Brewery History

The Labologists Society

Brewery History

Currently we have only two brewery histories within this section, as listed below. These have both been provided by two active members of the Labologists Society. We thank them for their efforts on our behalf and acknowledge
their copyright. We hope to expand this section as our site is developed we would of course welcome submissions form members and non-members alike.

Style & Winch Ltd, Kent © Copyright Keith Osborne 2000.
John Joule & Sons Ltd © Copyright Steve Baker 2001

John Joule & Sons Ltd © Copyright Steve Baker 2001

The Joule family originated from Youlgreave near Bakewell in Derbyshire. Their involvement with the brewing industry starts in the mid 18th century with the two sons, William and Francis. William moved to Salford in Lancashire to establish a brewery while Francis went to Stone in Staffordshire. Although it was Francis's business which was to become pre-eminent, William's branch of the family still made their mark on history as his grandson, James Prescott Joule was born in the Salford brewery in 1818. He was to find fame as a physicist and gave his name to the standard measure of energy, the Joule.

In 1758 Francis Joule (Maltster) is recorded as being in possession of the White Horse Inn where his business prospered. The inn was demolished in 1767 and Francis built a house on the site which later became the brewers house. It was in the same year that brewing was transferred to the Kings Arms Brewery in the High Street. This had been established in the early 1600's and claimed to be the oldest brewery in the country. In 1780 a public brewery was established to supply Francis Joule's own premises and other public houses in the town. This date is accepted to be the foundation of the of the brewery.

The brewery thrived and in 1797 more land was acquired in the High Street to expand production. Francis's son, John Joule assumed management of the brewery in 1813, changed the name to John Joule & Sons and continued to run it until his death in May 1858. John had three sons who followed him into the brewery trade, the eldest joined a brewery in Burton-on-Trent but the second son, John Smith Joule became brewery manager and the youngest son Head Brewer at the Stone Brewery. John Smith Joule took his brother in law, Mr W. S. Matthews, into partnership and these two ran the company until their retirement in 1873. At this time the business passed into the hands of two brewing families from Liverpool, Mr Thomas Harding, his son John and Mr John Parrington all of the Brunswick Brewery, 57/59 St. James Street Liverpool. The company grew steadily under their management and was incorporated as a limited company in 1898.

The brewery continued trading throughout the first sixty years of this century but the London brewers Charrington & Co. purchased a 50% interest in the company on 30th September 1968. The remaining shares were purchased in 1970 and brewing continued until closure in 1974. The most famous product of the brewery was "Stone Ale" and the name was copyrighted to Joule's in 1888. Throughout the late 19th century this beer was exported to Europe, Australia and America, where the San Francisco Chronicle of 14th July 1887 commented that "the quality of this famous old English ale, so long and favourably known to that market, is today the same as it was twenty-five years ago, and is to be found as a favourite in many of the English alehouses in town".

In 1919 Joule's won the Silver Medal at the National Exhibition of Brewing & Allied Trades, followed by a Bronze Medal in 1925 and the Bronze, Silver and Gold Medals in 1926. Further awards were gained in 1932, 1935 and 1937. Stone Ale was judged the best Class 4 bottled beer (original gravity 1047 - 1055) and awarded the Brewing Trade Review Challenge Cup in 1957. The trademark of Joule's was a red cross but this had to be displayed on a green background to avoid confusion with the International Red Cross organisation.

The story of John Joule & Sons mirrors that of the British brewing industry but perhaps they are best remembered by the words of Alfred Barnard, writing in 1889, "Who has not heard of Stone Ale, that ancient and wholesome beverage, whose praises have been lauded in prose and song for nearly 150 years" ?

© Copyright Steve Baker 2001

The Medway Brewery occupied a site on the western bank of the River Medway, just beyond Maidstone Bridge, for 170 years. The original structure was built by William Baldwin of Stede Hill, Harrietsham, in 1806. The brewery site appears to have been enlarged by the purchase of an adjoining distillery in 1815.

