Atkinsons Brewery

[O.C.]

Atkinson Brewery photo courtesy of Alton Douglas

 

[sylviasayers]

Cromwell, many thanks for the photo, I started at Atkinsons Brewery about 27th or 28th December 1952 a few days after my 15th birthday. The doorway just to the right of the group of children was where the office staff entered the building. Further down the street you can see some houses with bay windows my in-laws lived down the first entry, they were back houses but not back to back, as they had front and back gardens, two rooms and a kitchen down, and two large bedrooms and a box room upstairs. I think the address was 5 back of 87 Queens Road.

During the war Queens Road was badly bombed but the residents took refuge in the cellars of the brewery and most were unhurt, a brother in law of mine who I never knew, was on leave from the RAF and decided to stay in bed, the house suffered blast damage and he was blown through the bedroom window, but not badly hurt.
He went back to the RAF after his leave, but unfortunately was killed over Cologne in March 1945, after serving since 1939.

 

[O.C.]

Sylvia I heavily cropped photo to show detail but will send you complete photo by e-mail

 

[Peter Walker]

I have a recollection of Atkinson's brewery running steam drays before the second world war, perhaps during as well. I seem to remeber a chain drive to the rear axle beneath the platform which the barrels stood on. I don't think it was Davenport's, but I think Ansell's may have had some too.
Peter

 

[Astonian]

HI CROM ,
TOP OF THE MORNIN TO YOU,
YET AGAIN YOU HAVE BROUGHT CHILDHOOD MEMORIES FLOODING BACK TO
ME AND I ,THERE SAY OTHER MEMBERS OF THE FORUM , WITH YOUR CRACKING PICS.
I REMEMBER WALKING ALONG THOSE GATE AND LOOKING IN
AND SEEING THE DRAYMEN , AND THE COOPERS MEN
MAKING THE BARRELLS .
ME AND MY FRIEND COLIN GASKIN , WHOM WAS IN THE
STAFFORD REGIMENT, TANKS DIVION ,
HAS YOU KNOW WE WAS BOTH FROM CROMWELL TERRACE ,
LICHFIELD ROAD ,NEXT TO THOMPSON,S THE BUTCHERS .
A FANTASTIC CLEAR CUT AND DOWN LOADED PIC ,
DAVID BAILLY , COULD,NT HAVE DONE BETTER .
THANKS AGAIN CROMIE , HAVE A NICE DAY ,

 

[Villan]

Are there any brewery's still operating in Birmingham?

 

[Astonian]

yes there is
i believe its dowm thimble mill lane aston ,
and its called aston mannor brewery
i cannot recall when it first started , many years ago just after that ansells brewey
started to close down ,and the reduncies was started to be given out
there was a number of the ansells worker got together
with there money pulled tgether and started up the cosortem
and made a start and named it aston mannor brewery
eventualy as time went on i think they was struggling
then a guy , whom was DOUG ELLISS,S VILLA DIRECTOR ] SON IN LAW - OR BROTHER INLAW ,
MOVED IN AND BAILED THEM OUT AND TOOK OVER
AND EXPANED THE BREWERY , AND THEY ARE STILL THERE TODAY ,
BEST WISHES ASTONIAN ,;;;

 

[Peter Walker]

Mr Google gives us about 213 000 sites related to the Aston Manor Brewery topic. You can find the Aston Manor Brewery website proper on:
https://www.astonmanor.co.uk/
But I can't say it will tell you a lot. I have read somewhere recently of a long-running legal dispute the company has been involved with, which I would think could dissipate their resouces a bit.
Merry Xmas, by the way
Peter

 

[Astoness]

hi all. just thought i would post this picture of an original atkinsons beer mat. it belongs to my brother. hes got hundreds of different ones. wales.

 

[cookie273uk]

Thanks for pic of Atkinsons Brewery, I was born in one of their houses in 1930 just below the Brewery down on the left in a house behind Mrs Staggs general shop' the gap beyond the bottom houses on the left is were the landmine landed during the war . Eric

 

[cookie273uk]

the building to the left just above the children is the Queens pub, my dads local,that first doorway is the entrance to the "snug" where my nan would go. She also lived in Queens Rd. I went to live with her in 1943 when I was 13 after my mum died (we ived in Shirley then)I can remeber carrying a big purple jug up to the outdoor and getting 2 pints for nan and grandad and having a sip on the way back. Happy days

 

[Phil]

Here's the whole photo of the pub & the brewery, and also another photo of the brewery. I'm sorry but I do not know enough of the history of the area to know if this part of the brewery was also in Queens Rd.

