Warn & Sons Ltd

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Warn tetbury.jpg
An advert from 1913

Warn & Sons Ltd, Barton Brewery, Church Street, Tetbury, Gloucestershire.

Founded 1766.

In 1903 merged with the neighbouring Witchell brewery.

Registered 1927.

Acquired by the Stroud Brewery Co. Ltd in 1913.

The Barton site was cleared for a car park in the 1960s.


WARN’S NOTES FROM PAUL BEST

Source: Will of James Warn 17th April 1775

This will states that James Warn was formerly from Huntingdon and is a victualer in Tetbury. James bequeaths to his wife, Eleanor Warn, the sum of £14.00 of lawful money of Great Britain on four equal quarters. James Warn’s son, Robert, was named as the benefactor to inherit all of his father’s business and property in Tetbury and elsewhere in the kingdom.

Source: Will of Robert Warn 5th June 1816

Robert continued his fathers business and traded from “a house under the name of the Horse Collar”. Robert names his son, John Warn, as executor of his will, giving him the option of “purchasing the horse Collar and all of my stocks of liquors and malt at a good price”. Robert bequeaths to his daughters, Hannah Rowe £150 and £1,000 to Mary Warn, Elizabeth Hill and Jane Hill, along with a number of cottages to gentlemen of the town. Clearly a man of means.

Source: County Records Gloucester

John Warn continued the family business once again at the Horse Collar and on 6th March 1827, marries a Mary Brown his second wife. In 1835 they have a son, William Warn. John Warn dies in 1838 leaving the business to his wife Mary Warn.

The exact location of the Horse Collar is unclear, however, it may well have been on the site of the brewery in Church Street. James’ will has a number of properties drawn in plan form in church Street, which do not tie with early 19th century plans. The Horse Collar is not mentioned after 1840, however, William Warn used this for a trade mark along with established 1776 on his tone jars and paperwork, advertising etc.

Mary Warn is listed on the 1851 census as a widow trading as a brewer and wine and spirit merchant trading and living in Church Street, Tetbury. The 1881 census states Mary Warn (nee Brown) 82 years of age, widow, retired brewer.

Her son, William Warn, married on 14th June 1860, Eliza Baldwin Witchell, at Yatton Kennel, Wiltshire. She was a member of the Witchell brewing family of Tetbury and that William was a brewer and wine merchant employing 10 men.

William died in 1909, leaving the Barton Brewery to his two sons, William John, known as Jack, and Charlie Warn. The brewery was sold to theStroud Brewery Co. Ltd, in 1932 and closed.

The parish church of St Mary, Church Street, Tetbury, contains the family vault with the majority of the family contained inside. William and Eliza Baldwin are in a grave by themselves. The brewery was demolished circa 1966 to make way for a car park, Old Brewery Lane and a recent housing development, Warn’s Court. This actually looks onto part of Thomas Henry Witchell’s Dolphin Brewery (still standing) all of which is approximately 600 yards from St Mary’s Church.


An assortment of images of the brewery

Entry in the Trade Mark Registry

Registration No  : 81,168
Description  : Two wings & horseshoe
Date of Application  : 13/10/1888
Used Prior to 1875?  : NO