The Rogers of Bristol Story

THE STORY OF THE JACOB STREET BREWERY

INTRODUCTION

This is the story of W.J.ROGERS of Bristol who owned the Jacob Street Brewery from 1845 till taken over by H&G Simonds Ltd in 1935. In 1960 Simonds was taken over by Courage & Co. Ltd and apart from a few buildings the connection with brewing finished. After this it was used by the Bristol Cooperative Society as a warehouse. The story ends with the building being called Company House, part of the Castlegate complex. I hope in this article to elaborate the story so far.

Rogers was well known for the beer called the 'Bristol Old Beer' a very flat and stale beer made of three year old and new beer, it was apparently flat, dark and very well drunk when it was mulled. How did 'Rogers' start and what happened when the Brewery became another part of commercial Bristol falling into partial disuse in the late 1970s.

BEGINNINGS 1845 - 1899

In 1845 there was a brewery in Jacob Street which was much smaller than it was in later years; in 1846 there was a John Rogers who had an a licence to retail beer from the various breweries in Bristol. This John Rogers in 1852 brought the Jacob Street Brewery for his own use and still kept his building at 90 Old Market Street as his office.

1865-1869 the Brewery was being run by William John Rogers a son of the original John Rogers, it became known as W.J.Rogers of Jacob Street Brewery. W.B Gingell and possibly Lysaght designed and rebuilt the Jacob Street Brewery in the well known 'Bristol Byzantine style of architecture', the building when approaching the brewery from Old Market Streets struck people with its noble appearance, massive walls, and classic style of architecture. The premises consisted chiefly of one great big block of buildings, constructed of pennant stone and brick, and ornamental Bath stone facings: the whole brewery surmounted by a lofty water tower, more anon. At the side of the brewery there was a large yard, around which were subsidiary buildings and sheds, a great loading shed and offices.

The establishment had two frontages, one in Jacob Street, the other (and more importantly) in Old Market Street, both are of handsome and ornate design, this being the work of Gingeli and Lysaght.

The Bristol Byzantine style of architecture was around this period used by a number of architects, Gingeli was one of these architects who used this style, among the buildings at this time he designed, was the Liverpool, London and Globe insurance(now National Westminster Bank) in Corn Street, Gingeli designed a lot of the buildings in Corn Street.

The Mathews Directory of 1869, has the following details of the brewery: the owner was W.J.ROGERS, described as a Maltster, Brewer and Hop factor of Jacob Street Brewery, his residence was the well known area of Bristol at Redland Park, the house he lived in was called Glenthorne Villa.

The brewery used the 'Burton' system of brewing: the tower constructed at great expense was 100ft high, 40ft in length and 20ft wide, to reach the top it was 8 storeys high. The water used for brewing came from a well which was thought to be 300ft in depth, it contained water of fine quality, which was used for the beers; as rule, hard water was used for Ales and soft water used for Porter. The water was pumped up from the well by two 'Galloway Lancashire' boilers of the tubular type, 30 feet long by 71/2 feet diameter, both double-flued, with patent cross tubes, pressure and water valves, the heating for the building came from here.

The majority of the equipment in the brewery was made by G Adlam & Son, of Bristol, they provided most of the vessels and machinery used in the brewery. The beer vats kept in the cellar were made of oak, stood on 2 feet high bricks piers, the vats themselves were 30ft high.

This brewery along with the other breweries had its own works department, this was situated in Jacob Street at the side of the building in the large courtyard, in this courtyard you had the coopers' shops, cask repairer, cask store, and a boiler shed, all around the courtyard was hidden from view by old 3 storey houses. Further along Jacob Street you came to the maltings which covered a large expanse of ground, these buildings look as if at one time they were used as religious houses. The maltings were erected in the form of an oblong quadrangle, with an open space in the centre, they were between 3 and 4 storeys high with 12 malting floors and six kilns. The central courtyard was used for numerous drays and wagons belonging to the brewery. It also contained a builder's yard and a dwelling for the head maltster. Cheese Lane was used for the storage of the casks of ale and beer.

