This article contains wording that promotes the subject in a subjective manner without imparting real information. Please remove or replace such wording and instead of making proclamations about a subject's importance, use facts and attribution to demonstrate that importance.(February 2013) ( Learn how and when to remove this message )
Thwaites still produces beer on a smaller scale. The Brewery invested heavily in nitrokeg beers in the 1990s,[5] but is now working to increase the market for its cask beers.[6] Thwaites unveiled their new craft brewery in 2011.[7]
In 1999, the Mitchell Brewery in Lancaster closed down and was bought in part by Thwaites. Lancaster Bomber, an ale named in honour of the Avro Lancaster, has since been available from Thwaites public houses after being acquired in the takeover and is now brewed by Marston's, as is Wainwright, another Thwaites beer.[8]
Born in 1777, Daniel Thwaites began brewing in Blackburn, Lancashire, in 1807, when he joined the 'Eanam Brewery' in partnership with local businessmen Edward Duckworth and William Clayton. At the age of 31, Daniel married Edward's daughter Betty, who later inherited her father's share of the company following his death in 1822.[9]
The Brewery became the sole property of 'Thwaites' in 1824 when William Clayton sold his remaining share of the company to Daniel.[9]
Daniel and Betty Thwaites went on to have twelve children - four sons and eight daughters. Daniel Thwaites Jr was born in 1817, the sixth of their twelve children. Daniel Thwaites Jr and his brothers John and Thomas later inherited the Brewery following the death of their father, Daniel Thwaites Sr, in 1843.[9]
The 1850s saw the growth of the Brewery and increasing prosperity for the Thwaites partners. Thomas left the partnership and, following the earlier death of his mother and the retirement of his other brother, John, Daniel Thwaites Jr became the sole owner of the Brewery in 1858. One year later, he married Eliza Amelia Gregory and they had a son, Edward, who died in infancy, and a daughter, Elma Amy Thwaites.
The official announcement of the dissolution of the partnership published in the London Gazette on 25 February 1859 stated that it was by mutual consent.
Meanwhile, following the purchase of the Snig Brook Brewery in 1863, the Brewery continued to prosper and increase in its size. During this period of expansion, Eanam Brewery heightened production to provide 100,000 barrels a year by 1878. [citation needed]
Additionally, the business adapted to various pieces of legislation, introduced by Gladstone's Liberal government. The 1869 Wine and Beer House Act gave licensing power back to the magistrates and was intended as a measure of control over the more unsavoury beer shops. It was followed by the Intoxicating Liquor Licensing Act of 1872, which introduced higher license fees, licensing inspectors, reduced opening hours, restrictions on the sale of spirits to those 'apparently under the age of 16', and increased penalties for licensing offenses.
By 1897, Thwaites was registered as a Limited company. Following this business expansion, Thwaites bought James Pickup Wines & Spirits Company and then Henry Shaw & Co, which owned the New Brewery in Salford. In 1925, Thwaites began bottling its beers and in 1927, purchased Fountain Free Brewery.
In 1946, Elma Yerburgh died, leaving colleague Albert Whittle to look after the Brewery. The Brewery continued to expand, purchasing the Bury Brewing Company in 1946 and the Preston Brewery Company in 1956. In 1966, the Eanam Brewery was extended and renamed Daniel Thwaites' 'The Star Brewery'.
There were many Thwaites public houses in Blackburn by the 1960s. Daniel Thwaites' ales had become popular throughout East Lancashire. 1966 saw the opening of the new £5.5m Brewery and brewhouse, followed in 1972 by a new £3m bottling plant.
The 1970s and 1980s saw the purchase of Yates & Jackson of Lancaster. Throughout this time, John Yerburgh, Elma Yerburgh's grandson, was the Brewery's chairman.
