WALTER J HITCH
Church Lane Highfield
Also the Boundary Hall brewery, Highfield brewery and Stag brewery
Brewing Started Circa 1871
Brewing ceased Circa 1878
This is another brewery where information is sparse. I have put ‘2 and 2 together’ to come up with the conclusion at the end, so be patient!
It looks as if there was a brewery here in 1871, known as the Highfield Brewery. In the Hampshire Independent of 24th June 1871, it is reported that George Prince, a brewer aged 65 employed by the Highfield brewery slipped off a pair of steps and broke two ribs. On 16th April 1873, a George Prince, a brewer formerly of Romsey, died at Winchester. (A George Prince was also a brewer at 24 Bevois Valley in the 1851. Is this the same person?).
In the 1874 Tucker Directory of Southampton, under the district of ‘Burgess Street’, George Edward Brown is listed at ‘the Brewery Boundary Hall’, and in the 1876 directory, he is at “Brewery Boundary Hall Highfield”. Another entry refers to the Boundary Brewery Church Lane Highfield.
I should say I have no evidence to support the suggestion that ‘Boundary’, ‘Highfield’ and ‘Stag’ breweries were the same. The Licence for the Stile Inn, Church Lane Highfield (later Burgess Lane) was transferred from John Ford to George Edward Brown in February 1874, and I make a connection with the Stile later.
The book, Southampton’s Inns & Taverns by Tony Gallagher reproduces an advert for the brewery on page 6, being an advert from the 1880 Cox Directory. I have attached an advert from the Southampton Observer and Hampshire News of 2nd March 1878, which seems the same, even as to the prices!
In January 1876, in the ‘Wanted’ column of newspapers, was an advert for “Brewer, man wanted, one used to the general work. Must be able to read and write. Apply Walter J Hitch Stag Brewery Highfield. Also, in March that year; “wanted a strong lad to make himself generally useful. Apply Walter J Hitch Stag Brewery Highfield.” By July 1876, he wanted a trustworthy man to deliver beer to the private trade and to assist the brewery, and he “must be accustomed to work”. Was Hitch just starting the business?
Walter J Hitch appears in the 1878 Cox Directory, as a mild and bitter ales stout and porter brewer, Stag brewery. By 1880, there are no directory entries, but the advert referred to does appear.
We then see the Hampshire Advertiser of 29th June 1878 announcing an auction by order of the Mortgagee, of the brewery Burgess Street Highfield near Southampton. This was to be a sale of plant, utensils and stock in trade, a Memel oak 4 quarter mash tub, (a brew of about 575 gallons at a time) 3 coolers each about 100 ft, a hop back, a Gregory patent self-mashing machine, 2 x 13 1/2 gallon iron bound oak roundabouts, 2 sacchrometers, a 5 1/2 barrel copper, a 3 inch copper wort pump, a malt machine, 5 1/2 gallon underback. Also about 100 puncheons, barrels and beer casks, a 98 gallon copper, 1x 15 gal and 4 x 4 barrel vats, a black mare, sows, pigs, a goat, and 30 head of poultry. Also the household and effects of Boundary Cottage. (Memel Oak was a type of oak commonly used in breweries. It was Oak imported from the Baltic through the port of Memel, now known as Klaipeda in Lithuania.)
Hitch had ceased brewing by this time as there is a marriage announcement in August 1878 re Walter Joshua Hitch late of Stag Brewery (elder son of the late Walter Hitch of Ware Herts). He married Kate Hodgkinson from Southampton, but in Harrow On the Hill Middlesex.
The next mention is two years later, January 1880, with a letting notice, with immediate possession, of the Stile Inn, a roadside Ale and Stout house with a rent of only £30 monthly. Also, “NB if desired, good employment could be given to the tenant at the brewery which is close by”. In February the same year, there was advance notice for sale of the lease for 997 years of the capital roadside inn, opposite the Stag brewery, namely the Stile Inn Highfield, which was let to a tenant at £30pa. Immediately below this notice, and with the same auctioneers, appears an auction by order of the mortgagees of the valuable lease of the Stag Brewery Highfield, being plant, fixtures and fittings as one lot as a going concern. The premises were to be sold with a dwellinghouse, together held on a lease at £55pa.
The Hampshire Independent of 22nd May 1880 gives more detail. The Stag Brewery of, Burgess Street Highfield had a 4 Quarter brewery plant, rolling stock, an oak 4 quarter mash tun, a hop back, mashing machine, two 6 1/2 barrel coppers, Oak Iron bound vats, about 200 barrels, hogsheads, kilderkins, a quantity of lead, copper and iron piping, a copper, wort pump, and utensils. Also, stock-in-trade, of about ten barrels of beer, a small quantity of hops and malt, two useful horses, a cart, harness, and stable utensils.
Remember the poultry mentioned in the auction notice of 1878? They are relevant! In May 1880, Thomas Ball was charged with stealing a fowl, value 2s from the Stag brewery. Ball was a Sheriff’s Officer (a Bailiff). It was said he took possession with another of an adjoining cottage in preparing for auction, before he had authority. The auctioneers asked Ball how many fowls were included in the sale and he said about 5. Elizabeth Jane Augusta Gathercole said the Stag brewery was her property and she missed a hen. It was said all her goods went to Mr Furber the auctioneer and he had been ordered by the Court in London to sell them tomorrow.
Further, in August 1880, Henry Dugdale, who kept the Stile Inn claimed £10 10s for refreshments supplied to men dealing with possession against Gather Cole. 2 bailiffs, Ball and Ponting were in possession of the brewery and adjoining cottage.
My conclusion from what I set out above is that Mrs Augusta Gathercole owned the freehold of the Stag Brewery, or held the premises under a long lease. The business was run as the ‘Highfield’ Brewery, by her or others on her behalf, employing Mr Prince. In 1874 the business was leased or sublet to George Brown, who traded as the ‘Boundary Brewery’, since it was linked to ‘Boundary Cottage’ (I refer to the auction notice of 29th June 1878 above). It was then leased or sublet to Walter Hitch as the ‘Stag’ Brewery.
Whether Brown may have employed Prince, or whether there may have been a tenant prior to Brown, or whether Mrs Gathercole just employed Prince to brew on her behalf requires more detailed research. The brewery is described as being opposite the Stile. In September 1870, John Ford applied for a spirit Licence for the Stile (which was refused) and he was described as the landlord, and owner. In July 1878, Mrs Gathercole had purchased the Stile Inn, Burgess Street, at auction for £550. She therefore owned both the Stile Inn and the brewery, and we know that Brown was at both. Mrs Gathercole had a mortgage and the lenders tried to sell in 1878, but it seems that there was no sale and she was still subject to enforcement proceedings in 1880.
If anyone has information to confirm, or contradict my conclusions, I would be very pleased to hear from you.
It looks as if the Stile was effectively the brewery tap. 100 years later, it would brew its own beer (see the Hedgehog and Hogshead page)
The description is much the same as in 1878, so perhaps not much work was done to the brewery, for example, to increase capacity, but in any case, it appears the brewery was still producing beer although presumably not by Walter Hitch.