A Drop Of The Hard And The Soft Stuff

Published on: 27 Feb, 2012
Updated on: 3 Sep, 2016

Local historian and bottle collector David Rose writes about the history of brewing and mineral water making in Bury Street, Guildford. 

For just over 100 years, the plot of land sandwiched between Portsmouth Road and Bury Street was a hive of industry with the brewing of beer and the making of fizzy drinks. In that time it was home to a number of brewers and mineral water manufacturers.

Guildford in the 1880s with the chimney of the Castle Brewery seen to the upper left. Click to enlarge in a new window.

In fact, during the 19th century Guildford had about half a dozen breweries. Barley and hops were available locally and there was a good supply of water making it an ideal centre for brewing.

Thomas Taunton (senior) was a wine merchant who purchased some buildings in Bury Street in 1834 for £875. Four years later he bought further buildings there, including a malthouse, for £980. Here he set up the Castle Brewery, but died in 1839 leaving the business in his will to his brothers Jonathan and John and to one of his sons also called Thomas.

A plan of the Cannon and Castle breweries from the book the Breweries and Public Houses of Guildford by Mark Sturley (Published by Charles W Traylen in 1990). Click to enlarge in a new window.

It seems that Thomas (junior) was at first reluctant to take on the brewery. Eventually he did, but, in 1842 he sold a part of it for £1,200 to a John Henry Lascelles, a brewer’s cooper of Southwark.

By 1844, Thomas Taunton (junior) seems to have warmed to the idea of brewing beer, in so much as he bought up more land off Bury Street and built another brewery and a pub, both of which he named the Cannon.

In 1856, he went into partnership with his brother Silas and nine years later in 1865, Thomas started yet another brewery! He bought a building that had been erected as a flour mill on the site of the former Dominican friary in Guildford and converted that into a brewery – which he called the Friary Brewery. By 1873, Thomas Taunton had dissolved his partnership with his brother Silas who was considering retiring anyway.

A stoneware jar used by Thomas and Silas Taunton of the Cannon and Friary Breweries. They were also wine and spirit merchants.

At the same time, Thomas Taunton went into partnership with a Charles Hoskins Master, but they soon argued, and within six months Master (the junior partner) bought Taunton out for the sum of £950.

Westbury House in Buryfields. It was the home of Silas Taunton and later owned by Lascelles, Tickner & Co, Ltd. The owner of the Guildford Glass Works later lived there. It is now used as offices.

In 1875, Master sold the Cannon Brewery to Thomas Lascelles and George Tickner (more of whom later) and concentrated on developing the Friary Brewery into Guildford’s largest brewery. But that’s another story. Also at this time, Thomas and Silas Taunton disappear from the brewing scene in Guildford.

Back to the Lascelles family where, as mentioned, John Henry Lascelles had bought part of the brewery in 1842 owned by Thomas Taunton (junior). John Henry Lascelles died in 1849, but his wife Maria continued to run their Castle Brewery with the help of three sons eventually passing it on to one of them, Thomas, in 1867.

Glass and stoneware bottles used by Lascelles, Tickner & Co, Ltd, in about 1890-1910. Click to enlarge in a new window.

The Lascelles also owned a pub in Guildford called the Jolly Butcher and the Corn Meter in Godalming. And in 1867 they got hold of the Malthouse Tap that had been built within the precincts of the brewery fronting the Portsmouth Road by Thomas Taunton.

A view looking up Portsmouth Road in the early 1900s with the Canon pub next to the cycle shop and part of the brewery buildings behind. Click to enlarge in a new window.

So, as stated, in 1875, Charles Hoskins Master (of the Friary Brewery) sold the Cannon Brewery to Thomas Lascelles and George Tickner. So now they had both the Castle and Cannon Breweries (next to one another) and ran them as one. Not only did they brew beer, but they made their own mineral waters and soft drinks.

Late 19th century Lascelles, Tickner & Co, Ltd, enamel advertising sign.

In 1889, they formed their business into a limited company with a number of tied houses in Guildford including the Elm Tree, the Jolly Butcher, the Bell at Stoke, the Queen’s Head, the Seven Stars and the Leopard; with pubs in the vicinity including the Harrow at Compton, the Jolly Farmer at Whitmoor Common, the New Inn at Send, the Kings Head at Holmbury St Mary the Queen’s Head at East Clandon, the half Moon at Ripley, the Onslow Arms at Clandon and the Ship at Worplesdon, to name a few.

Lascelles, Tickner beer bottle label.

Beer bottles used by Lascelles, Tickner & Co, Ltd.

In 1927, the Friary, Holroyd & Healy Breweries Co Ltd bought out Lascelles Tickner & Co, Ltd, obtaining all pubs on a leasehold basis. The takeover was completed in 1934 when Lascelles Tickner went into voluntary liquidation.

Edgar Purnell.

The Bury Street premises was then occupied by the soft drinks firm Purnell & Co Ltd. Edgar Purnell had come from Sussex to Guildford in about 1905 to manage Brighton and Worthing mineral water firm Shelvey & Co’s new factory in Onslow Street Guildford.

Stoneware jar used by Purnell & Co, when it occupied the former brewery buildings in Bury Street.

In 1918 he went into business with a Mr Thompson and started his own firm in premises in Bedford Road, expanding into the former Lascelles Tickner mineral water works in Bury Street. Purnell & Co Ltd remained here up until about 1938.

Advertisement for Purnell & Co from the Guildford Outlook magazine c.1933.

The firm then went to premises in Stoke Road – next to the railway bridge and opposite Nightingale Road. The firm was taken over by Sussex firm Fry & Co in 1946, but traded under its own name until about 1952.

Glass bottles and a wooden crate used by Purnells from the late 1930s-1940s.

As far back as 1930 the Public Health Authority deemed that stoneware bottles that were returned and refilled were really rather impractical. Their death knell came in 1952 when a Winnifred Gardener of Cranleigh brought a court action against Fry & Co in which she claimed she had become ill following a drink from a ‘contaminated’ stoneware ginger beer bottle.

Stoneware ginger beer bottles used by Purnell & Co. Banned from being refilled in the 1950s.

Although the mineral water firm was cleared of any wrongdoing, the subsequent publicity was enough to banish the humble stoneware bottle from Britain. It is just possible that the bottle at the centre of the court case was in fact one of Purnell’s (then owned by Fry & Co)and had been filled with ginger beer in Guildford.

A view of the former brewery buildings in the late 1950s just before demolition. Click to enlarge in a new window.

The former brewery premises in Portsmouth Road and Bury Street was taken over by the Guildford Glass Works in the 1940s. It traded there until about the late 1950s.

A view looking down Portsmouth Road shortly before the former brewery buildings (later Guildford Glass Works) were pulled down. Click to enlarge in a new window.

The buildings were then pulled down and an office block was built in the early 1960s that was occupied by the Central Electricity Generating Board.

Aerial view of Guildford in the early 1980s. The Central Electricity Generating Board building (T-shaped) can be seen at the top, right of centre. Click to enlarge in a new window.

That building has now gone and the site is earmarked for redevelopment. However, for some years it has remained an open piece of land bordered by a high wooden fence. Inside, trees and bushes are rapidly colonising the area!

The pub originally called the Cannon remains, but after a period when it was named the Power House is now called the Keystone.

The space that was once the site of the brewery has lain empty for many years since the Central Electricity Generating Building that replaced it was demolished. There was an application to build offices there when this picture was taken in 2012. New plans that have been passed are for retirement homes. The site is currently called the Guildford Plaza. Click to enlarge in a new window.

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