Title
HISTORY OF NEWLAND & NASH BREWERY
A) Nash of St. Mary's & Lurke Street, Bedford
Peregrine Nash, the founder of Nash's Brewery of St. Mary's Bedford (and later Lurke Street) came from a long established Bedfordshire family based in Barton, Toddington and Milton Bryant. Peregrine appears on the Pedigree at the end of this introduction as Peregrine III. On 6 and 7 May 1783 (C.C.E. 1055/8 & 9) he bought the Brewery site described as a 'Mansion house, with Malthouse and Kiln' in the Parish of St. Mary's Bedford from Thomas Meacher of Barley End, Ivinghoe, Bucks., yeoman, a member of his wife's family, for 750. Meacher, acting as agent for Peregrine, had bought the property from the descendents of Richard Bell on 6 & 7 March 1783 (C.C.E. 1055/4 & 5). Richard's father Robert Bell held the property in 1697 where it is described as above. In the 1671 HearthTax for High Street Ward of St. Mary's Parish Robert Bell is described as having 7 hearths. It is probable that the site remained unaltered from 1671 to pre 1819. Certainly Malting and probably brewing had taken place on the site for many years
before Nash arrived there.
By 1819 the 'ancient messuage' was pulled down and a new one built in its place. It is impossible to say whether the Malthouse and Kiln were rebuilt but it is quite likely that they were extensively refurbished at this stage. [C.C.E.1055/13 &14] At the same time he converted the messuage to the south of the Brewery from a bakehouse into the Windmill Public House.
Peregrine Nash increased his public houses steadily but not spectacularly
2 in the 1780's, 5 in the 1790's, 4 in the 1800's and the site of the Peacock,
St. Peter's Bedford (built by 1820). Of these 12, 7 were in Bedford itself and
the rest in villages round Bedford, such as Pavenham, Oakley and Elstow with Wilden and Marston Moretaine being the furthest away from the Brewery.
In c.1810 Peregrine's only surviving son George Peregrine became a partner and from then on it is clear that George took over almost exclusive control of the Brewery. In a deed of 5th and 6th January 1819 (GK 156/1) it is stated that the Brewery has ' for a long time past been solely conducted by Geo Peregrine Nash by whose assiduity the business has been greatly promoted and the profits thereby increased '. From 1819 G.P. Nash was de re well as de facto sole partner of the business.
Almost at once the Brewery acquired possibly the second largest Inn in
Bedford: the Kings Arms in St. Mary Street, Bedford. They also purchased the Ship Inn in St. Cuthberts ( another old Inn ). However G.P. Nash I bought fewer properties than his father relying, it must be presumed, on better marketing techniques, rather than increased outlets, to expand business. The 1810's saw a purchase of 4 public houses ( including the 2 Bedford ones mentioned above ). The 1820's 1 public house in Bedford; 5 additional properties in the 1830's including extensions to the key Kings Arms Site.
On 3rd and 6th June 1842 Geo. Peregrine I conveyed a number of his Bedford properties to his eldest son Geo. Peregrine Nash II with a view to making him at least equal, if not, sole partner in the Brewery. (pt. of GK 161/1). However by July 1843 George Peregrine II was living in London at 40 Bernard Street, Russell Square, having moved there probably due to ill health. He died there on 14th June, 1844. His Will, proved on 23rd July, 1844 at Prerogative Court of Canterbury, left the Bedford properties previously assigned to him back to his father and the residue of his estate to his younger brother William Joseph Nash.
It appears that by 1849 although his father Geo, Peregrine Nash I was nominally in charge of the brewery it was W.J. Nash, his younger son, who actually ran it. After buying 2 properties in the early 1840's, expansion ceased entirely until the purchase of the 'Old Salutation' Blunham in 1849. This was conveyed to W.J. Nash alone and there is no mention of G.P. Nash I being his partner.
W.J. Nash was a farsighted man, who early on saw the commercial prospects of the expanding town of Bedford [1851 Population 11693; 1861 Population 13413]. In the 1850's he bought 3 public houses in the town and the sites of 4 more including that of the future Midland Hotel, a key site with the completion of the Midland Railway Station in January 1859. He purchased 2 further public houses in 1859, at Clapham on the important road north, and Cranfield. The 'Star', Wootton was added in 1864.
