John Beard

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CoggeshallBeardChurchSt01.jpg

John Beard, Church Street, Coggeshall, Essex.

Founded c.1810.

Acquired by Charrington, Nicholl & Co. Ltd. 1905 with 11 tied houses for £16,000.

Still standing.


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

A Joseph Beard was awarded a silver medal in 1805 for inventing a cotton and wool carding machine suggesting that the Beard family were involved in Coggeshalls oldest industry. The family commenced brewing in Church Street around 1810, with John Beard controlling the brewing business for forty-eight years up to his death in 1905.

In addition to brewing there was also a retail corn, hay and straw business with the coal trade averaging 168 tons per annum. Prior to John Beard taking over the management in 1857, a George Beard ran the concern from 1823-1824. On John's death the premises were sold including a 15 qtr malting with the brewery noted as being of 5 qtrs, which produced 1500 barrels per annum. Other brewers products (excluding Salt & Co. Ltd, Burton, for whom they were agents) amounted to an additional 300 barrels per annum. The business was sold at the Red Lion Hotel, Colchester, on 30th May, 1905, including eleven public houses which were sold for a total sum of £16,000. The purchaser of the Church Street Brewery was Charrington, Nicholl & Co. Ltd of Colchester, who in turn were to become part of [[Ind Coope Ltd]. on 31st August, 1925. At the census taken in 1887 there were seven employees at the brewery, with Frank Beard, brewer, resident in East Street. There was also a William Harwick, a brewer, listed in Church Street.

In 1886 the brewery is advertised as an agent for [[Salt & Co. Ltd]'s East India and Burton pale ales and Barclay, Perkins & Co. Ltd's London stout (note the lower case letters used). Other occupations run with brewing included a dealer in hops, hay and coal and an agent for The Royal Fire and Life Insurance Company. The brewery remains mostly intact, the front offices recently occupied by the Conservative Club, a covered archway leads to the rear yard in which stands a partly timbered decorative building and the brew house extension to the rear of the main office building in Church Street.

In 1866, Beard and Valters were listed in Church Street as brewers, but no other information is known about Mr Valters and his evident short partnership. Some parts of the building date back to 1690 when it was occupied by John Buxton, but there is no evidence that neither Burton nor the earlier Arnold family had been engaged in brewing on this site.


An assortment of images of the brewery