Baldwin was the sole proprietor until 1836, when the brewery was operated under the partnership of Baldwin & Godden. In 1847, a Mr. Holmes joined the partnership and the style of the business was altered to Baldwin, Godden & Holmes, becoming Baldwin & Holmes in 1858. The brewer Albert Frederick Style, born in Kirby Overblow, Yorkshire, appeared on the scene in 1866, the partnership of Holmes & Style lasting to 1882, when A.F. Style & Company was formed. Style was a wealthy man, it seems, by 1881: the Census of that year reveals that he lived at Boxley House, Boxley, and had 10 servants.

The small brewery of Spencer Bow Swinfen & Sons, at 22 Week Street, Maidstone, was bought by A.F. Style & Company in 1889. The date of establishment is given as 1834, although it probably started as a home brewed public house (it adjoined The Fountain Inn at 24 Week Street). Swinfen's Week Street Brewery produced home brewed ales for families and also sold Bass and Allsopps Burton ales, Guinness's and Mander's Irish Stout, and Courage & Company's London Stout and Porter, as well as Devonshire cyder and Worcestershire perry. S.B. Swinfen was a widower, aged 68 by 1881; he lived on the premises with his son, Alfred, and employed 5 men and 4 boys in the business. The premises extended back to Wyke Manor Road, and in later years they were used as bottling stores for the Medway Brewery. The buildings on the Week Street frontage continued as an off licence for many years afterwards.

An important landmark in the development of the Medway Brewery came in 1899, when A.F. Style & Co. amalgamated with Edward Winch & Sons Ltd. of the Chatham Brewery, High Street, Chatham. The new firm - Style & Winch Ltd. - owned 256 public houses. Edward Winch had taken over the running of the Chatham Brewery from the Best family by 1862, the firm having been founded around 1666 by Thomas Best, and expanded by the local purchases of Mrs. White's Brewhouse in 1751 and Colonel Frederick's Brewhouse in 1767. The Chatham Brewery had a Boulton & Watt steam engine installed around 1799 and it was also fortunate in securing naval contracts owing to the
presence of the nearby dockyard. It had been operated by James Best from at least 1832 to around 1850, then by M.G. Best. Edward Winch's son, George, a solicitor of 2 New Road, Chatham, had, the previous year, bought a brewery for his own son, E.B. Winch: the Biggleswade Brewery, which became Wells & Winch Ltd. George Winch became Chairman of Wells & Winch and joined the board of Style & Winch. The Chatham Brewery, meanwhile, was closed and demolished and the Theatre Royal was built on the site.

The Medway Brewery had been rebuilt between 1887 and 1899 and was therefore able to meet the demands of the amalgamated business. It was a massive structure, taking up both sides of St. Peter Street and extending up to the Maidstone to Strood railway line. New makings were built in 1908 and new bottling stores opened in Acorn Wharf, Rochester in 1914. There were also bottling stores at Electric Avenue, Brixton, London, and later at Princes Wharf, by Albert Bridge, Battersea.

Over time, the brewery used two different devices to advertise its beers. In 1884, a decorated jug and goblet was registered as the firm's trade mark. Massive examples of these two vessels were displayed on the weather vane at the brewery for many years. But in 1926, the renowned Maidstone Pale Ale was replaced with 'Farmer Ale', with the labels depicting the Kentish farmer, an elderly gentleman wearing a smock and tight breeches, holding a bottle of beer in one hand and a hat and stick in the other. 'Farmer Stout' was also introduced. The jug and goblet was still used to advertise Brown Ale, Oatmeal Stout and Stock Ale to 1947, but thereafter, the three main bottled beers -Farmer Ale, Farmer Brown and Oatmeal Stout - illustrated the Kentish Farmer on the labels.

Considerable business expansion took place in the years 1905 to 1924, when a number of breweries were acquired and closed.