These purchases and the building of the Hotel and public houses on the sites that he had bought, although immensely profitable in the long term put a considerable strain on his finances in the short term. In 1867 crisis struck. Firstly, the Bank, Barnard & Wing insisted on security for a bank overdraft of 4705.13s.8d. [GK 161/3], 31st July, 1867. They also lent him a further 4900 at 3% interest. It was this loan that probably saved him from Bankruptcy as on 3rd August, 1867 he was forced to give formal security to his creditors for the debts he owed. The trustees (and presumably Chief Creditors) were Robert Conchman of High Street. Bedford, surgeon, and William Wells Kilpin, ironmonger and it is stated that they
could have proved Bankruptcy. [GK 159/1]
Serious as the situation had looked initially, W J. Nash recovered with remarkable speed. In 1869 he purchased the 'Fox & Hounds', Kempston and on 29th April 1870 he paid back his creditors.
The recovery of his finances was such that by 1874 the replacement of the out of date St. Mary's Brewery with a much larger steam brewery at Lurke Street, Bedford could be contemplated. The plans, most unfortunately unsigned, were approved in 1874 (B.O.R. B.P. 461 etc.) and by 4th December 1875 the building was completed. [St. Peter's Bedford Valuation List]. It was initially valued at 150 gross rental and 125 rateable value. It was reduced to 130 and 104 respectively on 8th January 1876. On 8th May 1876 in St. Mary's Valuation List W. J. Nash was assessed for a Malting, gross rental 55, rateable value 44 - Brewery disused now 95 and 76 respectively. On 7th October 1876 the St. Mary's Brewery valuation was reduced to zero: 'Brewery pulled down'. No further public houses were purchased but the buoyant sate of Nash's business is shown by his continuing to reduce his mortgage liability. On 30th October 1882 he paid off the last 3000 owed to Barnard & Wing and on the next day took out a mortgage for only 3900 from Henry Wilson Sharpin of Bedford, surgeon and Rev, Jeremiah William Haddock of Bedford, Clerk in Holy
Orders (GK 161/405).
W.J. Nash had a considerable family with 8 children living with him and his wife Susan (nee Platt of Lidlington) at their house in St. Mary's in 1871. Of these, two were sons: the eldest William, Brewer, 28 (helping his father, as a junior partner although never formally acknowledged as such) and George Peregrine III, a Lieutenant in the Bedfordshire Militia and a Receiver of the Harpur Charity. William was buried at St. Mary's Bedford, 22nd April 1875 aged 32. His brother, George Peregrine III was buried 6th July 1883 aged 38 and William Joseph Nash himself was buried 23rd September 1884 aged 69. Thus all the male Nashs were dead and it was left for Susan Nash, William Joseph's widow to carry on the Brewery for the benefit of herself and her 5 surviving daughters. She continued running the brewery until 1890. As she was 79 this could only be a temporary measure. She needed the help of an experienced businessman, preferably a brewer, to help her.
She found him in W.P. Newland with whom she went into partnership on 5 August 1890. The house in St. Mary was sold off c.1890 and the family moved to 3 Albany Street, Bedford (Bedford Directory 1890 and Kelly's 1894 Directory of Bedfordshire).
B) F.T. Young and W.P. Newland of Duck Mill Lane Brewery. Bedford
F.T. Young
Frederick Thomas Young was born c.1835 at 9 Elms in Surrey. [1871 Census] By 1862 he was the manager of the long established St. Paul's Brewery, owned by the Newland family of Kempston House. [Mentioned in 1862 Commercial Directory of Bedfordshire but not in the one of 1861]. In 1871 he was employing 12 men, thus making it one of the larger breweries of the town. In 1873 on the death of Bingham Newland the Brewery was sold up and bought by Thomas Jarvis, owner of the recently built Phoenix Brewery. He wanted the public houses as outlets for his own Brewery
and always intended to sell the site of St. Paul's Brewery. [This he did to the Harpur Trust for the Girls Modern School 29th May, 1875 ref: Q.S.H. 2/157]
Deprived of his job at St. Paul's Brewery, F.T. Young decided to set up on
his own. He leased an area north of the Duck Mill Lane, St. Mary's Parish, Bedford, from Anthony Tacchi (listed in the 1854 Commercial Directory as Carver, Gilder and Barometer maker of High Street, St. Johns Bedford). He lived on the site of the present Midland Bank, next door to St. John's House. [Acc 'Bedford Town & Townmen'] The site had previously been owned by T.J. Green and Co., who had a corn warehouse
and merchants yard on it. They sold to Tacchi between 1864 and 1873. Young pulled down the existing buildings and had built a modern brick built steam brewery. Unfortunately, the plans have not survived but from the rate book it is clear that it was fully completed between 9th November 1872 and 22nd February 1873. In the valuation entry the Brewery is described only as a 'Maltkiln' but it is clear that this represents a proper brewery as in 1875 it is described in GK 160/1 as a 'Brick built Steam Brewery ........'.
