Reference
WL363-677
Title
St Paul's Brewery
Date free text
1715-1910
Production date
From: 1715 To: 1910
Admin/biog history
This collection is of interest, both because it throws light on the building-up of an older firm, and for its connection with Nonconformity in its early years.
The Woodwards and Belshams (c.1715-1800)
The deeds go back to the time of Bunyan, and his friend, Thomas Woodward, alderman of Bedford, deacon of Bunyan Meeting, and in 1688 administrator for John Bunyan on the latter's decease, (Brown, Life of Bunyan, pp. 303, 352, 388, 390). He was a maltster, and lived at the White Horse in Well Street, which he bought in 1679 (no.379) from the Paradines.
His son, Thomas Woodward the younger, married Francis Wingate, daughter of Sir Francis Wingate of Harlington, and, (as Brown observes, pp.138-9) granddaughter of the magistrate responsible for Bunyan's imprisonment in 1660. Ebenezer Chandler, minister of Bunyan Meeting, was one of the trustees of their marriage settlement (no.381). The young couple lived in a house in St Paul's Square, on the west side of Sessions House, and its garden lay 'on either side of the Sessions House Walk', while the brewhouse was in the yard (no.365). Thomas Woodward junior seems to have continued to use the malting in the White House yard which had been his father's, and he considerably extended his property in this neighbourhood (nos.379-410). After Frances' death, he married again, and he himself was dead by 1766.
He left four daughters; hence the history of the brewery in St. Paul's Square for the remainder of the century is confused. His eldest daughter Ann married the Rev. James Belsham; of their children Thomas became a unitarian divine and published theological works (D.N.B.); and William was also known for his philosophical and historical writings (D.N.B.). His second daughter, Frances, married the Rev. Samuel Sanderson, minister of Bunyan Meeting (see Brown, pp. 402-3; and History of Bunyan Meeting, pp. 26-33).
Thomas Jarvis (1873-1910)
The property was bought by Thomas Jarvis. Jarvis had his own brewery, the Phoenix Brewery in Midland Road, which was described in a report of 1874 as recently built in the most substantial manner. The two breweries and the 37 public-houses connected with them were valued in 1874 at 41,850 (no. 647). Apparently the use of the
St. Paul's Square brewery was discontinued after this, for the 1877 directory mentions only four brewing firms in Bedford:- Charles Wells in Horne Lane; Thomas Jarvis in Midland Road; Pritzler W. Newland in Duck Mill Lane; and George Higgins at the Castle brewery. Of these firms, the first bought out the second in 1910.
It may be noted that the St. Paul's Square brewery as it appeared in Sir William Long's day appears on Dawson's panoramic view of Bedford from St. Paul's church, c. 1830, published recently in the Council of Social Service's Bedford Survey.
The foregoing is intended to serve merely as a a general guide to the collection. For much supplementary information it is necessary to refer to the actual catalogue."
Level of description
sub-fonds