The turn of the century found the brewery in a very healthy state, brewing India and Pale ales and the famous Bristol Old Beer which was described at the beginning. The brewery also had its speciality beers, one of the best was the Rogers' A.K. shilling ale, it was a bright sparkling beverage of a real golden colour, and has a light hoppy taste. At this time Rogers' did not bottle ale, he did brew large qualities which he sold to London and country bottlers under his specially registered 'Monarch brand' label. The beers were dispatched and sold in the South and West of England and South Wales. The business was also carried out in London and a number of district offices. In London at Snow Hill was where the company had its stores for the area.

In 1899 offices and a cork-washing shed were built which greatly enhanced the output of the brewery which at this time and into the early 20th century continued to grow.

1900-1935. YEARS OF CONSOLIDATION AND CHANGE

The turn of the century found the Jacob Street brewery working to capacity and improving on its service to the brewery trade in its many areas of operation.

In 1912 a new innovation was made by the 'Rogers' brewery this was the purchase of a number of motorized brewery drays, the lorry was built on two-ton Halliford chassis and the body work provided by the Bristol Tramways & Carriage Co Ltd. Rogers had a number of these wagons which were very reliable and well liked by their drivers. They still used the horse drawn drays but by the late thirties had finished with them, George's the other main Bristol brewery still had horses in use until the early 1950s.

In an article published by the local newspaper in the 1920s mention is made of the extensive building carried out in the late 19th century. Apparently a subway was run under Jacob Street to join the old premises to the new block of buildings,( I wonder if this is the place where the new offices and cork-washing plant were built?). This second block was erected on a portion of an old Benedictine Priory many old stone coffins were found in the course of excavations. Of interest is that number 40 Jacob Street was owned by a gentleman called Henry Wright who was a beer retailer; his home was called Somerset House. Two Public Houses in the area of Jacob Street were called the 'Prince of Wales' which was at the corner of Jacob Street, and Tower Hill and 'The Golden Bowl' at number 69 Jacob Street which was by the side of the Local Church, more of the two Public Houses later, also more on the Church.

In the First World War the brewery supplied beers to the troops on Salisbury Plain, as strangely did H&G Simonds Ltd the later owners of Rogers. The brewery from 1912 onwards won awards for its fine ales and beers, to date 12 awards have been won.

The brewery at this time in the 1920s, under the leadership of the grandson of the owner W.J.Rogers had continued to expand the company, the grandsons name was Mr Tracy Percival Rogers. The recent companies acquired included the Anglo-Brewing Company this included all its local and district properties, the licensed properties of J and T Usher Ltd (Bristol) and W.G.Reynolds(Bath). At this time the company employed 230 workers.

In 1930, according to the 'Bristol Directory' No 40 Jacob Street was now owned by the brewery and became their Wines and Spirits department, the brewery now had a completely new case department.

Many of the houses in Jacob Street were owned by the brewery and many of the workers lived there, they were a form of tithe cottages, the buildings were 3 storeys high and came right up to the side of the brewery.

1935 was the last year that the Rogers family had control of the brewery, it might be interesting to note the entry in the Copy of the 'Bristol Directory' for that year before take-over by H&G Simonds Ltd of Reading. the Jacob Street Brewery was trading under the name 'ROGERS', trading number 23286, it shows that the buildings connected to the brewery operation were; 40 Jacob Street, 82 Old Market Street, Broad Plain, the registered office was at the offices in Jacob Street.

1935, H&G Simonds gained control of the Jacob Street Brewery; Simonds had been founded in Reading in 1785 and had grown over the years by buying other breweries, their position meant that in Victorian times the brewery supplied the British army at Aldershot, outposts such as Cyprus, Gibraltar and Malta. In 1908 they had an interest in a brewery in the Sudan.

In the expansion of the 1930s they took over a number of brewers including locally, Cirencester Brewery, Stiles of Bridgend, and Marsh of Blandford.

1935-1960. RUN DOWN AND CLOSURE

1938, apart from the Munich Crisis also a sad time for the old Rogers name, the company was formally liquidated as being bankrupt, after this time it was known as H&G Simonds Ltd. As far as I can tell the Jacob Street brewery still carried on brewing beer for another 17 years.