H. & 0. Vallance's business in High Street, Sittingboume was the first purchase in 1905. William Vallance had the brewery in 1832 and by 1845 was in partnership with his son, the brewery being run by J. Vallance by 1852. The Sittingbourne Brewery was then run by George Payne to around 1878, when Thomas William Vallance took control.

Another brewery bought in 1905 was Henry Simmons' Style Place Brewery, on the outskirts of Hadlow. Brewing had started in the 1830s - probably as a sideline to farming, William Simmons being listed as a farmer and brewer in 1847. By 1852, both William and Henry Simmons were running the concern at
Style Place but before 1855, William Martin was taken into partnership and this lasted to 1863; around 14 licensed outlets were owned. After the brewery was sold to Style & Winch, farming continued, the former brewery buildings being part of Style Place Farm. They have now been tastefully converted to housing and are known as Caxton Place.
The Tooting Brewery Ltd., in High Street, Tooting, South London, with its 14 pubs, was sold to Style & Winch in 1907. The firm had been formed in 1901 to carry on the business of the late Charles Attlee, trading as Attlee & Co.

The next acquisition was Ashford Breweries Ltd., of the Lion Brewery, Dover Place, Ashford, in 1912. The company had been formed in 1898, taking over the business of Thomas Chapman & Sons, which included Walter M. Richardson's Original Brewery in Brewer Street, bought in 1895 (formerly Thomas Lewis Elliott's Brewery). Chapmans had built up a considerable business, with stores at Hastings, Hawkhurst, Tenterden, Lenham and Staplehurst and agencies in other parts of Kent, Sussex and London. They supplied H.R.H. the Duke of Edinburgh, who resided at Eastwell Park, and the Royal coat of arms was included on their advertising. Alfred Barnard, when he visited the brewery in the early I 890s, tasted the firm's 'Golden Ale' which had been renamed 'Royal Ale' in honour of the Duke, and also sampled 'Chapman's P.A.', and 'Superior Bitter Ale'. The Lion Brewery, erected in 1850 by D.B. Green, had traded as Green & Loud and then as Sharman & Cooper, being bought by a Mr. Newport in November 1866. Two years later, Thomas Chapman, who ran a brewing and malting business at Lenham, established by Mr. Mercer in 1785, bought the brewery and transferred his brewing operations to Ashford, retaining his Lenham premises for malting. Following a fire in 1869, the Lion Brewery was rebuilt. After Style & Winch's purchase, the premises, adjoining Ashford Railway Station, were used as stores until 1921 when they became Style & Winch's cyder factory, trading as Ashford Valley Cyders Ltd., producing KC cyder. They were demolished in 1971.

A further opportunity came for expansion at the end of 1912, when another Lion Brewery closed - this time at Chatham. Charles Arkcoll had taken control of the brewery around 1870. The family were mainly grocers, provision merchants and bacon curers at Romney Place, Maidstone. When Charles Arkcoll died in 1912, the brewery business folded and the employees received generous payments under his will. A firm of wine and spirit merchants acquired the business for £75,000, later reselling the tied houses to Style & Winch. The premises were being used in the 1960s by Curtiss, removers and storers

Another Medway Towns brewery fell to Style & Winch in April 1918. 'This was the old established firm of Woodhams & Co. Ltd., of the Troy Town Brewery, Victoria Street, Rochester. Founded in 1750, the brewery traded as Henry Shepherd in 1832 and by 1858, Tomlyn Shepherd's Celebrated Stock and Pale Ales were being widely advertised and available as far as Devonport, Devon. By 1870, Lewis Levy had taken over the brewery, giving way to Woodhams & Company by 1877. A limited company was formed in November 1895. In October 1906, the nearby Frindsbury Brewery, in Frindsbury Road, Strood -operated by Henry Ludwell Dampier - was purchased and later sold to Lyles, mineral water manufacturers. Woodhams' Brewery premises were still standing in the 1990s, opposite Rochester Police Station.

