A History of the Cirencester Brewery

A history of the Cirencester Brewery Joyce Moss There has been occupation of the brew- These would be traditionally long narrow ery site in Cirencester town centre for properties, with shop, living quarters, nearly 2,000 years. Soon after the workshops, yards and allotments going Romans occupied this area of Britain a back from the street. Behind would be fort was established and with it a vicus open agricultural plots. These can be or civil settlement. Around AD 70, as the seen on the 1795 map of Cirencester, conquest was consolidated, the fort was drawn up by Richard Hall.2 thrown down and the town handed over to a civil authority. Cirencester became Prior to the refurbishment of Brewery the capital of the Dobunni tribe (Corinium Arts, and as part of the Arts Council Dobunnorum), growing from the original Lottery Fund grant procedure, between vicus and designed on the usual Roman the 12 and 17 July 2001, two test pits grid pattern, in a series of insulae or were dug in the south-west area of islands. The brewery site was in one of Brewery Arts courtyard. The results were these islands, being some way north of perhaps disappointing, but in Pit 1 there the forum and administrative buildings. was a silty dark grey-brown clay, identi- Most likely it was a residential and shop- fied at other sites in the town as a ping area. medieval cultivated area, above Roman levels, and possibly part of a Castle The archaeological evidence is sketchy, Street tenement. Above this, 18th and but a report in 1944 shows that a mosaic 19th century pottery was found, no doubt floor and coloured wall plaster were partly from the Cirencester Brewery, recovered in 1849 to the rear of the which pre-dated Brewery Arts. In Pit 2, a Cirencester Brewery site.1 Roman mate- well was discovered with post-medieval rial was found in test pits dug before the glazed pottery. building of Bishop's Walk, Tesco and the Link Building. No Anglo-Saxon finds One of the medieval buildings fronting came up, but medieval ones did. It is Cricklade Street was the Bell Inn. This known that Castle Street and Cricklade was a courtyard inn on a site opposite the Street were major town arteries in former Woolworth's store. It had always medieval times, so it is certain that they been associated with the brewery and contained medieval shops and houses. there is conclusive evidence to suggest 54 Journal of the Brewery History Society this. The Bell Inn is mentioned as Le The Cirencester Brewery Prospectus of Bell, along with several other Cirencester 1930, a copy of which is lodged in the inns - the Angel, Crown, Hartished Corinium Museum's files, confirms the (Hart's Head), Katherine Wheel, King's connection. It says that the Cripps' family Head and Lyon - in a 1540 Court of brewery had been in existence since Augmentations list.3 This means that it 1798 and that belonged, with the other inns, to the Abbey of St. Mary, at that time situated the oldest transaction on record of the busi- behind the Parish Church, and was taken ness, now known as the Cirencester Brewery into crown hands at the Dissolution of Ltd, is a way bill, dated November 29th 1803, the Abbey. Often abbeys owned inns in for materials conveyed to Cirencester by the the later Middle Ages to cater for visitors. Thames and Severn Canal by barge, loading Another mention of the Bell comes in at the Hawk's Wharf, Upper Thames Street, 1685, in the will of Giles Cambridge of London. The barge was consigned to a Mr. Coates. The Bell was bought by Giles Gibbs, who was then the landlord of the Bell from one Edward Barston. Giles willed Inn, premises identical with part of the build- the inn to his wife, who died in 1698 and ings, which still form part of the Brewery. then to his son, Andrew.4 As the result of several 20th century More relevant to our story, there is a list brewery takeovers, the original brewery of Cirencester inns in the Cirencester documents have largely disappeared, but Parish Papers in Gloucestershire in the 1930s this would not have been Archives, dating to about 1800, which the case and they would have been kept contains 73 entries. Of these, 41 had in the brewery offices. There is no doubt recently been suppressed (there were that we are looking at increased trans- always too many inns). The Bell Inn is port along the canal system, created in listed, but had evidently been moved to a the 18th century. By November 1789, the new building, as the original Bell Inn, link between the River Severn, via the ‘now the Brewery’, is listed as sup- Stroudwater Canal, and the River pressed, with Clifford as the occupier. Thames at Lechlade was