The Brewery formed part of a major development of the Duck Mill Lane area. Henry Hill erected a yard and buildings there (rated November 1867); John Fuller, corndealer, a warehouse in Bedesman's Lane (rated September 1869) in place of a previous one; Edmund and Henry Hilton Green: a Timber Merchant's yard (rated 8th October 1870) (the Greens had already built the Steam Mills by 1864).
They added a further merchant's yard in land belonging to Tacchi (rated June 1875). Samuel Foster the important Building Contractor had offices built here at the same time. In 1870 the Island Skating Rink and pounds for George B. Lincoln were completed.
These years also saw the increased development of housing in the area.
April 1874 1 house was rated in Duck Mill Lane
April 1875 1 house and workshops in Bedesman's Lane
June 1875 5 houses in Bedesman's Lane
Dec. 1875 6 houses in Bedesman's Lane
On 29th December 1873 F.T. Young bought a small Brewery based on the 'Old Swan' at Eaton Socon from William Bowyer of Buckden for 3,200. The sale included 5 public houses in the Eaton Socon/ St. Neots area. (GK 157/8). 1,200 of this purchase money he found himself and the rest he borrowed at 5% interest from Robert Whitworth of Kempston, farmer, on 30th Decenber 1873. (GK 157/12)
On 10th September 1874 Young bought 2 public houses in Kempston for 800. Sometime immediately before this he had purchased 'Smith Arms'. On 12th September 1874 all 3 were mortgaged for 700 at 5% interest to Charles Mitchell of 6 Upper Merrion Street, Dublin, Ireland, a relation probably of his solicitor William George Carter Mitchell of Bedford. (GK 132/18 & 20)
F.T. Young & W.P. Newland
On 1st October 1874 F.T. Young went into partnership with William Pritzler
Newland (brother of his former employer Bingham Newland)(GK 157/13). Because of the terms of his brother's will (partly, but unfortunately, not fully abstracted in WL 656) W.P. Newland had not been able to inherit St. Paul's Brewery but even before going into partnership with F.T. Young he had already run his own malting the west side of Elstow Road. (1864 Valuation List).
F.T. Young with the expenditure of, large amounts of capital on the Brewery
and the purchases of the Public Houses noted above was short of ready money. He even had to mortgage his properties to his solicitor to cover 100 bill due to him (GK 160/1).
W.P. Newland gained the Kempston estate on the death of his brother. This he used as security for a loan of 13,700 from Charles Powell of Newport Pagnell, Bucks, Esquire at the low rate of 3.1/2% on 20th October 1874. This money provided the necessary finance to start his joint venture with F.T. Young. Apart from the 100 mortgage mentioned above, the two partners got further mortgages of
a) 1000 at 5% from Louisa Hudson of Penyllan House, Pengarth near Cardiff, spinster (GK 160/2) [this financed the purchases of 2 public houses in Ampthill and Gravenhurst]
b) 250 from Carter Mitchell their solicitor and F.W. Webb.
The short lived partnership saw the purchase of 5 public houses all south of
Bedford, 2 in Ampthill, 1 in Gravenhurst, 1 in Shillington, 1 in Wilstead. It
is interesting to note that they purchased nothing in Bedford, near their Brewery. With 7 other Breweries (of which 4 were recently built or enlarged) the competition for any public houses for sale was keen. Newland and Young starting a little after the rest were at a disadvantage. After building the Brewery they had little spare finance for developing building sites for public houses, which could, of course, have been an alternative strategy.
On 10th January 1878 F.T. Young transferred his share of the business of the partnership to W.P. Newland (reference in GK 157/13). Whether Newland bought him out or whether there was a disagreement is unclear as none of the documents relating to the transaction have survived. F.T. Young retired to 1 Waltham Villas, Woburn Road, Bedford (1871 Directory).
W.P. Newland expanded the business only at a very slow rate, adding only 2 public houses in the Aspley Guise area and obtaining the lease of an off licence in Princes Street, Bedford, in 1885. The scattered nature of the Brewery's holdings must have caused high transport costs and it seems as if the venture was not all that successful as the Kempston estate and the Brewery had to be mortgaged to Powell for a further 4000 at 5% interest (GK 160/4).
C) Newland and Nash
On 5th August 1890 Newland went into partnership with Susan Nash (widow of W.J. Nash)(see above under Nash's Brewery). He wanted more outlets for sale in the immediate vicinity of his Brewery. He had partly compensated for this by specialising in sales to private customers (see 1890 Directory of Bedford Advertisement) but he really needed public houses to be able to expand his trade significantly. The offer of a partnership with the Nash Brewery with a much larger brewing plant than his own in Duck Mill Lane and public houses in Bedford was a heaven sent opportunity for Newland.
