UPDATED - 16.30 BST 9/6/2009 - SILSDEN, YORKSHIRE, ENGLAND.

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  BRADFORD BREWERY HISTORY QUESTIONS? 

  BRADFORD, KEIGHLEY, AIRE/WHARFE REAL BEER NEWS - LATEST BEER NEWS LOCAL/NATIONAL & EVENTS

               AUTHORS' PUB GUIDE

WHEN TIMOTHY TAYLOR WON THE KEG CUP

TETLEY BREWERY YORKSHIRE SQUARES

HAMMONDS BRADFORD BREWERY ADVERTISING FROM JULY 1938

WEBLINKS

LOCAL CAMRA NEWS

BEER-IN-PRINT

BREWERY HISTORY SOCIETY

TOPIC FOLK CLUB

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COMMUNITY PUBS FOUNDATION

BREWERY TAP, IDLE

Silsden Net website

CASTLE HOTEL, BRADFORD

WHEN TIMOTHY TAYLOR WON THE KEG CUP

Sketch of the Brewers Guardian UK Keg Pale Ale Challenge Cup
Sketch of the Brewers Guardian
UK Keg Pale Ale Challenge Cup

Timothy Taylor are primarily known as producers of draught cask conditioned beers, known as real ale.
Surprisingly however Taylor’s have won a first prize for a keg beer. In 1976 the company won the Brewers Guardian UK Keg Pale Ale Challenge Cup.
This required the beer to be put on sale in a few of the company’s pubs before the event. The only one which can be recalled by the company's management today is the Grouse Inn, Oakworth.
Sir John Aked Taylor, later Lord Ingrow, explained in 1982 that: “We simply put the bottled version of Landlord into kegs and sent some down for judging and it won”.

Head Brewer Allan Hey (left) & John Aked Taylor, later Lord Ingrow, in the sample room
Head Brewer Allan Hey & John Aked Taylor,
later Lord Ingrow, in the sample room circa 1976.
Bottles of Northerner No 1 Dark Ale, Special Pale Ale &
Landlord, line the shelf above the sample casks.

Timothy Taylor bottling line c1970
Timothy Taylor bottling line circa 1970

Beer bottling at Timothy Taylor in the 1970s

At Timothy Taylor in the 1970s beer for bottling in small batches was occasionally simply double racked. This involved allowing the sediment in a cask to settle and then running the clear beer into another cask or container.
This method is used to enable clear draught beer to be sold in the refreshment carriages used on the Keighley & Worth Valley Light Railway.
Most beer for bottling at Timothy Taylor was processed by passing the beer into a warm maturation tank, then cold vessel. When suitably matured the beer was chilled further, carbonated and then pushed under pressure to the bottle filler.
The bottling plant was installed in the early 1950s and could fill bottles at a rate of more than 2,500 an hour.
In 1953 the company stated: “well over a million bottles of beer are dispatched in the course of a year.”
Bottles were first washed twice in a small Dawson cleaner, then passed to a Worsam Filler, and finally to a Morgan Fairest
Labeller.
From 1953 until the early 1990s, apart from the odd exceptions such as Centenary Ale in 1958, Timothy Taylor produced the same range of bottled beers. Northerner No. 1 Dark Ale, Special Pale Ale, Black Bess Stout, Blue Label Strong Ale and Landlord Strong Pale Ale. Then phasing out the firms dark beers (Northerner, Black Bess Stout and Blue Label) commenced.
The combination of declining sales, aged plant, and the need to create space for
new equipment required for draught beer production, brought an end to bottling at the Knowle Spring Brewery in 1996. In that final year both Landlord and Special Pale Ale won an awards. In view of the fact that Landlord was the company's flagship brand and the bottled version was still winning prizes it was decided to continue it production.

Samuel Smith was initially contracted to carry out Timothy Taylor's bottling requirements, and then McMullen's of Hertford.
Since 1999 Landlord has been put into 500 ml bottles by Frederic Robinson Ltd., of Stockport, at that company's Bredbury plant. Also small batches of commemorative brews have also been packaged by Daniel Thwaites of Blackburn.

Timothy Taylor bottled beer range 1953 to early 1990s
Timothy Taylor bottled beer range 1953 until the early 1990s. Roberta Taylor, daughter of Philip Taylor, designed the famous Landlord figure.

Illustrations by kind permission of Timothy Taylor & Co. Ltd.

HAMMONDS ADVERTISING FROM JULY 1938

Hammonds advertising, England Australia Test Match, Headingley, July 1938

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Tetley Brewery Yorkshire Squares

Joshua Tetley image produced for 175 anniversary in 1997

Just eleven years after the 175 anniversary of Joshua Tetley purchasing William Sykes brewery for £400, Carlsberg have announced that their Leeds brewery will close in 2011.

Carlsberg acquired the Joshua Tetley & Son, The Brewery, Leeds, via a merger with Allied Breweries in 1992. Calsberg-Tetley has created, in 2004 the Tetley name was dropped.

Tetley's first purchase was in 1954 when Duncan Gilmour & Co Ltd; of Sheffield, with 350 licensed properties.
In 1959 Tetley's acquired William Whitaker & Co. Ltd; of Bradford, who were owners of 119 pubs. The company had ceased brewing in 1928, but the firm continued bottling Bass, Guinness, Tetley, and their owned spirit brands. Tetley's draught beer was sold in Whitaker's houses but Tetley sign on their pubs did not carry the legend "One of Tetley's Houses."
The following year local rivals Melbourne Brewery, Regent Street, Leeds, asked to be taken over rather than be acquired by Hammonds United Breweries Ltd; Bradford. By that time Canadian Edward Taylor had effective control of Hammonds and the Chairman of Melbourne would not deal with him as he did not believe E. P. Taylor to be a gentleman. Melbourne Brewery owned 245 pubs which all carried the firm's famous courtier trade mark. Tetley's kept the Melbourne Brewery open for a year until closure 1961.

Tetley Brewery Yorkshire Square Room
The one of the two Tetley "Quality Street"  fermentation rooms

Each room held 24 x 270 barrel open Yorkshire square fermentation vessels. The first room was installed in 1961 and the second in 1964. All of which have either been chopped up for scrap, or are in the process of being scrapped.
Carlsberg now only use enclosed Yorkshire squares for the production of Tetley cask conditioned beer, these were constructed in 1996 and can be cleaned automatically. The "Dickie Bird" room contains 19 x 540 barrel squares. The old vessels had to be cleaned manually.

At the same time as Joshua Tetley were in negotiations with Melbourne Brewery talks went on with Walker Cain Ltd; to arrange a merger. Walker Cain had a brewery at Warrington and head office in Liverpool. A deal was completed in October 1960. Tetley Walker Ltd; was formed but the breweries continued to be run separately.
In 1961 Allied Breweries Ltd (Ansell, Birmingham, Ind Coope, of Burton & Romford, & Tetley Walker) was created, mainly to avert the possible takeover of either company.
Thomas Ramsden & Son Ltd; Stone Trough Brewery, Halifax, was acquired by Tetley Walker in 1964 for nearly £5.9 million. Ramsden's owned 200 licensed properties and 16 off-licences.
Tetley Walker bought Charles Rose & Co. Ltd; Malton, with 55 pubs, in 1965. Two years later Tetley Walker gained five pubs  from J. W. Hemingway Ltd; York Road, Leeds.

Yeast fermenting in a Yorkshire square
A yeast "head" in fermentation

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