Forums Forums Wirral History : Chasing the Past Wirral History Birkenhead Brewery Co. Ltd.

Has anyone got any history about this company? I cant find anything on the internet and i am sure it will be interesting for others to read on this forum.

This link might be of interest for the pub forum and is the only info i can find on Birkenhead Brewers

Im researching it now mate for my website. Not got much about the history but loads of beer mats, labels, bottles etc

There is an old pub near hamilton square station with the Birkenhead Brewery i dunno if its in the Pub list ???

my dad worked for birkenhead brewery years and years ago, mixing whatever needed to be mixed in the big vats. also have a birkenhead brewery bottle opener with some sort of serial number on it. will see if i can get a pic.

The pier hotel mate!

Ahh it is thanks tc

No probs gang!

The Birkenhead Brewery started as two familly breweries, the Anchor Brewery in Livingsone Street, which was owned by the Aspinall's and the Argyle Brewery in Oxton Road owned by the Cook's

The breweries amalgameted in 1865 to become 'The Birkenhead Amalgamated Brewery Company Ltd', the name was later shortened to 'The Birkenhead Brewery Co Ltd'.

In 1962 the Brewery merged with Threlfall's Chesters Ltd and was later taken over by Whitbread.

The brewery also owned the Victoria Wine Co, Moorhouses (later to become R Whites) and Royal Assent.

nice one!

Not much but some stuff to start from

"The Birkenhead Brewery was founded in the first half of the nineteenth century, when the brewing business's of two families were combined. These were the ASPINALL's and the COOK's whose separate breweries were situated in Cleveland Street and Oxton Road, Birkenhead. On Aug 29 1865, they amalgamated and formed a limited company under the companies Act of 1862 with the title of The Birkenhead Amalgamated Brewery Co Ltd. This was later changed to The Birkenhead Brewery Co Ltd. It is probably the oldest established joint stock brewery company in existence. In 1948 the company acquired Mackie and Gladstone (Birkenhead and Liverpool) Ltd now called Mackie (B & L ) Ltd wine and spirit merchants and in 1951 the mineral water manufacturing business of Moorhouse Bros Ltd was added to the group of companies."

I also have a lot of information on Moorhouse Bros history mostly from before the Birkenhead Brewery takeover if you should want it.

I have been looking for pictures of the two old breweries, but this is not as easy as it would seem. In two different books, the picture below appears, captioned as the [Argyle] brewery in Oxton Road:



However, in another book, the picture below is described as the [Anchor] brewery in Livingstone Street:



As this one has a street name attached to the building:



I would be fairly confident that this was the Anchor Brewery, so unless the breweries were identical, the other pictures must also be the Anchor Brewery and not as captioned.

i thought that the oxton road one was the marriots motorcycle shop building.i know a builder who is working in the cellars in there at the moment,have already asked him if he has found anything of interest but he says not.

I seem to remember that Marriots occupies what were the offices of the Birkemhead Brewery Co, but the brewery itself was on the other side of the road and was demolished many years ago.

You're right, uptonc, the actual brewery WAS on the opposite side of the road. When they were brewing, you could smell it from a long way off.

Yes, the brewery was on the corner of Tetbury St. & uphill from there.