Brewing Tradition in Newark, MileStone Brewing Co.

On my way back from Nottingham today I stopped off in Newark-Upon-Trent to have a look around. I had accidentally driven through the town centre before and had always said I wanted to go back and have a proper look around, plus I wanted to stop in at the MileStone Brewery as I was passing. Unfortunately I had the car so was unable to drink but was confident that the historic brewing town would have something to offer a designated driver.

The Town

Newark Castle overlooking the Trent

I parked up in Waitrose (free parking in the town centre – don’t get that everywhere!) and headed across the river towards the castle gardens. Although the Castle itself has seen better days, there is a small museum and tourist information centre in the gardens and, after a 10 minute briefing, I headed off into the town centre. Newark seeps history from it’s narrow streets and it isn’t just the beer related sites that are worthy of note. In the Market

G H Porter, Provisions Store

Square, where there were a number of collectables stalls along with the usual fruit and veg traders, the place that most caught my eye was the  G H Porter ‘provisions’ store – serving traditional cooked meats, pies and canned goods, as well as serving teas. Also of note was the town’s Shopping Arcade and the whole square is overlooked by the Buttermarket building, converted to house a number of boutiques and eateries as well as the town’s museum and art gallery.

Frontage of The Old White Inn, now a Building Society branch!!

Turning to more beer related sites of interest, the Market Square has the pictured 15th Century frontage, this building used to be The Old White Inn but is now home to a branch of the Nottingham Building Society. Also in the square is this picturesque Wychwood pub.

Wychwood Pub

As I was driving this was the only pub I ventured into on the day and unfortunately the interior did not live up to the promise of the outside. However, as I did not have the time to go round all of the watering holes on offer (I will be arguing for a Real Ale Reviews group outing by train next time I get together with Fletch and Lanesy) I leave it CAMRA to sum up the drinking potential of the town.

The Brewing History

Town Wharf Brewery Building, Newark

Newark has a strong brewing tradition and I visited a number of sites around the town that owed their existence the brewing trade. The first large scale brewery in Newark was the Town Wharf Brewery where brewing began under the stewardship of Samuel Sketchley in 1766. Brewing continued in the building after Sketchley under Richard Warwick. A passing local informed me that the most recent industrial use of the building was as a grain store, before being converted to flats in the 1990s.

James Hole & Co on Castle Brewery building

The two largest brewery buildings in the town are broadly contemporaries. On Albert Street the building of Castle Brewery, founded in 1870, proudly proclaims itself as the registered office of James Hole & Company Limited. Through acquisition and natural growth the James Hole Brewery grow to over roughly 250 public houses before being taken over itself in 1967 by Courage, Barclay & Simonds, being operated by John Smith’s of Tadcaster (also owned by Courage) until its closure in the early 1980s.

Castle Brewery, Newark

Northgate Brewery, Newark

The final building I visited was on Northgate. The Warwicks & Richardsons buildings were begun in 1871 after Richard Warwick, who had taken over the Town Wharf Brewery site from Sketchley, needed more space to expand his operations. In 1890 Joseph Richardson became a partner and Warwicks & Richardsons was created. The building, which had seen initial expansions in 1877 and 1882 saw a final expansion in 1891. Trade ceased in 1966 and the building became derelict.

The above three examples show the unfortunate position of the large scale local brewery in modern Britain. Both the Town Wharf and Castle Brewery buildings have been converted to flats and work is underway on doing the same to the Warwicks & Richardsons Brewery building. In my opinion this fate is preferable to demolition or continued disrepair since, as can be seen in the above examples, brewery buildings are large and often beautiful local landmarks. However it does illustrate the saddening decline in large scale local brewing.

The Bright Future

So was my day entirely a nostalgic and saddening wander through the pages of British brewing history? In short, no. Just a few miles North of Newark on the A1 at Cromwell is the MileStone Brewing Company. MileStone is the sister brewery of the Lincolnshire Brewing Company and was founded by Ken Munroe. Brewing is overseen by head brewer Dean Penney and the site has a small shop where the ales that are bottled can be purchased. Most impressive of all is the brewery website where Mr Munroe, who seems to have a similar view on the ‘role’ of good ale, offers detailed tasting notes as well as suggestions of foods to accompany the different MileStone blends.

MileStone Brewing Co. buildings in Cromwell

I came home with a number of different brews to review and I cannot wait to get these tried. MileStone seem to have very similar values as myself when it comes to how ale should be taken and I have a very good feeling that the ales will be of the highest order.

Refs – The Brewing Industry: A guide to historical records, Lesley Richmond & Alison Turton, 1990.

- Newark Civic Trust, Malting and Brewing Trail, undated