Devenish & Co. Ltd

Devenish & Co. Ltd, Hope Square, Weymouth, Dorset

Devenish & Co. Ltd, Chapel Street, Redruth, Cornwall

It is thought that brewing has taken place on this site since the 13th century. The current enterprise was founded in 1742 by the Fowler and Flew families, and acquired by William Devenish in 1824. Registered in 1889 as J A Devenish & Co Ltd and name was changed as above 1965.

Mallett's Brewery of Truro was acquired in 1921.
Carne's Falmouth Brewery was also acquired in 1921 and brewing ceased in 1926.
Aylwin & Snowden of Exeter was acquired in 1925.
In 1934, they acquired the Redruth Brewery Co. Ltd. For information on Redruth, see: Cornish Brewery Co. Ltd.
They acquired the adjacent Groves & Sons Ltd, Hope Brewery, Weymouth in 1960 with 115 public houses.

330 tied houses. Brewing ceased at Weymouth in November 1985 and was concentrated at Redruth as the Redruth Brewery (1742) Ltd. The company closed the Redruth brewery (which became independent) in 1991, and became a retail pub company. The tied house estate was acquired by Greenall Whitley & Co. Ltd in 1993.

List of Devenish & Co (Weymouth) pubs

Groves & Devenish Redevelopment

Nigel Smith, Weymouth Museum Volunteer writes:-

The Devenish brewery ceased brewing in Weymouth on 12th November 1985.

Following a redevelopment as ‘Brewers Quay', the main Weymouth brewery building hosted the Weymouth Museum along with other retail and hospitality businesses for many years until the whole building closed suddenly in 2011. After some false dawns, a new redevelopment of the building is well-advanced and will lead to a largely residential complex of apartments, with the impressive early 20th century brewery façade essentially retained. In addition, on the ground floor of the redeveloped brewery building will be space for a long-awaited new Weymouth Museum.

In the meantime Weymouth Museum has a small pop-up presence in the town and, as one of a series of themed exhibitions, the museum is planning to commemorate 40 years since the closure of the Devenish Brewery in Weymouth, in recognition of the importance the brewing industry once had in the town, and the historic significance of the Devenish name throughout the South-West of England. Starting on 12th November and running until the end of January 2026, the small pop-up museum will play host to a display of artefacts and pictures from the museum collection of Devenish and Groves items.

In addition, the museum will be inviting former brewery workers to come into the museum to discuss their recollections of their working life, some of which will be recorded for posterity. We also plan to hold events featuring invited speakers and demonstrators. The programme is being finalised and details will be communicated on the Weymouth Museum Facebook page. When the new Weymouth Museum opens in a couple of years in the redeveloped brewery site, it is intended that it will devote some space to telling the Devenish and Groves story.

Courtesy Paul Hathaway:

Weymouth Harbour, taken from a ship on the east side of the Harbour looking towards towards Hope Square and the Devenish and Groves Breweries. Hope Square is to the rear of the buildings in the dead centre of the picture. The white building on the right of the is the Old Rooms Inn, while the building with the two cream porticos is the Cove Inn, both now closed. The Old Rooms was one of the last pubs to be gas lit.

Various views of the Weymouth brewery

One of the sixty year old Lancashire boilers being scrapped. Manufactured by Galloways of Manchester. Courtesy Geoff Martin.
Delivery of a new package boiler. Parked in Hope Square waiting to be winched into position. The wall at the back of the photo, opposite the front of the brewery, was the coal bunker. Courtesy Geoff Martin.
Installation in 1963 of John Thompson Multipac boilers from Glasgow. The boiler room, clean and freshly painted, very different from the solid fuel grime. Courtesy Geoff Martin.
1990