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

At the Hydes Brewery ........... from beer to apartments

The Hydes Brewey site was one I pretty much took for granted, so much so that I doubt I often gave it a second glance as the bus passed on its way into town.

And then it closed down having brewing on the site from 1899.*

The Hyde brothers had inherited the brewery in 1863 and in 1899 acquired the Queens Brewery in Moss Side and the rest is as they say beer across the counter.

Brewing ceased in 2012 and the future of the place sat in the balance.

Two years on and the Corporation granted an application to develop the site.

Andy Robertson was there a year ago close to the time when the application was made, and was back there this month to record the beginning of the work to convert the brewery into 73 apartments.**

And he will return at regular intervals to chronicle the progress.

Pictures; Hyde Brewery site, June 2015, from  the collection of Andy Robertson

*Hydes in Moss Side 1899-2012, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Manchester%20Breweries

** Hydes, Moss Lane East, Planning application, 104122/FO/2013/S1 | Conversion of former brewery into 73no. residential apartments, demolition of modern extensions consisting of removal of loading platform in yard area; removal of two-storey extension in car park area with associated car parking and landscaping | Hydes Brewery Ltd 46 Moss Lane West Moss Side Manchester M15 5PH, http://pa.manchester.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=summary&keyVal=MVSN0WBC6K000

Hydes in Moss Side 1899-2012

There was a time when you could smell the work of our breweries drifting across the city.

With the wind in the right direction the work of the brewers at Boddingtons in Strangeways was a reminder that beer was still made here.

But the brewery closed in 2005 and the site was demolished two years later.

So I am pleased that Andy Robertson was out recently recording the Hydes brewery in Moss Side before it too is overwhelmed by change.

It closed in 2012 which makes the Hydes connection with Moss Side just over a century and a bit.

The Hyde brothers had inherited the brewery in 1863 and in 1899 acquired the Queens Brewery in Moss Side and the rest is as they say beer across the counter.

I have passed the place countless times over the last forty years and never gave it much thought other than that I should take some pictures.

But I never did and so I am grateful than Andy did.

Pictures; from the collection of Andy Robertson