Warstone Deritend brewery

[Vivienne14]

The brewery in the early 19th century. Forrest and Sons brewed dark, bitter tasting porter made from malt heated to a high temperature. Engraving from the Revolutionary Players site. Viv.

 

[Astoness]

viv i am thinking it would have been near warstone lane..not sure though

lyn

 

[Radiorails]

Apparently in Warstone Lane, which was on the outskirts of the city at the beginning of the 19th. century.
Posts in this thread show part of an old map which gives the brewery's location:
https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/for...-ickneild-st-warstone-lane.32468/#post-334632
There are a couple of references to the place in another thread about The Gate pub.

 

[mikejee]

The print would be looking at the brewery on the north corner of Warstone lane and Icknield st. It was founded in 1784 by John Giles & Co., by 1817 r was owned by Forrest & Sons, who, in 1828, merged with the James Richards brewery in Alcester St to form the Warston & Deritend Brewery. In 1834 all brewing was concentrated in Warstone Lane, but this brewery was closed in 1840 and the site sold in 1841 and used for house building

 

[Vivienne14]

Thanks all. On the map in the link post #3 posted by Radiorails, there seems to be no indication of the two large houses (?) in the engraving. Would these have been part of the brewery or linked to the brewery ? Does anyone know what they were ? Viv.

 

[mikejee]

the scan below is not very good, but you can just about read that the house to the left of the brewery in the print was owned by Mr E. Forest, then the owner of the brewery (presumably), while on the original ( but not on this copy), you can see that the house on the right was owned by Mr T. Pemberton. There are three manufacturing firms named with Thomas Pemberton listed in the directories, and the Warstone lane one is listed as a home address and possibly might not be associated with any of them

 

[Vivienne14]

There was also a (later) short road named Pemberton nearby, presumably named after the owner of the house.

Expanding on Mike’s post #4, some info about the brewery changes. Newspapers reported a merger with Deritend brewery in 1825, shares were offered in 1929 then it seems to have been split into two separate companies in 1835. Viv.

 

[Vivienne14]

There was a T. Pemberton connected with the brewery according to Birmingham Archive docs. Viv.

 

[Vivienne14]

And the selling up of remaining stock in February 1842 (Aris’s Gazette), Viv.

 

[Vivienne14]

A description from the for sale notice in 1834 lists a number of plant and properties around Moseley and Alcester Streets belonging to the Deritend Brewery. Viv

 

[mccarthygen]

The print would be looking at the brewery on the north corner of Warstone lane and Icknield st. It was founded in 1784 by John Giles & Co., by 1817 r was owned by Forrest & Sons, who, in 1828, merged with the James Richards brewery in Alcester St to form the Warston & Deritend Brewery. In 1834 all brewing was concentrated in Warstone Lane, but this brewery was closed in 1840 and the site sold in 1841 and used for house building

Mikejee, can you point me to any documentation relating to the founding in 1784 of the John Giles & Co you cite in post #4? The 1792 Charles Pye Plan of Birmingham still simply shows this as Giles's Brewery. In 1789 Sir Henry Gooch leased (further/) land for 21 years to John Giles of Greenwich, David Giles of Sandpits (Birmingham) and Alexander Forrest for a [new] brewery but I believe this was on the south side of Warston Lane. John Giles thereafter disappears from the record, and the partnership of David Giles and Alexander Forrest was dissolved on 1st May 1807 (ref. london Gazette), three years before the original lease was due to expire. I wonder too whether this John Giles was one and the same as a victualler of that name operating in Deritend. My particular interest is that John is a suspected gt gt gt gt grandfather. My grandfather told my mother a story (apparently without further detail) of the family once having some wealth, but that it was taken by a solicitor. ("Swindled" was the word used). Alexander Forrest became a powerful man, ref. the tablet to him and his family just inside the west door at St Paul's. I just wonder!

 

[mikejee]

Not sure if i can give you much extra information. The information I gave was from "Birmingham breweries" by Joseph McKenna, Vrewin Books 2005. Below is the mention. As to the position of the brewery, all the maps I have seen show it in the same place, the earliest being 1792.

 

[mccarthygen]

Thank you mikejee