Staines 2024

Thomas Harris' Knowle Brewery Brewery 2024.Courtesy Mick Connors

Thomas Harris' Knowle Brewery Brewery 2024.Courtesy Mick Connors

Ashby's Brewery 2024. Courtesy Mick Connors

The Thames Side Brewery 2024. Courtesy Mick Connors

Staines Brewery based walk

Start at the Old Red Lion, Leacroft, a country pub in the town which was built around 1610.

The name Staines derives from the Old English stān, meaning "stone” and may refer to a Roman milestone on the London to Silchester road or possibly from a stone circle on the Surry bank of the Thames. Staines-upon-Thames was originally called by the Romans Ad Pontes, then in Anglo Saxon as Stana and later Stanes (and sometimes Stains), Stanis (1167), Stanys (1428), Steynys and Staynys (1535). Stanes is also mentioned in the Domesday Book, owned by Westminster Abbey.

Leave the Old Red Lion, walk down Kingston Road past a closed garage that was the location of Tamplin Cars which was run by a member of the Tamplin & Sons Ltd family.

As you reach the town end of Kingston Road there is a building on the right (currently a Mexican restaurant) bearing the trade mark sign of the Staines depot of Stansfeld & Co. Ltd, of the Swan Brewery, Fulham.

Turn back and find a turning that leads to the rear of the police station. The buildings on the left when facing the police car pound are the remains of the Thomas Harris (Surrey), Knowle Green Brewery. Unfortunately, there are scant details about the company, including when the brewery was started. Most reports state that brewing began when Thomas Poulter Harris set up the brewery in 1871 and run it until it was taken over by his son Thomas Fladgate Harris six years later. However, other sources state that the brewery was apparently originally located close to Thames Street and only moved to Knowle Green around 1827, some fifty years earlier. Brewing continued until 1903 when Thomas Fladgate Harris died. At that point the brewery and its 94 licensed houses were bought by Ashby's Staines Brewery Ltd for what was then a bargain price of £200,000. Along with the brewery and the pubs, they acquired 23 freehold cottages as well. Ashby’s Brewery paid for their expansion by selling half of the tied houses to o Watney, Combe, Reid & Co. Ltd and much of the brewery equipment by auction. According to the BHS, brewing stopped when Ashby’s took over but a local history group said that brewing here continued for a further ten years, ceasing by 1913.

After the brewery go down Station Path back to Staines Station (previously Staines Junction and later Staines Central to differentiate it from the other two Staines stations!). The station was opened in 1848 by the Windsor, Staines and South Western Railway (later LSWR) as part of its line from Richmond to Datchet, later extended to Windsor & Eton Riverside.

Go over the railway line via the 1881 footbridge (noting the LSWR roundalls), down Gresham Road, left into Budebury Road noting Sweep’s Ditch, then right into Edgell Road, past the ex-Ashby’s house The Beehive dating back to at least 1874 (in 1979 it served Courage Best, in 2024 the same!) and down to the Grade II Listed St. Peters Church, built in 1894.

Walking down the Thames Path, we looked across the river to Timsway, original home of the Thames Side Brewery. Walk under the wrought iron Railway Bridge which was built in 1856 and note the slipway and hauling post. On the riverside face of the Railway Bridge are three vertical rollers which date from the early 19th Century (presumably before the bridge was built?) and were to prevent the towropes of the barges from fraying and causing damage to the bridge.

We rejoined the Thames Path beside the ex-Woolpack, then Packhorse and now Thames Lodge Hotel, noting the wild hops growing! Note the ex pumping station for Sweep’s Ditch, then cross the road to the ex-BUPA building. After that, meandered back to Station Path to see the back side of the Knowle Green Brewery, Thomas Harris (Surrey) and the ex-public loos! We left Station Path past the ex-Garibaldi pub and under the Iron Bridge. Cross the road and into the pedestrianised part of the High Street. I should have shown you the position of the ex Staines Town Station which was opened in 1884 and closed early 1916.

Next we passed Barclay’s Bank which once was Ashby’s Bank although this is not the original building. We’ll take a look at the ex Angel And Crown Commercial Hotel, once one of Staines’ finest. Just past this is a rather jolly statue which represents the Staines Linoleum Company and is called Roll out the Lino (otherwise known as “Release Every Pattern”.

1863 saw the opening of the Staines Linoleum Company, founded by businessman Frederick Walton to produce his new invention of Linoleum floor covering. The basic principle behind the manufacturing process was discovered by Walton in Staines and he set up his factory in a former mustard mill at Hale Mill. In 1929 the company merged with the firm Barry Ostlero and Shepherd Limited and continued trading under the name of Barry and Staines Linoleum Limited. Linoleum stopped being made in Staines in 1969. The plant was transferred to Newburgh –Tyneside floor coverings.

We took a look at the old Blue Anchor pub which has 15th Century origins, but the present Grade II listed building is early 18th Century. It still retains many of its original features and has five false windows, owing their existence to a “window tax” introduced in 1696 and repealed in 1851. It closed as a pub in 2006.