In 2002, John's wife, Mrs. Ann Yerburgh, became the Brewery chairman. John died in June 2014.[10]
In 2017, Thwaites was granted planning permission to build a new Brewery, stables, and head office in Mellor, around 5 miles from its current location in Blackburn.[11]
Shire horses
The sound that was continuously heard in Blackburn throughout the 19th century was the clattering of horses' hooves along the cobbled streets. The majority of these were workhorses. Stable lads would lead the Thwaites horses out of the stables in Syke Street, across the road (until the end of the 19th century when the stables moved to the Brewery site), and into the Brewery yard where they waited patiently for their carts and drays to be loaded with the day's deliveries. These 'gentle giants' were a familiar sight in Blackburn for many years. In the 1920s however, most breweries decided to put their shire horses 'out to grass' and switch to motor transport. In 1927, the last of the Thwaites shire horses were led out of the Brewery for the last time.[citation needed]
By the 1950s the shire horse had practically ceased to exist. But in 1957 an enterprising young manager called David Kay of Thwaites' soft drinks department wanted to bring the Shire dray horses back. Two years later, in 1959, he got his wish and was allowed to introduce two dray horses to the Brewery's local route. He was convinced that the dray horses would not only attract good publicity for Thwaites but would be financially advantageous against the backdrop of rising fuel costs. On May Day in 1960 the first two shire horses were led out of the new Thwaites stables.[citation needed]
In 2016, Thwaites acquired a third horse that has been named Gunner to celebrate 13 Guns, a beer produced by the company.[citation needed]
Recent history
2010 marked fifty years of the reintroduction of horse-drawn deliveries after they ended in the 1920s. To celebrate the anniversary, a commemorative sculpture featuring three of the Shire horses in a unicorn configuration was commissioned.[citation needed]
Picture of a present-day Thwaites pub, with the new Thwaites logo
Thwaites started with ten public houses in 1807. Based at the Star Brewery in Blackburn, Thwaites now owns an estate of around 270 pubs, and a portfolio of inns and hotels, and spas, which traded under the Shire Hotels banner until 2016 when they were brought under the Daniel Thwaites name.[12]
The family tradition continues to this present day. Richard Bailey is chairman and chief executive officer and members of the Yerburgh Family are Non-Exec Directors.
In 2011, Thwaites announced plans to build a new Brewery.[citation needed]
At the end of 2011, Thwaites installed a new 200k craft Brewery within the Star Brewery in Blackburn named 'Crafty Dan'. Featuring three new fermenters, Crafty Dan enables Thwaites to create up to three new beers a week as well as one-off brews to mark special events. In 2016, as part of a drive to bring all parts of the business under a single brand, investment was undertaken to expand the small craft brewery under the Thwaites banner.
In January 2012, Thwaites agreed to purchase the free trade interests of Hydes Brewery.
Thwaites' proposed closure of its Star Brewery in 2014, with 60 brewing redundancies. Resistance led to staff temporarily switching off the H, I, and E in the company's Brewery sign to spell "Twats".[13] Thwaites' inability to select an alternative site for its Brewery and to conclude a deal to sell its site to Sainsbury's received criticism from the local press and brewing industry.[14] The Tandleman blog suggested that apart from the beers produced in the renowned Crafty Dan craft Brewery, Thwaites would contract out production of its beers permanently to other breweries.[15]
This proved prescient; the core beers were contracted out to Marston's and the latter company bought the top two (Wainwright's and Lancaster Bomber) and the bulk of Thwaites' beer business in March 2015 for £25.1m. Marston's will continue to supply Thwaites pubs with beer under a long-term contract whilst Thwaites will continue to produce although much reduced volumes for its pubs by retaining its microbrewery facility.[16]
Cask ales
Thwaites produces a wide range of cask ales including the core range and the limited edition Signature Ale range which was launched in 2011. 2012 saw the introduction of the Quarterly Favourites range featuring the four most popular beers from the 2011 Signature Ale range.
In March 2015, Marston's bought all rights to Wainwright and Lancaster Bomber and a short-term license to use the Thwaite's brand.[16]
Owned by Marston's. Formerly sold under the Thwaites brand by Marston's but Thwaites branding was discontinued in 2016.
Logo
The traditional brewery logo.Modern logo used until 2011.
The Thwaites logo has undergone several changes since the Brewery's foundation. The traditional logo was simplified to a gold and red emblem featuring shire horses on the top and remained in use until May 2011.
The newly adopted logo is based on vintage designs from the 19th century, but for the first time in the Brewery's history, the famous shire horses which have been part of the emblem for almost 200 years have been dropped from its design.[17]
Related Research Articles
Ringwood Brewery is a brand of beer owned by Carlsberg Marston's Brewing Company, and was formerly a small brewery on the edge of the New Forest in Hampshire, England, near the Dorset border. It produced mainly cask ales and some bottled beers.
Adnams is a regional brewery founded in 1872 in Southwold, Suffolk, England, by George and Ernest Adnams. It produces cask ale and bottled beers. Annual production is around 85,000 barrels.
