The original Exchange Brewery was established in 1820 and purchased by Edward and Robert Tennant in 1840. The brewery on Bridge Street was completed in the 1850s. The company was first registered in 1882as Tennant Brothers Ltd and merged with Whitbread & Co in 1962, when over 700 public houses were owned. It then became known as Whitbread East Pennines. Final closure came in 1993.