After walking past the ex-Debenhams (previously Kennards) and crossing the road, we arrived at the old Market Square. The weekly market has been held here since 1218 at least, when the Sheriff of Middlesex granted a Charter. The Grade II Listed Town Hall here was completed in 1880 in a Flemish Renaissance style. However, there’s a slight flaw – if you look closely at the front dial on the clock you will notice two XI, one at 9 and one at 11. The somewhat tatty phone boxes have a separate Listing. Sir Walter Raleigh was committed in an earlier incarnation of the Town Hall in 1603. On the side of the Town Hall, as we passed, hopefully you looked up to see a plaque which remembers “The Trafalgar Way”. This is the 271 mile route taken “express by post-chaise” by Lieutenant John Richards Lapenotiere between 4th & 6th November 1805. He travelled from Falmouth to the Admiralty in London, carrying the news of the momentous victory and the death in action of Vice Admiral Lord Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar. Next to the Town Hall is the ex Fire Engine Shed, also listed but now in a somewhat sorry state. The K6 phone boxes are also listed but not properly looked after. After Spelthorne Council moved into purpose-built buildings at Knowle Green, was demolished and replaced by the Regal Cinema, later ABC and Cannon. This closed in 2001 and was demolished.

Crossing the River Colne (a very tenuous brewing connection being that Benskins Ltd once brewed the legendary Colne Spring Barley Wine near the source of the river), past the Slug & Lettuce and we noted the most attractive pub in Staines – the Swan in the Hythe. Next was the Last Hop which was very briefly [[Thames Side Brewery]]’s third home. Once Jimmy Spice, this opened as a brewpub in May 2022 but the pub owner fell out with the brewery so they moved out some 6 months later. This was the site of Bridge House Hotel which closed in 1937 and was demolished and replaced by the Regal Cinema, later ABC and Cannon. This closed in 2001 and was demolished.

Staines’ attractive bridge is (at least) the fifth one. The first was built by the Romans – it is believed that two Roman bridges crossed each of the town's rivers, the Colne and then the Thames at Church Island. The second wooden bridge (mentioned in a document in 1222) was repaired several times, notably after damage in the Civil War, before On the Surrey bank was the Lagonda factory which was founded in 1906 in Staines by American-born Wilbur Gunn.

He named the company after the Shawnee settlement "Lagonda" in modern-day Springfield, Ohio, the town of his birth. They were taken over by Aston Martin in 1947 and the factory was sold to Petters Engineering who used it until 1988 when Sainsbury’s took the site over.

Church Island is to the south of Ashby’s land which was sold to Harry H. Gardam (Engineering) Co. Ltd . One local historian suggested that barrels of beer from Ashby's Staines Brewery Ltd were transported here by chain ferry, then taken across the island and loaded onto boats – this seems unlikely as the river bank was brewery land and looks deep enough.

The old chain ferry, although looking a bit sorry for itself, is still moored to the north side of the island and is still used sometimes. Oh yes, you may remember that Thames Side Brewery's first home was Tim’s Boatyard – here was the first home of Tim’s Boatyard!!! Nearby is the wondrous Daybreak, the last sailing cargo vessel built in the UK (1934).

We took a quick look at the recreation ground, originally called Church Lammas. This was once common land but in 1884 John Ashby bought it, removed Commoners’ rights and enclosed the land. However, in 1922 he gave the land back to the community and named it the Ashby Recreation Ground. Bad feeling remained about the removal of Commoner’s rights and eventually the land reverted to its original name. The London Stone was located here for years.

We walked back down Church Street and take a brief look at the church. The Mediaeval town of Staines grew up in this area south of the church and beside the bridge in an area known as Binbury. St. Mary’s Church is built on what was thought to be a Druid’s holy site and the Domesday Book (1086) records that the “Vicarage of Staines was held by the Abbey of St. Peter, that is, Westminster”. Most of it was rebuilt in the 19th Century when it became unsafe although it’s (contentiously) thought that much of the original Inigo Jones Tower remains. Members of the Ashby family and Thomas Fladgate Harris are buried in the churchyard.

The late 18th / early 19th Century Grade II Listed wisteria clad house on the corner of Vicarage Road and Church Street is named Corner Hall and was once owned by the Ashby Family. It may also have been the Vicarage at some time. The Bells pub dates from the 17th Century and was an Ashby’s pub. Further down on the right side of Church Street is an interesting row of buildings, once Ashby family residences. The industrial estate was originally engineering works, sold by the Ashbys after the brewery closed.

