The History of Brickwoods of Portsmouth

In 1848 Henry Brickwood, tenant of the White Hart, Queen Street, Portsmouth, wrote to his sister-in-law Fanny, in London, suggesting that she came down to Portsmouth and enter the licensed trade. Mrs. Brickwood, busy nursing an ailing husband, apparently found the idea appealing for she removed her only son, Harry, from his articles to a surveyor, sent him on a week's brewing course, and so set in motion the events which founded the firm of Brickwoods.

In 1851, the year that Harry married, Fanny Brickwood bought the freehold of The Cobden Arms, Arundel Street, a small Victuallers brewery and coal business. Fanny died in 1854, Harry following her eight years later. His two elder sons, John (later Sir John) and Arthur, were apprenticed to brewers. In 1872 they joined forces at the Cobden Brewery and set about expanding their business. Using investments left by their father they acquired and moved into Long.'s Lord John Russell Brewery in Commercial Road, gaining many licensed houses in the process. By now the firm of Brickwoods was well on its way to lasting success. Only six years later, in 1880, they moved for the second time this time to Bransbury's Hyde Park Road Brewery. This last move was a great act of faith. Their own bank refused to accept their cheque for the deposit and the two brothers had to change to a more accommodating bank. They persuaded an insurance firm to lend them Ł130,000 on mortgage to complete the deal. At the same time they entered the wine and spirit trade. But success ensured that they weren't to stay in Hyde Park Road long. In 1887 the need to expand led them the Penny Street Brewery in Old Portsmouth. The next 10 years saw the registration of Brickwood a company with five directors, two of whom were Arthur and John Brickwood, and the fourth and final move was to Jewel's Catherine Street Brewery which the company bought for Ł200,000.The new premises, with plenty of space for enlargement meant that Brickwoods was ready to expand in other directions. Arthur Brickwood had died only a year after becoming a director in 1893, but under the chairmanship of John the company bought the Lion Brewery and, in 1911 Pike, Spicer and Co.Pike, Spicer and Co. dated back to 1720 when a Will Pike started brewing on the same Penny Street site the Brickwoods later bought from his successor. It was from this company that the title of Portsmouth Brewery was adopted. There is a family connection here worth noting. William Pike died in 1777 leaving two daughters and a very considerable wealth. One daughter married John Carter, seven times mayor of Portsmouth; the other married John Bonham of Petersfield. By 1827 the Bonham branch of family was extinct and all William Pike's wealth passed the Carter family who later took the now famous name Bonham Carter. A member of the Bonham Carter family sat on the board of Brickwoods.

1928 Sprake Bros, Isle of Wight

Two archive pictures of Sprakes brewery on the Isle of Wight. Many thanks to Kevin Mitchell for these.

1953 Portsmouth and Brighton United Breweries and its subsidiary, The Rock Brewery of Brighton.

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Its area grew in just over 100 years from a back street in Portsmouth to a slice of England, stretching from Sussex to Dorset and north towards London, with a wine subsidiary in Portsmouth and depots in London, Hove, Portsmouth, Southampton, Isle of Wight, Bournemouth and on Salisbury Plain. Its reputation has expanded from local appreciation to a world-wide respect. Brickwoods is still a family brewery. John, grandson of Fanny Brickwood, died a baronet in 1932. John was succeeded as Chairman by Mr. Harry Brickwood, and John's son, Sir Rupert Brickwood, is Deputy-Chairman of the company. The Cobden Arms, in 1851, was a typical home-brew house and Fanny Brickwood, together with her son Henry, would have worked most of daylight's hours to produce 8-10 barrels of beer a week-a total of 360 gallons at the most. Brickwoods could produce 252,000 gallons a week and more than 4,000 dozen bottles of beer could be bottled every hour. Each year, more than 2,600 tons of malt and 350 tons of sugar were used. More than 110 tons of hops were consumed (and Brickwoods beers had one of the highest hop content in the country). Each hour more than 15 tons of steam was used and each week nearly 1,500,000 gallons of water was used in brewing and other tasks. Extensions to the brewery costing more than Ł1,000,000 were completed in 1962.And each year-sobering thought - Brickwoods customers paid more than Ł1,500,000 in duty on the beer they drank.

