The history behind Nottingham’s Home Brewery Company – Nottinghamshire Live
The Home Brewery building on Mansfield Road, Daybrook is one of the more distinctive buildings in Nottingham and it has a long history as a brewery. Home Ales and Shipstone’s were two of the most prominent Nottingham city brands but sadly neither is around today.
The founding father of The Home Brewery Company was Thomas Robinson who was a farmer from Arnold with a malting business. When he passed away, his youngest son, John took over the business and half of his farm. By adding more property to this, John and his brother opened the Daybrook Laundry before going on to create the brewery in 1877.
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He created the name for the brewery from his farm, Home Farm in Bestwood and the business became the Home Brewery Company. It also allowed John to take over other breweries including W H Hutchinson and Sons in 1914. The W H Hutchinsons brewery was based in New Basford where only the brewery buildings and maltings survive. It is now used as a residential building.
John also purchased George Green’s Brewery which was based on Howard Street in 1921. Meanwhile, his father John (Snr) served on the Nottingham Town Council for 20 years before becoming the Sheriff of Nottingham in 1888 until 1896 before going on to receive a knighthood in 1905.
Plans for the brewery were drawn up in 1938 by Nottingham architect Cecil Howitt who had also designed many of the pubs which were owned by the brewery. Building work began the same year but was put on hold after the second world war broke out.
The war caused a significant delay in the building work which mean that the central tower wasn’t completed until the 1950s. The building has an unusual feature made by the sculptor Charles Doman along the front wall. It shows cherubs taking part in the brewing process including drinking tables, barrel making and stirring the beer. The designs are in white and repeated along a blue background.
The brewery was acquired by Scottish & Newcastle Breweries in 1986 when it owned 447 pubs around Nottingham. The takeover amount was said to be valued at over £120 million. Some of the pubs associated with The Home Brewery Company included The Bluebell Inn on Parliament Street, The Forester’s Arms on St. Ann’s Street and The Fox and Grapes on Southwell Road. The brewery also sponsored Nottingham Forest and Notts County at one time.
It wasn’t just beer that the brewery produced as they also made Apollo soft drinks which were produced at the rear of the building. They made orange and cola-flavoured fizzy …….