Coming to you in Didsbury …….. a barrel of Taylor Eagle’s best bitter. ….. by steam lorry

The brewey's; steam wagon

Now if you had been walking in the vicinity of the Royal Oak or the Station sometime just before 1914, you might have seen the steam lorry of Taylor Eagle delivering beer to our two pubs.

The brewery was founded by Joseph Taylor in 1849, registered in February 1888 and was sold in 1924 to a company which retained 60 pubs and was acquired by Marston, Thompson and Evershed Ltd in 1958.*

Now, it is easy to fall into the trap of speculating on the origin of the name Eagle in the title, and I wish there were something bizarre about how it came to be included.

But alas it is nothing more exciting than that the brewery was situated on Eagle Street, although later it was listed on Lloyd Street and Burlington Street which almost adjoins it.  It was here by 1863, and was advertised as “Taylor, Joseph, ale & porter brewer Eagle Brewery, Lloyd Street, Burlington Street, Oxford Street, Chorlton on Medlock”.

The full description

Mr. Taylor does appear to have prospered, because thirteen years earlier, he didn’t qualify to be listed in the trades section as a brewer and only appears in the alphabetical listings of the directory as “brewer 12 Calder Street”, and “beer retailer 25 Brownhill Street”, both in Salford.

It is a measure of just how modest his two enterprises were back in 1850, that neither Calder Street nor Brownhill Street were significant enough to be included in the directory.

 Nor does he show up in the historic records. 

In 1851, a Joseph Taylor is recorded as a pauper in the Salford Workhouse, while a second was living in Prestwich, was 73, and on “private means”, neither of which is he.

So, the search will go on, but in the meantime, I do have a map showing the brewery in 1893, a couple of beer bottles bearing the company name, and of course the ongoing mystery of where to find Mr. Taylor.

And a later steam engine

But, for all those who like lists, I do have a full list of the pubs owned by Taylor’s Eagle Brewery.  Most are in Manchester, with a few in Salford and others in faraway Altrincham, Knutsford, Timperley and Urmston, but the company had two in Didsbury, of which the second was the Station, but that is a story in another chapter.

And to compliment that list my old friend Bob Potts offered up an even more fascinating list of pubs and the year they obtained their first license covering the city centre, and the surrounding areas including Didsbury.

For the record, Bob  produced a fine book on the pubs of Hulme and Chorlton on Medlock. **

His records offer up a date of 1847 for its first license, and I wonder whether our Mr. Taylor on a visit out from Salford set about persuading the beer keeper at the Royal Oak to give up making his own beer and turn instead to Mr. Talyor’s “superior ales and porters”, which I am the first to accept is silly speculation.

And that is it.

Location; Didsbury

Picture; Taylor Eagle Brewery Steam Wagon, circa 1914 GMC Records, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass  and a later steam lorry, 1980 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Brewerypedia, http://breweryhistory.com/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page 

 ** Potts, Bob The Old Pubs of Hulme and Chorlton-on-Medlock, 1997

Lost and forgotten breweries of Manchester ......... nu 1 what a lot

It began as a discussion with Paul over the identity of this brewery on the corner of Ledger Street which was behind Miller Street. 

Ledger Street and that brewery. 1849

It shows up on both the 1849 OS map of Manchester and Salford and Mr Adshead’s  Twenty four Illustrated Maps of the Township of Manchester published two years later.

And as you do I went looking for it, staring with the 1850 street directory which along with listing most of the streets of Manchester & Salford, also includes the principal trades and householders.

Sadly the brewery on Ledger Street was not there but then nor was Ledger Street.

Some of our breweies, 1850

Instead I had to content myself with looking through the breweries which were in the directory, of which there were eight six.  Twenty two were in Salford and the rest were in Manchester.

To these could be added the very small enterprises which were no more than a family and a front room, who made their own beer and served it directly from their their home.

In time I am minded to go looking for all sixty four, finding out something about who they were and how long they survived.

I suspect some will have gone within a decade while others lasted into the following century and a few  will have survived until quite recently.

All of which brings me to  James Deakin’s brewery on Kenyon Street which was off Rochdale Road.

Now why I got Kenyon Street and Ledger Street mixed up I have no idea, but I did and for an hour roamed over the documents connected with Mr Deakin and there were a fair few.

He is there in the Rate Books in 1850 owning the “brewhouse” which had a rateable value of £33 which put his premises way above the neighbouring “workshops” but a minnow compared to the ironworks of John Rowcroft who paid £100.

Kenyon Street and Deakin's Brewey, 1850

That said Mr Deakin was doing well enough to live with his wife and son in Rusholme employing three servants.

A decade later they had moved to one of the posh bits of Ardwick living in a house which was big enough to accommodate their five children and three servants.

In time I will find out more about his business, but for now I uncovered a reference to the firm which “by the late 1880's the business was being run by James Henry Deakin, son of the brewer Henry Deakin. 

The title of the Manchester Brewery Company Limited was given to a newly-registered firm in 1888 when it was created to acquire the business of James Henry Deakin. The firm were based at the Britannia Brewery in Brodie Street, Ardwick, Manchester.”*

So that offers up a wealth of research opportunities and also opens up another line of enquiry because there was a George Deakin operating a brewery from 62 Butler Street just round the corner on Oldham Road.

None of which perhaps helps with finding our brewery on Ledger Street.

For that I suspect it will have to be a trawl of the Rates Books on a cold set day down at Central Ref.

Still someone has to do it.

Location; Manchester

Pictures; detail of Ledger Street 1849 from the OS map of Manchester & Salford, 1844-49 and detail of Kenyon Street, 1851 from  Adshead’s map of 1851, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/

*Pubs and Breweries of the Midlands,  http://www.midlandspubs.co.uk/breweries/lancashire/manchester-brewery.htm