Using this site
It is all fairly self explanatory! However, if viewing this on a smart phone, you need to select the '+' sign to get the dropdown menu.
The 'Introduction' dropdown also has a simple alphabetical list of breweries, which may help you to find the brewery you want to look at.
There is also a very brief history of the water in Southampton, which is of course an essential ingredient in making beer.
I thought it helpful to include some definition of terms you will see on this site, so I have included a 'Definitions' page on the dropdown
The last dropdown is a page outlining Southampton's connection with Temperance movement, and where I have identified the breweries shown on the 1878 'Drink Map'.
In addition to the breweries listed on the various drop downs we also have a 'Limited Info' dropdown. Here you will find
A page on pubs/beerhouses which brewed, but where there is little detail available.
A separate page for breweries with little detail.
Finally, a page of brewers mentioned in directories or newspapers which I cannot link to a specific brewery or pub/beerhouse (this last page is 'coming soon').
Although this site deals with the history of brewing, it would not be complete without a list of Southampton's current breweries. Another 'coming soon' page.
Background
This project has 'grown legs' since I started researching a few years ago, and is a project that will never be finished. I have had limit what I consider to be Southampton, so this work includes Redbridge and Millbrook, (but not Totton and Eling) in the West, Highfield (but not Nursling) in the North, and Bitterne in the East, mainly because that is where I live!
This work is based extensively on entries in Street Directories and the online British Newspaper Archive. I started by looking at ‘well known’ local breweries, but it soon became clear that there were many more. Sometimes the name of a brewer matches a pub/beerhouse, but beerhouses are not easy to identify as they do not appear separately in most directories since they were also private residences, or other businesses as well. Also, many public houses started off as beerhouses. Where there is reference to an owner applying for a spirit licence, this indicates that their ‘house’ was a beerhouse, and they wanted to be able to sell a greater range of drinks.
I therefore regard this site as very much a ‘work in progress’. Historians, archivists, local history groups, and enthusiastic amateurs will no doubt have further detail which can be added so that this site grows to become as comprehensive as possible.
Introduction
Southampton had a rich brewing history, but not much has been written about this aspect of the town. The city has been well served by pubs and there is a wealth of information on local pubs, in particular “Southampton’s Inn and Taverns” by Tony Gallagher, which has proved invaluable in helping to research local breweries, in particular the public houses that brewed their own beer.
Southampton today covers a large area. The Romans settled in Bitterne Manor (then called Clausentum) around the year 70 AD and in the mid-6th Century, King Ine builds Hamwith, being a Saxon town that became St Mary’s. In 1086 the town becomes a Royal Borough and in 1228 the Common was bought for the citizens of the town. Southampton was awarded city status in 1964 by Letters Patent. Bitterne became part of Southampton in the 1920s and in 1967, Southampton took in part of the Nursling and Rownhams parishes. Shirley, Millbrook and Freemantle became part of the County Borough of Southampton in 1895. In July 1920, Woolston, Sholing, Bitterne Manor, Bitterne, Bitterne Park Swaythling and Bassett were all added.
The growth of modern Southampton began around 1840 with the arrival of the railway and the opening of the eastern docks. Much like today, travellers ‘passing through’ needed accommodation and refreshment in pubs Inn and hotels. Further, the crews of the various ships were often after a release following a long time at sea and were generally looking for beer, women and entertainment. There were also many people working in the docks and living in the town so the demand for ‘pubs’ increased substantially.
The number of drinking establishments ballooned, with many roads having a number of pubs and beer houses. The record however is held by Albert Road in the Chapel area of the town, and near the docks. In the early 1860s there was an uninterrupted line of pubs, namely The Alliance Inn, Robert Burns, Welsh Harp, Inkerman Tavern (previously the Inkerman Inn), Calshot Castle, and Queens Hotel all built in early 1860s. The Queens Hotel was the last survivor, and is now flats. In addition to this ‘run’ of pubs, there was also at various times the Railway Tavern, American Hotel/Loosemores, Three Swans, York & Albany Inn, Saracens Head, Royal Albert Hotel, St Crispin & the Bear, and the Atlantic Hotel. As we will see, some of these brewed their own beer.
Such was the growth in drinking establishments that in Nov 1878 the St Mary's Church of England Temperance Society published a pamphlet entitled ‘The reason why’. They wanted drinking establishments to close as there were too many and Southampton was one of the most intemperate towns in the country. See the separate 'Reason Why' page on this interesting aspect of our history.
Health and safety in breweries was very lax and you will see references to a number of accidents resulting in death or serious injury, to adults and children. Among them were accidents caused by failing lifts, broken ropes, and slips or falls in to boiling water, or in to beer and drowning. Some were overcome by fumes or scalded by boiling water. Workers were crushed by various pieces of equipment, sometimes drays, or by dray horses. Fires were a regular occurrence within the industry, sometimes with fatal results.
I have tried to include up to date costs or prices for those shown in historical documents, ie values of estates, sale price of breweries etc, which if not helpful, is at least interesting. I have used the online Bank of England Inflation Calculator in providing these figures, in italics.
Other nearby breweries just outside of my random boundaries include
The Nutfield Nursling, Ashbys Eling Brewery, Eling, (started by Thomas Richard Withers in 1824. He went bankrupt in 1845, and George William Edney purcharsed it. He sold it two years later to John Foster. It was small scale until he sold it in 1857 to Francis Stedman Ashby. His widow Elizabeth Rebecca Ashby continued the expansion. Acquired by Strongs 1920). Withers and Foster Eling Totton,(same as Ashby?) Cross keys Totton, William Orpett Chilworth, brewer and beershop keeper, the Red Lion Totton, the Lion Hotel Netley 1862, the Langdown Brewery Nr Hythe, Charles Taylor, the Water Lane Brewery Totton, and Charles Jarvis, brewer of Bursledon, who had the Jolly sailor in 1879.
The 5 oldest breweries in England still trading (from the S Daily Echo)
Shepherd Neame 1698, but in 1570 import and export of beer was carried on from the same site at Court Street Faversham.
Fullers 1845, but in 1581 property used for brewing passed down the generations until saved by John Fuller, John Smith and John Turner who invested in 1845
Three Tuns (Bishops Castle Shropshire) 1642
Sam Smiths1758
Theakstons 1827
The oldest brewery that is still trading is the Weihenstephan brewery in Freising Bavaria Germany, which dates from 1040. This was previously a monastery brewery.