In the years 1890-1900 he was the dominant partner of the firm, and masterminded the greatly increased purchase of existing properties, and the development of strategic sites on the newly built estates as public houses. Susan Nash, William Joseph's widow died 12th May, 1895,. By this time one of the 5 sisters Esther Fanny had died (she was buried at Bedford Cemetery, 9th June 1893) so W.P. Newland went into partnership on 9th October 1895 with her 4 sisters: Emily Cressy Nash (19 in 1871), Florence Mary (12 in 1871), Rosa Gertrude (9 in 1871) and Constance Eveline (8 in 1871). Probably by 1900 the sisters had moved out of Bedford. There was a Miss Nash living at 28 Embankment in 1898, which was lived in by 1903 by Claude Clark (later a secretary Debenture Trustee of the Limited Company). By 1910 two were living at 29 Beaconfield Villa, Brighton, Sussex (Emily and Florence). The other two were living at 30 Manor Road, Salisbury (Rosa and Constance).
The new partnership bought extensively in the Bedford area, concentrating especially on sites in newly developing areas. In 1891 they bought 2 lots of the Queens Park Building estate on the corner of Fairfax Road and Iddsleigh Road. On this they built the 'Globe'. In 1894 the Coventry-Campions, to whom William Pritzler Newland was related by marriage [he married Percy Ann Coventry Campion - marriage settlement of 17th November 1877] sold off a building estate in Bedford. The partnership bought 4 sites from them. The 1890's also saw the purchase of extensions to existing public houses they owned. In 1895 they bought 'The Bell' in Sandy, formerly belonging to George Anstee's Brewery at Eaton Socon.
By the late 1890's it was clear that neither family would be able to produce
another generation of active partners. It was also clear that the steam brewery in Lurke Street was far too small, as it had since 1890 been carrying the business of 2 Breweries, the Duck Mill Lane having been sold off in 1889 (BMB 14A19). The site of the future 'Bell' also had not been built on. A large injection for capital was therefore needed and so the decision was made to turn the partnership into a Limited Company called Newland & Nash with Debenture Trustees to raise 50,000.
On 13th August 1897 the 2 families conveyed most of their joint property (except that in Pavenham and Stevington) to the new firm, who on the 14th transferred it to two Debenture Trustees, Edward Owen Carpenter of the Bedford Bank and Captain Lindesay Beaumont Beaumont of Crossland Fosse, Kempston to secure the issue of 50,000 of 4% Debenture stock. On 18th October 1898 Claude E. Clark Secretary to the Brewery wrote a report to the Debenture Trustees advising the extension of the Brewery Buildings (GK 163/2)
The report states that there had been a steady and yearly increase in sales since 1890:- 3000 barrels of beer and 1000 gallons of spirits: that the plant had been designed to carry on one business and since 1890 had carried 2 and that in the past summer they had been unable to brew sufficient beer to meet requirements; that the Brewery needed enlarging with new bottling stores, new cooper's shop and carpenters shops and extension of malting. The report stated that the Brewery had 21 public houses in Bedford alone.
The work on the Brewery was completed by 17th April 1900 at a cost of 1980,14s,8d. In 1898 the 'Bell' was built at Westbourne Road and between 1900 and 1902 982 was spent at Lurke Street Brewery in building new offices and new engine room; 227 for new stables at the Midland Hotel and 334 on rebuilding the 'Chequers Inn', Wilden. The 'Bell' and the 1900-1902 improvements were certificated by H. Young, Architect of Bedford, who probably drew up the plans [H. Young 1871 Census recorded as aged 28 and born in Bedford; his being John Young, builder and Sarah who was acting as Housekeeper to T.G. Elger' widow, Emily at 11 Cauldwell Street. Later in the year he moved to 13 Cauldwell Street. His offices at 35 Maitland Street still survive].
On 24th August 1900 William Pritzler Newland was buried at Kempston.
D) Newland & Nash 1900 - 1936
Richard Summers, Newland's Co.- Director continued as Director and Claude E. Clark, the Secretary to the Company replaced Newland as the other Director. After Newland's death the property of the Brewery continued to expand, buying 9 public houses and other property during the years 1900 - 1914, including the important 'Greyhound' in Sandy. The First World War naturally slowed this expansion down with only 4 properties being bought before the takeover of Wells and Winch in 1922.
For a short while the Brewery at Lurke Street was mentioned. Soon, however, all brewing was done at Biggleswade and only an office remained to run the Bedford area of Wells and Winch property which included the Higgins Brewery. The name of Newland and Nash continued to be used until 1936 when full integration with Wells and Winch occurred. A number of properties were added during this time including 'The Swan', Bromham and the 'St. John Arms', Melchbourne.