Phil

 

[cookie273uk]

pmc1947 Most grateful for pics. Yes the one photo more or less joins with the other you have got the whole road from Church Lane to Groverner Rd I was born down the first entry below the brewery in 1930 (the brewery owned the houses initially to rent to their employees but my father never worked for them so the rules must have changed). The reason the houses come to an abrupt finish a land mine destroyed all the rest in 1940/41. MY Gran lived opposite our entry at No. 84. Thanks again my sisters and I will cherish these Pics. Eric Cook

 

[mikejee]

Didn't see Cookies last post, so prepared this map to show brewery a,d the frontage of the second of Phils pictures (in brown), Will put it on anyway
Mike

 

[teffen]

yes there is
i believe its dowm thimble mill lane aston ,
and its called aston mannor brewery
i cannot recall when it first started , many years ago just after that ansells brewey
started to close down ,and the reduncies was started to be given out
there was a number of the ansells worker got together
with there money pulled tgether and started up the cosortem
and made a start and named it aston mannor brewery
eventualy as time went on i think they was struggling
then a guy , whom was DOUG ELLISS,S VILLA DIRECTOR ] SON IN LAW - OR BROTHER INLAW ,
MOVED IN AND BAILED THEM OUT AND TOOK OVER
AND EXPANED THE BREWERY , AND THEY ARE STILL THERE TODAY ,
BEST WISHES ASTONIAN ,;;;

I recall the brewery was built on the site of a previous business, the main reason was so they could drill their own borehole down to the artesian well which lies under the area. Newton's, later GKN also used water from the artesian well. Teffen

 

[lencops]

The sad end of Atkinsons Brewery, photos by the late Keith Berry RIP. Len.

 

[lencops]

Atkinsons Brewery. Len.

 

[The Baron]

Is the brown marked area not now QUEENS ROAD POLICE STATION? Re that water table GEC also used it They had a pumping station up by the MAGNET CLUB.

 

[cookie273uk]

Atkinsons Brewery was situated in Queens Road Aston, they also owned most of the houses on the brewery side of Queens Road, I was born in one of them (3/89 Queens Road) in June 1930). I remember the dray horses clip clopping up the road, often feeding them, also waking up to the smell of the hops. Next door to the brewery , on the corner of Church Lane was one of their pubs, the Queens, often known locally as the "top Queens" the haunt of my Dad and his Mom and Dad who lived opposite at 84 Queens Road. During the war the bottom half of Queens Rd was demolished by a land mine with little or no damage to the Brewery, by then we were living in Shirley, but my Nan was still living there. Eric

 

[JohnO]

What beer do people drink in Birmingham these days? Is it the one-size-fits-all Yorkshire rubbish; or foreign lagers? Up in the North-East we've now lost almost all of our regional beers; it's just John Smiths, Tetley, Stones or other similar invaders.

 

[lencops]

JohnO, We can still sup Ansells, M & B, Banks all brewed except Aston Manor brewery out of Brum. Len.

 

[sylviasayers]

Lencops, I have just been looking at the pictures of the demolition of Atkinsons Brewery, unfortunately I can't open them to get a larger picture, but I am puzzled by what looks like a clock tower in the first pic. I worked at Atkinsons and knew the area for many years and can't recall anything like that, do you think it possible the photos were wrongly captioned?

 

[rex]

found one, well a picture anyway, thanks trev
rex

 

[gingerjon]

can the demolition photographs be resized as they are to small to see

 

[David Weaver]

I've just found the photograph of the brewery. We lived in the next street, Gladstone, and during a bombing raid a bomb came into the Anderson Shelter. Mom picked it up and threw it outside over the sand bags but the fumes got us so she then threw us out after the bomb. We then went to the community shelter under the brewery and it was like a big party going on. People were singing and there was a piano. Lovely memories even though it was scary times. Regards, David

Atkinson Brewery photo courtesy of Alton Douglas

 

[Astonian]

Hi tefferton
you are correct about the running water runninmg across that area under ground
a friend of mine used to run a pub down at the bottom of nechells park rd by cuckoo bridge
and he had this facility in is celler in the winter it used to run fast and rise and it would flood is celler
this channel must be from an ealy stage of life and he told me it runs across aston and nechells
you could actuly see the brook if youlike to call it when you was down the celler changing kegs you had to keep striding across it
and i beleive it also ran to ansells even akinsons in holte rd being the first brewers in line
this pub was at the time owned by the guy whom runs the hotel in acocks green
he owns alot of pubs around the country i took one of his pubs in nuneaton years ago i know him very well
when i went to this pub down nechells park he said come and look at the artesian
i was amazed that this was running freely and openly from i would have im,agined since 18800 s
have your self a cracking day best wishes astonion

 

[David Weaver]

Mikegee, my Dad's coal yard had a high wall at the back and right behind it was Queens Road and Atkinson's Brewery. Your map didn't show Gladstone Street where I was born in 1933. Number 28. Regards, David.

 

[mikejee]

David
I think your fathers yard at no 28 must have been the one marke din redon the 1951 map. things seem to have changed a little bit in the area even before the "clearances" of the 1960s, as can be seen on the 1889 and 1915 maps, where i have marked the same property , again in red.
Mike

 

[David Weaver]

Hello Mikegee, thanks a million that's the place. I don't know if it's important from a historical perspective, but the entry to the coal yard facing towards Queen's Road on the left is the house I was born and grew up in, number 28, telephone East o466, the house on the right my granny lived in. Both houses were owned by my my father. The body works factory a couple of places down towards Beales Street was called 'Simmons'. Now I'm off to cry in my veggie patch and remember times long gone never to return. Regards, David.

 

[stars]

Hi
I have a few photos of the Atkinsons Brewery.
well more to do with it's demolition.

I remember this type of petrol pump.