dad’s Army to deface such an important monument. Below is some information about various Public Houses’ once owned by The Colchester Brewing Company Ltd.
Cross Keys, Culver Street & Long Wyre Street, Colchester
The Cross Keys was first mentioned in the alehouse recognizance of 1764 but would have dated from before then. A book covering Essex Brewers refers to the Cross Keys Brewery in Culver Street, which was previously the White Horse and Wine Stores. It states that brewing ceased in 1880 after Bridges, Cuthbert & Co Ltd (Colchester) had commenced brewing in 1866. It passed to the Norfolk & Suffolk Brewery Co Ltd and then to the Colchester Brewing Co. Ltd.
Memories of this house are given in a book by George Pluckwell who recalled it as, 'being an ancient house of Tudor atmosphere, with its steep tiled and cobbled roof and heavy timbered interior beams’. It stood on the south east corner of Culver Street East and Long Wyre Street and was closed and demolished in 1970 (and the town lost another delightful pub), to make way for the building of Caters supermarket, now another name from the past.
The Key, Ipswich
Towards the end of the nineteenth century, the name changed to "THE RUNNING BUCK" (renamed the ‘The Key’ in 1999). This coincides with the first photographic record of the building which shows it to be owned by The Colchester Brewing Company. By 1897 the roof sign reads "Tollemaches Ales, Stouts & Spirits". Their steam brewery operated in Upper Brook Street. I spent many a happy hour (no pun intended) in this pub back in the early 70’s as this was a favored venue with the group of people I mixed with. It had several bar’s all with a different theme (which must have been ahead of it’s time) we liked the cowboy bar best! Our favored pubs in Clacton were the Oakwood (before being much enlarged but with a corresponding decrease in atmosphere) and the Lion’s Den (long before it smelt of cat’s!! and eventually shut!).
The Fox, Boxted
In 1871 the head of the household at Lilley’s beerhouse in Church Street, later known as The Fox in Boxted , was Salome Lilley aged 15. With her brothers, Abraham, aged eight, and Henry, aged two, they managed the pub until Abraham became landlord. Their father, Obadiah, had left home, and their mother had died of fever. While the property was owned by the Lilleys, the beer was supplied first by Josiah Cole of the Queen’s Head, and after the 1872 Act, by the Colchester Brewing Company. In 1905 Greene King & Sons Ltd of Bury St. Edmunds bought the property from Abraham Lilley. Salome Lilley married the gardener from Boxted Hall.
The Butcher’s Arms, Beccles
From a Beccles newspaper printed in January 1914, I found a licensing application made by the Colchester Brewing Company to gain Building Approval made to the Police Court (would now be known as a Magistrates Court). This was to add a new side entrance and porch, which was approved.
The Colchester Brewing Company Ltd – memorabilia
I live about 100 yards from the Apple Tree, I recently got a local builder to build an extension, when he dug out the footings he found an old beer bottle from The Colchester Brewing Company. This is a very old (at least from 1925) green, champagne threaded bottle with an embossed trade mark golden eagle. This could have come from the Apple Tree being brought by a farm labour and left in the ditch at the side of my property, which until the early eighties was the car park of Orchard Lea (formally Street Farm). In any event I bet Tim (the pub Landlord) would give me the original deposit back!
Then on eBay I purchased a refreshment token for 1 ½ d produced by the Colchester Brewing Company, these tokens where apparently produced by institutions and businesses, like Breweries, Public Houses, Chapels and co-operatives in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. They could have been given to employees of the brewery as part of their wages or as a benefit that could only be spent in one of the companies establishments. These tokens could be used to purchase refreshments; beer in 1885 would have been about a penny ha’penny a pint of Ale. I have also acquired an old Colchester Brewing Company share certificate; I found information listed on the web from the ‘Stock Exchange Official Yearbook’ of 1895 so it was obviously a PLC at one time. When I left British Telecom I was given a valedictory certificate for ‘the contribution you have made over more than thirty five years with the company’ this came in a nice frame, which I have put to a far better use holding the share certificate!