Sometimes, when I have time on my hands in a familiar place (or a place I think of as familiar) I give myself the simple task of walking around and trying to find some feature of the townscape or architecture that I’d not noticed before. Often, small gems are to found down alleys or in side streets I have no other reason to visit; sometimes it’s just a question of going a little further along a main street than I’ve done previously; and sometimes, of course, it’s a matter of looking a little harder in places I’ve been many times before, because we all miss things and we’re likely to overlook even the obvious when we think we know a place well.
In Evesham the other day, I decided to try some side streets, and it wasn’t long before I found this stone sign in a brick wall on a corner in Bewdley Street. The small building to which it’s attached doesn’t look industrial – I’d easily have mistaken it for part of a house. But clearly there was once a brewery here, a local concern that closed some time during the last century. The invaluable Brewery History Society website doesn’t say much about it, apart from noting the sign and adding that the other brewery buildings have been redeveloped.
I fancied I saw the remains of a polychrome brick tower not far away, with a factory-like building nearby: could this have been part of the old brewery? I think, looking online, that these buildings actually belonged to another company, probably brewers Sladden and Collier’s. Like many towns, Evesham had several breweries, all of which have gone, prey to takeovers or closed for some other reason. I cherish signs like this, faded and damaged but still in situ, as reminders of these forgotten industries, and of times when many trades were largely locally based. One of the cheering things about modern life (yes, there are a few!) is that parts of the brewing industry have again become more localised and diverse. Long may this last.
3 comments:
I wonder why all of Evesham's local, small breweries closed down. Did big national beers take over, or even international beers? What happened to all the local workers? Were the local brewery buildings converted to other uses?
I don't drink beer, but I know a lot of people do.
This piqued my curiosity, som I did some research In an 1882 newspaper item there is a reference to a brewer Mr H W Rowland, successor to Mr C Williams, of The Brewery, Evesham. The item states that the brewery has been "established upwards of fifty years". Articles and advertisements mentioning Rowland's Brewery then continue for decades. Later on, adverts refer to the address of the brewery office being in Bewdley Street, but the address of the brewery is never specified. The last item that I found is the 1952 obituary of Richard Westcar Rowland, aged 73 and "having for 50 years managed Rowlands Brewery, his mother's business".
The 1886 OS large scale town plan shows two breweries in the vicinity of Bewdley Street. One is on Brick Kiln Street to the north of Bewdley Street, and on modern maps corresponds to Hopkiln Gardens off Brick Kiln Street. The other brewery is in an unnamed court to the south of Bewdley Street (this court forming a crossroads with Brick Kiln Street, and corresponding approximately to modern Haines Place). The site of the brewery corresponds to the modern Brewery Court and Rowlands Court just off Bourne's Place Car Park. I think this must be the brewery in question.
There are a few items mentioning Sladden & Colliers Ltd., The Brewery, Evesham, advertising pubs to let in Stratford and in Bromsgrove. I think this must have been a separate business, and may have been the brewery to the north.
Alan Boyd: Thank you for your fascinating comment. Looking again online, I see that Rowland's were eventually taken over by Flowers, the brewers of Stratford-upon-Avon, which later still became part of Whitbread Flowers. I have also found a picture online of the building in my post with a Rowland's sign on it as well as the Williams's sign that remains today.
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