Carlsberg Marston's Brewing Company (CMBC) is a British subsidiary of Carlsberg Group, created in November 2020 by the merger of Carlsberg's UK business and Marston's breweries. Marston's plc retained a 40% ownership until July 2024.
Wychwood Brewery was a brewery and pub chain based in Witney, Oxfordshire, England. the brand is currently owned owned by Carlsberg Marston's. Hobgoblin, a 5.2% abv brown ale, was the company's flagship brand.
Wadworth is a brewery company founded in 1875 in Devizes, Wiltshire, England, best known for their 6X beer brand.
Beer has been brewed in England for thousands of years. As a beer brewing country, it is known for top fermented cask beer which finishes maturing in the cellar of the pub rather than at the brewery and is served with only natural carbonation.
Hook Norton Brewery is a regional brewery in Hook Norton, Oxfordshire, England, several miles outside the Cotswold Hills. Founded in 1849, the brewing plant is a traditional Victorian 'tower' brewery in which all the stages of the brewing process flow logically from floor to floor; mashing at the top, boiling in the middle, fermentation and racking at the bottom. Until 2006, the brewing process was powered by steam. Beer is still delivered in the village by horse-drawn dray.
Beer in Wales can be traced to the 6th century. Since the 2000s, there has been a growing microbrewery industry in Wales.
Daniel Thwaites was an English brewer and a Conservative Party politician from Blackburn in Lancashire. He owned what is now Thwaites Brewery, and sat in the House of Commons from 1875 to 1880.
Samuel Smith Old Brewery, commonly known as Samuel Smith's or Sam Smith's, is an independent brewery and pub operator based in Tadcaster, North Yorkshire, England, established in 1758. It claims to be Yorkshire's oldest brewery.
Young's is a British pub chain operating nearly 220 pubs.
Moorhouse's is an independent brewery founded in 1865, by William Moorhouse in Burnley Lancashire, England, as a producer of mineral waters and low-alcohol beers known as hop bitters. It first produced cask ales in 1978.
Beer in the United Kingdom has a long history, and has quite distinct traditions. Historically the main styles were top-fermented Bitters, Porters, Stouts and Milds, but after World War II lagers took over half the market by volume. The Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) was founded in 1971 and has encouraged the preservation and revival of traditional styles of ale. In particular CAMRA has promoted cask conditioned beer, which completes its maturation in casks in the cellar of the pub rather than at the brewery. As of 2014 the UK drank 634 million imperial pints of cask ale, representing 60% of ale in pubs and restaurants and 17% of all beer in pubs. In total 42.42 million hectolitres of beer were produced in 2013 of which 48% was sold in the off-trade.
The U.S. state of Vermont is home to over 100 breweries, microbreweries, nanobreweries, and brewpubs that produce a wide variety of beer.
J.W. Lees & Co (Brewers) Ltd is a brewery and pub company in Middleton, Greater Manchester, that has produced real ale since 1828. The brewery owns and operates 150 pubs, inns and hotels mainly in North West England and North Wales. It also owns wine distributor Willoughby's.
Elma Amy Yerburgh was a member of the Thwaites family who was owner and then chairman of the Thwaites Brewery company from 1888 to 1946. She was the daughter of Daniel Thwaites, M.P. for Blackburn, and was married to Robert Yerburgh, M.P. for Chester. In the town of Blackburn she was known for her generosity to the company's workers and as a public benefactor, who helped fund the construction of the War Memorial wing to Blackburn Royal Infirmary and helped found the town's Empire Theatre, now named after her. Her name was also commemorated in "Elma's Pound", a beer specially brewed by Thwaites Brewery for Christmas 2007 to celebrate their 200th anniversary.
Marston's plc is a British pub and hotel operator. Founded as a brewery by John Marston in 1834, it is listed on the London Stock Exchange.
Flounder Brewing Company is a microbrewery in Hillsborough in Somerset County, New Jersey. Started by Jeremy Lees as a homebrewing hobby, it grew to encompass other members of the family including his brothers, Daniel and Michael, and his cousin William. The brewery opened to the public in October 2013, and was first sold to the public at the Fox and Hound Tavern in Lebanon, New Jersey. It was New Jersey's 12th Limited Brewery license and one of the first nano scale breweries in New Jersey, producing an estimated 50 barrels of beer per year.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