On the left we came to number 57 Church Street. Ashby's Staines Brewery Ltd was founded by Thomas Ashby here in 1783. He was a Quaker and soon his family would become the most influential in the town. He first brewed beer in his own house, like many others and business was conducted in a fairly basic way (he was reputed to take casks of beer to his customers on a wheelbarrow!). By 1796 the brewery company was sufficiently prosperous for its owners to also establish Ashby’s Bank6 which later became a company in its own right, even printing its own bank notes until 1844. Thomas started the bank from the same address as the brewery, later moving it into the High Street. The Old Barclays Bank building that was demolished in the 1960s was the Ashby’s Staines branch when they took over the Middlesex and Surrey Bank run by Caggan Morris & Co (with branches at Chertsey and Egham) and there is a building in Egham still bearing the legend Ashby’s Bank. In 1903 the remaining partners decided to dispose of the business and merged with (‘were taken over by’) fellow Quakers Barclays in 1904.

In 1820 Charles Ashby and Henry Crowley (related to Thomas’ wife) bought a brewery at Croydon and Henry’s brother Abraham started a brewery at Alton with Thomas Ashby’s eldest son Thomas in partnership for a while. For a time there was a branch brewery at Kingston in which Thomas Ashby’s youngest son Francis had an interest with Samuel Thorne, originally of Chelmsford, the husband of Thomas Ashby’s daughter Phoebe. After the death of Francis in 1837 the Ashbys didn’t continue their involvement.

After the death of Thomas Ashby (the second) in 1841, the Staines brewery continued to be run by Thomas, Charles and Frederick Ashby. A few years later Thomas retired from the brewing business and concentrated on banking.

Morris (the eldest son of Henry Ashby) joined the board and the company was renamed Charles Ashby & Co. By 1842, they were advertising in the Times Ashby’s Australian Pale Ale which the advert described as: “the most pleasant of all the different sorts of bitter beer that we have ever tasted.” A later advertisement, from the following year, declared that Ashby’s had been exporting to “the Australian colonies” since 1829 and the beer “resembles the East India pale ale in flavour and colour, with rather more body.”.

Meanwhile, in Cobham, another branch of the family came to control a brewery. The son of Mary Ashby took over the brewery in Cobham and renamed it Ashby's Cobham Brewery Co. Ltd. There were no apparent commercial connections between them and the Staines brewery and interestingly enough this connection is not mentioned by Robert Ashly in his online history of the Ashby family.

Closer to home, in 1850 they opened a store at the railway arches at Waterloo Station and did some London trade. In1886 the partners, Charles, Frederick William, Thomas, Henry, Francis and Ernest, sons and grandsons of the original partners, turned the concern into a private limited liability company, Charles Ashby and Company Limited with Charles, the senior partner, becoming the Chairman. By this time they had over 200 licensed premises.

At the brewery they sunk a 360 ft deep artesian well through the London Clay that Staines lies upon to ensure that they had a supply of pure water for the brewery. They also malted on the premises – the original malt house is still intact on Wraysbury Road.

In 1899 it became Ashby's Staines Brewery Limited which prospered and in 1903 were able to modernise, expand and upgrade the brewery including introducing steam power and the fine brewery tower dates from then (the crown has its own separate listing). They took over Thomas Harris (Surrey)'s Knowle Green Brewery, Kingston Road, Staines in 1903; Headington & Son, Wellington Brewery, Denmark Street, Wokingham in 1920; and Wheeler's Wycombe Breweries Ltd in 1929.

Ernest died in 1912 and Francis in 1913 and from then on there were no representatives of the Ashby family on the board. Ashby Brewery was acquired by H and G Simonds Ltd in 1931 and went into voluntary liquidation in 1936 with brewing on the site ceasing then. It was retained as a distribution centre. Simonds was subsequently taken over by Courage & Co. Ltd in 1960.

Courage continued to use the old brewery as a depot mainly for the free-trade and there was hop storage for the Anchor Brewery at Horsleydown on site as well as an independently operated Cantrell & Cochrane depot there. Later, part of the brewery site was used to build Courage’s HQ, named Ashby House. After Courage lost its independence, the office closed and was redeveloped (interestingly enough, although it looks entirely different, only the outer cladding was changed and the steel structure was re-used).

The Ashby’s name also lived on in Staines with the Ashby’s Recreation Ground, although that was re-named the Lammas in 1993. Note that there was another ‘Ashby Brewery’ in the country, Ashby's Eling Brewery Co. Ltd, of Totton near Southampton but as far as I can find out the families were not at least closely related – nor are the American Ashby Brewing Company in Minnesota or the Brazilian Cervejaria Ashby related either! You may also find Tollgate Brewery’s Ashby beers due to their location in Ashby-de-la-Zouch!

We walked into Wraysbury Road and crossed the road. There you saw the ex-Malt House of the brewery, Grade II Listed. Next door are the Mill Cottages, also listed. Opposite is the ex-Great Western Railway’s Staines West Station. The building was constructed for Charles Finch, the owner of Pound Mill, whose grand residence nearby later became the GWR station house (an unusual station in that it pre-dates the introduction of railways and has become a private building again after the railway closed). The Staines & West Drayton Railway, later GWR, line ran from Staines to West Drayton via the edge of Staines Moor and opened in 1885 but got ‘Beeching-ed’ in 1965. Some freight trains continued but the line was lifted in 1981 for the building of the M25.