A brewery with
I recently travelled on the Severn Valley Railway for the first time since lockdown.
Finding myself in the Railwayman’s Arms pub on Bridgnorth station platform,
Mirror
I spotted a huge etched mirror over the fireplace advertising Cheshire’s beers from the Windmill Brewery, Smethwick. I needed to know more.
Well, firstly, there was a windmill in Smethwick, hence Windmill Lane, Windmill Shopping Centre and Windmill Precinct.
Miller
In fact, the windmill was sited off Windmill Lane, built around 1803 by William Croxhall, a miller who was also a local churchwarden, but it was largely out of use by 1860. His name is commemorated in Croxhall Way, which runs alongside the site of the windmill.
Edward Cheshire was born in 1842 and educated at Chance Brothers School. He started work at Chance’s Chemical Works in Oldbury and married his wife, Ann. Around 1870, he began his career in the licensed trade as the licensee and brewer at The Clock pub in Rolfe Street.
He later acquired and brewed at the New Church Inn in Windmill Lane. In 1886, he established the brewery on the corner of Windmill Lane and Ballot Street, integrating the historic windmill into the building complex and using it as a grain store.
He registered the company’s name in 1896 and, two years later, took over the six tied houses of Threfall’s (Liverpool/salford) Brewery, including the Bull’s Head in Smallbrook Street, Birmingham.
At the height of its business, Cheshire’s had a tied estate of over 45 pubs throughout Smethwick, Oldbury, West Bromwich, Wednesbury, Wolverhampton and Walsall. However, Cheshire’s were themselves taken over by Mitchells & Butlers in 1913.
For sale
The 40 qtr brewery closed the following year and was put up for sale in March 1915. For some time afterwards it was used as Scribbans bakery. The old windmill was demolished in 1949 and
some of its working parts were moved to the Science Museum in London for display.
Edward Cheshire was a wellknown and respected member of the local community. He served on the local Board of Health and later on the District Council. He was elected an alderman in 1899 and became Mayor of Smethwick in November 1902. He was also president of the Birmingham Children’s Hospital, Cripples Union, Smethwick Aid Society and Smethwick Musical Society and founded the Edward Cheshire Nursing Home in 1903. He was a churchwarden at Smethwick Old Church and, in the early 1900s, donated land to extend its churchyard.
Nephew
Cheshire lived at Sunny Bank in Augustus Road, Edgbaston, but died in July 1919, aged 78, and was buried at the Old Church. His nephew, William Cheshire, was also a director of Cheshire’s Brewery and joined the Holt Brewery (Birmingham) in 1910, becoming director in 1912.
Tramcar
He was taken ill on a tramcar in December 1922 and died shortly afterwards, leaving an estate valued at £9,415. The family’s name is commemorated in the name of nearby Cheshire Road.
The brewery was a profitable venture, reporting healthy profits and dividends during its 27-year life. In the early days, the brewery was very generous to its staff and local community, holding a “capital” dinner at the New Church Inn for their employees in 1897, catered for in “excellent style”.
Purity
There was a hearty toast to the “Success of Cheshire’s Brewery Ltd”, especially after increased trade meant increased wages!
The beers brewed at Cheshire’s were renowned for their
“high character, purity and brilliance, brewed from the choicest malt and hops”. The range of beers included a Mild Ale, Guinea Bitter, Grand Pale Ale and Family Ale, along with bottled stout. Some of the advertisements for their beers showed an idyllic element of romanticism, like the lady carrying bottled beers from the farmhouse past the old windmill.
The Windmill Brewery is long gone, with the site now occupied by St Matthew’s Church of England Primary School and new housing. Most of its pubs have disappeared too, but occasionally you may spot an old etched glass window or mirror advertising its beers.
For example, at the Seven Stars (Cape Hill), there is a windmill motif high on the corner of the wall, and one of the oldest pubs in Smethwick, the Old Chapel (The Uplands), dating from 1732, was once owned by Cheshire’s Brewery.
With acknowledgments to
and the Brewery History Society.