The 1940 'Bristol Directory' mentions that the buildings were now under new ownership of Simonds.

The war years seem to be a lean time for information I do know that around this area it was heavily bombed in the Blitz, the shops in Tower Hill, Wine Street basically the whole of the then shopping area was destroyed.

After the war brewing was still happening until the end of the 1950s, I believe 1952. In my possession I have the tenants details for the 'Prince of Wales', the tenant was Mr F Tanner, who at the 18/3/52, had ingoings of £270-12-6, his rent was £42. Incense of £16. The property adjoining the Public House was number 4 Jacob Street, the persons name was A Spriggs and it was a service occupancy. The details for the 'Golden Bowl' are for the 23/5/55, the tenant was a Mr W.W.J Tucker, his ingoing was £368-5-5, rent of £60 and his licence fee was £21-7-6d. The service occupancy next door was in 1 David Street.

By the end of the 1950s the houses in Jacob Street were starting to be pulled down by the Council as unsafe. By this time even bottling had finished and the buildings housed a number of various works departments and other ancillary people and jobs, no 14 Jacob Street had become a works canteen in 1950.

In 1960 Simonds Ltd were taken over by Courage & Co. Ltd to become a part of the new brewing company in Bristol, George's in Bristol also became part of the the new group. Simonds was able to provide 1200 tied houses, hotels and catering establishments as well as a chain of retail wine and spirit shops under the name Arthur Cooper Wine Merchant Ltd.

NEW BEGINNINGS 1960-1973

Simonds Ltd still had a presence in Jacob Street until 1966 when the case department moved to Counterslip the main Courage building, 1961 had seen the works department move to the main depot in Bath Street. The rest of the houses had been demolished by the early 1960s.

Bristol Cooperative Society decided this was the ideal position to build a new Grocery Distribution Depot, from 1962-1973 it was used by them, the side of the brewery was built a 10 bay for loading and unloading, in Old Market street a new modern building was built replacing the old entrance. This housed the offices for the Society, including the Bristol Cooperative Chemists and the advertising department.

The Street was always narrow and with the size of lorries getting bigger they started to find the depot was far from ideal, the wail at St Phillips and St Jacob, with Emmanuel, kept getting knocked down, in the end Cooperative Retail Services took over the old Bristol Cooperative Society around about 1972-73, they then moved out to Whitby Road.

By this time a lot of change had occurred, with the building in 1968 of Temple Way this cut right through Jacob Street, the 'Golden Bowl' had gone by now. The split in the Street still causes problems today.

NEGLECT 1973 - 1978

The period of these 5 years shows up the change from being a busy Brewery to being used by a second hand furniture company and a camping company. The Old Market Street side of the old brewery which had the modern building became ' New City' which sold 2nd hand furniture. The old Jacob Street Brewery housed a camping showroom called 'Casey's Camping' the tents were put up on the wooden floors and had the ties nailed down on to the floors. I believe Bristol University used part of the building for storage.

The building was soon to enter an exciting change by a firm of developers called M.P.KENT.

THE NEW ERA BEGINS 1978-1995

Acquired by Kents who also bought the land around Tower Hill which had the 'Prince of Wales' and various shops including 'Veals' fishing tackle shop, 'Blakes' surgical spares and lawn mower repairs, and the 'Spring Chicken' Cafe, this was a good old fashioned cafe. The church nicknamed 'Pip n" Jay' used to send the tramps from the churchyard here for their meals! All this land was going to become, The Castlegate Complex of offices, the building in Jacob Street was kept very much as it was because it was a listed building, till the end it had the old Water tower on its roof which had at one time 'Bristol Cooperative Society' on its sides. The majority of the building saw very little change the vaulted cellars are the same as they always were, the sample room is still there. The two photographs provide a good idea of the changes made. The building was called 'Church House' this name did not last long because in Bristol there was another building of the same name, now with the sale to 'BEAZERS' it became its present name 'Company House'.

When 'BEAZERS' took over the building they made minor changes, converting the old offices to a garage, making a car park outside, purchasing land from the Council.

The building still has a connection with a Roger - his name is Roger Baines the owner of 'AMTRAK' the parcels people.