A further 42 pubs and 2 off licences were added to Style & Winch's estate when they bought Edwin Finn & Sons Ltd., of the Pale Ale Brewery, High Street, Lydd in 1921. Edwin Finn had established his business in 1862, when he bought Catherine Green's Sun Brewery, which had traded from about 1830. Finn then acquired Alfred White's brewery in the High Street around 1878, and transferred his brewing operations there, using his old premises for producing ginger beer. A new brewhouse was built in 1885 and the business converted into a limited company in 1896. After the closure, the brewery was bought by Mr. Kenward of Kenward & Court, Hadlow, for the production of a low alcoholic beer for export to the United States, but this was not successful. The buildings have now disappeared.

A large shareholding in The Royal Brewery (Brentford) Ltd., of 23 High Street, Brentford. Middlesex, was bought in 1922, bringing with it 102 pubs and off licences. The beer was supplied by Style & Winch under an agreement and the premises closed on 2 June 1923. Around 1926, the brewery was demolished and the site incorporated into the Brentford gas works. The Royal Brewery had been established before 1828 as the Red Lion Brewery, when it was owned by Felix Booth, who contributed £25,000 towards an expedition for the discovery of the North West Passage by his friend, Captain James Ross. Booth was granted a baronetcy by King William IV, who expressed a wish, following a visit to the brewery, for the title of the brewery to be altered to the 'Royal Brewery'. By 1852 the brewery had passed to Carrington & Whitehurst, later being owned by Gibbon & Croxford. In 1880, it was bought by Montague Ballard, the Maidstone hop grower and incorporated as a limited company in
1890.

Style & Winch's final purchase, jointly with its subsidiary. the Royal Brewery, Brentford, in 1924, was the Dartford Brewery Co. Ltd., in Lowfield Street,
Dartford. The company trade mark was a heart with a dart through it. Formed in 1897 with 67 public houses, the business absorbed Miller & Aldworth Ltd. which had itself taken over the Tasker and Fleet breweries in Dartford. The new company set about expanding still further. William & George Bartram Ltd., of the Bridge Brewery, Tonbridge, was absorbed in 1902. Established in 1814, the business had been conducted by Anthony Harman to 1850, when bought by the Bartrams; William died in 1882 aged 71 and his son, Reginald Henry, carried on the business with George Bartram until the purchase by Dartford Brewery. Bartrams were advertising their cask beers and bottled Pale Ale and Extra Stout in the late 1880s. The brewery was demolished in 1905 for Street widening. The Dartford Brewery went on to buy T. Norfolk & Sons Ltd., Deptford Brewery in 1904; New Northfleet Brewery Co., Northfleet (1907); and Smith & Co. (Lamberhurst) Ltd., Lamberhurst Brewery (1922).

One of the directors of Style & Winch was H.W. Tyrwhitt-Drake, who joined the firm in 1886. His son, Sir Garrard Tyrwhitt-Drake, was Deputy Chairman. He ran the famous zoo park and circus at Cobtree Manor - said to be the inspiration for Charles Dickens' Dingley Dell.

A controlling interest in Style & Winch Ltd. was acquired by Barclay, Perkins & Co. Ltd. of the Anchor Brewery, Southwark, in March 1929. Barclays financed the purchase with a £500,000 mortgage debenture stock issue. By that time, the Medway Brewery supplied 600 tied houses. Style & Winch Farmer Ale was added to Barclay's range of bottled beers but the Medway Brewery was allowed to continue operating under its own name, producing a range of draught and bottled beers for its own trading area, although these were supplemented by Barclays bottled beers. So the sign of the Kentish Farmer was a familiar sight up to 1956, when Barclays merged with Courage and the name "Style & Winch" was dropped. The brewery continued to brew under the Courage & Barclay banner and was still in operation when Courage Barclay & Simonds was formed in 1960. Brewing eventually ceased at Maidstone in 1965, and the distinctive landmark was torn down in 1976. A shopping mall and road link for a second bridge over the River Medway were later built over the site.

© Copyright Keith Osborne 2000.