HINE BROTHERS  BREWERY

Birmingham Street Brewery 68 Marland Place. 

AKA the Windsor Brewery, Birmingham street Brewery

Brewing started           1857 (acquired the M’Kean & Tobin Brewery) 

Acquired by                   Strong & Co 1898

Brewing ceased           Strongs refer to Windsor Brewery up to 1909/10.

This brewery was originally founded in 1857 when Henry Hine and James Cullen Hine bought the Netherbury Brewery in Dorset. The brewery business was transferred to Birmingham Street Southampton in 1860, when they acquired the brewery business of M’Kean and Tobin (see the McKean & Tobin page). They later added a wine and spirit business in Marland Place.  The business in Southampton was run by Henry Hine, and he was joined by his brother James Petty Hine in 1865.  

This brewery is a rare case of where details of the beers they produced are readily available from the numerous adverts in newspapers, and they heavily promoted the quality of their product.

I have said in my introduction to this website that water is important for the production of beer, and the Southampton water was similar to that in Burton-on Trent, which was/is often described as the brewing capital of England. I also said there were issues with the water supply. In June 1879, Hines asked the Corporation of Southampton to provide them with a better supply of water to their brewery in Birmingham Street, ‘for scarcely one night a week could they get any water in their tanks at the top of their premises’ This was referred to the Special and General Works Committee.

The brewery has been described as being a six storey ‘tower’ brewhouse with offices stores and cellars etc. One wing of the frontage was the ‘Brewery Bar’, which was the brewery tap. 

Adverts appear in newspapers of 21st January 1860 for the Windsor Brewery (late Partridge) calling the attention of families and the trade to the list of their fine sparkling ales & porter. It was said that these were similar to those supplied from their celebrated brewery at Netherbury, Dorset. They listed fine dinner ale, strong sparkling mild ale, bitter pale ale, in fine condition, family porter, double brown and Dublin stout. They could supply families with 41/2, 6, 9, 18, and 36-gallon casks. Similar adverts also appear much later. (Arthur William Partridge was a brewer at M’Kean & Tobin, and he may have been retained by Hine).

Later obituaries refer to 1860 as the date of the move to Southampton. The date of the advert (January 1960) suggests that the move must have taken place in very early January, or perhaps late 1859.  

In newspapers of 12th May 1860, a notice from ‘Hine Bros’, explains that from their long experience in brewing the celebrated Burton ales, they could supply families in small casks, from breweries in Birmingham Street, and Netherbury Brewery Dorset. By June 1860, another notice reads; “Medical men being unanimous in their opinion that confined gas in bottled ales proves most injurious to the constitution”. Hine brothers were supplying families with casks of ale!

Directories of 1861 and 1865 show Henry Hine as a brewer & wine merchant at Birmingham Street. By the 1869 Cox directory, the listing is Hine Bros at Marland Place Brewery Birmingham Street, with James Hine as a brewer, and wine & spirit merchant at 76 Marland Place.

By June 1862, they were advertising their Harvest Ale by the gallon which was “unsurpassed for quality and price” and could be sent by rail in quantities of two hogsheads and upwards to any station within 20 miles. In August that same year they promoted their ‘Hine’s India Pale’, a quart at 5s, a pint 3s. Separately Hine Bros quoted a ‘report on the ale brewed by Hine Brothers by the celebrated Dr Hassall, chemical and microscopital laboratory 76 Wimpole Street Cavendish Square on 22nd June 1862”. He was said to have subjected the pale ale brewed by Messrs Hine Brothers to careful chemical analysis. It was even a paler colour than ordinary pale ale, was bright, clear, and brisk. It was of considerable strength in alcohol but contained less extractive matter than the generality of Pale Ales owing to the extent it has been attenuated. “It therefore nearly reaches wine in its character and it may be termed a wine of malt”. It was sound, wholesome, and pure and from its extraordinary lightness and freedom from acidity it was calculated to agree with the most delicate stomach

On 5th December 1863 the brewery announced “in consequence of the abolition of the duty on hops” they were supplying a first class pale bitter ale at 1s a gallon in splendid condition in 41/2, 6, 9, and 18 gallon casks.

In August 1863, Henry Hine applied for a full licence. He had converted part of the brewery to a beershop and now wanted to sell spirits. This was refused.In January 1867 the sale of the Netherbury brewery and spirit business by J and H Hine was announced, due to the increasing trade in Southampton. The sale was to Mr H Pulman, who said he would continue the business. The Dorset brewery therefore had continued to trade after James Hine came to Southampton in 1865. In October the same year it was advertised that Hines had bought land at Lyndhurst Road station and built a hotel. People used to picnic there and it was decided to build better facilities. This became the Railway Hotel.

The 1871 Cox Directory refers to Hine Bros Windsor Brewery Birmingham Street, 80 Marland Place, as brewers, ale and stout and wine merchants, separately listing Henry Hine and James Hine. The same entry appears up until 1898.  

The brewery continued advertising the quality of their beers. In July 1869, their pure family ale was one shilling a gallon, and brewed from the finest malt and hops “under immediate superintendence of an eminent brewer and is vastly superior and much more wholesome than many other ales that are brewed with sugar and other cheap substitutes for malt”. They also mentioned again their fine dinner ale at 1s a gallon, strong sparkling mild ale at 1s 6d, bitter pale ale, in fine condition 1s 4d, family porter at 1s, and double brown and Dublin stout also at 1s