complete. This is the essential early link between Cirencester became the terminus of a the Bell Inn and the brewery. From the branch of this canal and the basin was 1790s, a new Bell Inn appeared at the situated between Quern's Hill and corner of Cricklade Street and Castle Quern's Road, with three wharves and a Street and was only closed in 1957. The wharfhouse. The first coal barge arrived building is now occupied by the estate in the town in May 1789.6 agent Savills and the sign of the Bell can still be seen on the corner of the build- The Bell Inn, like all other inns at the time, ing.5 The old Bell Inn had become part of would have had its own small brewhouse, the brewery buildings. but as the 1803 way bill is specifically Brewery History Number 138 55 Figure 1. The Old Bell Inn. From Welsford, J. & Grace, P. (1990) Cirencester in the 1930s & '40s. Nelson: Hendon Publishing. Courtesy of Peter Grace. mentioned in the 1930s prospectus, it Archives for Cirencester, from 1780 looks as though the new Bell Inn, as well onwards, the Cripps family, who owned as the old, was owned by the brewery. As the brewery for much of the 19th century, people moved, in the late 18th century, paid substantial Land Tax on several from the country to the towns and as properties in the parish, but their name is population increased and transport net- not specifically linked with a brewery. In works became easier, domestic brewing the Gloucester Journal, 17 March 1792, at home decreased and went into the also in Gloucestershire Archives, the inns and some independent breweries following advertisement appeared: and malthouses grew up as well, often supplying the inns they owned. Cirencester, Gloucestershire. A Brewery for sale. I now want to discuss the 1798 date for the foundation of the brewery, given in To be sold, a modern well built Dwelling the 1930 Brewery Prospectus. In the House, with a garden and suitable offices, Land Tax records in Gloucestershire late the property and residence of Mr. William 56 Journal of the Brewery History Society Hewer, brewer deceased and also the malt tun and vats. It is described as a Brewhouse. Malthouse, Cellars and fixtures compact good business, well supplied of the same, which are in such good with water. Only by December had the condition and so conveniently put together, stock been sold. Could these advertise- as to be one of the most complete Breweries ments relate to the sale of the 1792 of its size, outside London, adding to the brewery again? No address is given, but, present extensive trade of the said Brewery again, it must have been prominent (which has been the work of years) and enough in Cirencester for everyone to the certainty, by proper management, of know where it was. Applications were to increasing it, in a very considerable go to a Mr England at the premises or a degree, must render the whole a desirable Mr Whateley, Attorney at Law. purchase to a person inclined to enter the trade. Were these breweries linked with the start of our brewery in 1798? If they were Applications were to go to a Mr. John situated on the site of the later brewery, it Brown of Cirencester or a Mr. Howes of is possible that someone bought these Winston. The same advertisement substantial premises and expanded them appeared several times in the Gloucester by taking in the suppressed Bell Inn. Journal, a weekly paper founded in 1722. Alternatively, they could have started a Eventually there was an auction on 30 new business altogether in the Bell Inn April at the Fleece Hotel, at which, pre- and its environs after it was suppressed sumably, the brewery was sold. It is and available for development. We do not interesting to note that in the 1793 know and it is possible that there were Universal Directory (Gloucestershire other small brewing concerns in Archives), under Cirencester, William Cirencester, unrelated to inns, which Hewer is listed as the only brewer in the were un-named or unrecorded in the town, though there was a maltster 1790s. named Bowly. William Hewer had died earlier, but the Directory would be using It would be useful to put the late 18th cen- information collected well before its tury brewery in its historical context. Great publication date. Britain was at war with Revolutionary France and, in 1798, the Gloucester Unfortunately, there is no mention of the Journal tells us that a Cirencester location of the brewery. In 1798, again in Committee of Defence was set up to the Gloucester Journal, in June and July, defend the town under Lord Bathurst, in there is an advertisement for a brewery in case the French invaded.

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