In the mid 1960's,some 12 years after Brickwoods had taken over Portsmouth & United breweries, there was a plan to move the entire brewery complex to Fareham, just outside Portsmouth. However they were still suffering from the huge outlay from 1953. Plans for the move were scrapped and it was decided to allow Whitbread & Co to attain a large stake in the company. This was the favoured tactic of the brewing giant. In essence they would offer security by allowing companies to share their umbrella. At the time this must have seemed a sensible option. In 1953 STRONG & Co ltd. of Romsey had allowed a lot of their shares to bought by Whitbread's. In 1969 Whitbread's bought the rest of the Strong's share capital and the company was wholly absorbed. In 1970 they (Whitbread's) did the same to Brickwoods. In 1973 the two brewing sites were 'brought together' under the banner of Whitbread Wessex. This lasted until 1983.

1973 - Whitbread Wessex formed, brewing & packaging continues on both sites.

June 1981 - Brewing ceased at Romsey, production transferred to Portsmouth, beer sent back to Romsey for packaging.

September 1983 - Portsmouth site closed totally. Brewing transferred to Cheltenham. Romsey Supplied from Cheltenham & Magor.

June 1985 - Romsey site closed totally. New warehouse facility opened at Hedge End. All production & packaging Cheltenham & Magor.

1989 - Portsmouth site demolished except for front of building and part of rear wall.

1989/90 - Romsey site 80% demolished. Brewhouse and fermenting rooms redeveloped for offices (see Strong's site), malting left alone as they are listed buildings.

This is a picture of the back entrance of the Portsmouth brewery, known as Bonfire Corner. Through this entrance would leave the road tankers of beer to go to Romsey once the latter had ceased brewing. In the 1950's & 60's Brickwoods had the fastest bottling lines in Europe and it was not uncommon for tankers to be queuing up to unload. This sign has now gone but the wall upon which it was built still remains. Incidentally the brewery site was levelled and is now a car park (sic). Not shown but to the right of the picture was one of the entrances to H.M.Dockyard

A standard bottle label. Note the use of the Brickwoods rising sun emblem but the United Breweries name. After the take-over Brickwoods continued to market their beers as United products. The old United brewery in Castle Street, Southsea. eventually became the Southsea. Table water Company (SOTA) when brewing was transferred to Brickwoods. This factory remained up until 1981 when it was closed. The site was cleared and is now a housing estate. There are several pubs opposite the old site. Scott's bar and the Diamond being the most notable.

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A much earlier label and pretty ghastly as well ! Good old Brown ale. Usually made by simply brewing a mild and increasing the priming rate from say 2 pints per barrel to 4.

A half of mild mixed with a bottle of brown was usually referred to in Pompey as a "Boiler".

Three standard bottle labels. The one on the right shows a move upmarket ! The Queens award being shown as well as the change to the glossy type paper. Note, once again, the United details on the Double stout label.

1953 was the year that Brickwoods took over the Portsmouth & United Breweries. In a take over battle with the then Watney group they (Brickwoods) paid 11,000,000 pounds for the 2 breweries (Portsmouth & Brighton) and the whole tied estate. Thank God they did otherwise Pompey would have been awash with Red Barrel and other crap. The downside was that they never really recouped the outlay and as a result decided in the early 60's to 'shelter' under the friendly Whitbread umbrella..

Many pubs in Portsmouth still bear the relics of their old United identity. Green glazed tiles covering the outside was standard as were the traditional embossed windows. The word United is still clearly visible on many pubs. See the Leopard in Fawcett Road.

An old label this one a thin paper type dating from the mid/late 1930's.(Note the comment on the label about the late King George V).

Milk stout is so called because Lactose is one of the sugars added. Brewers yeast will ferment many sugars to produce alcohol but Lactose is not one of them. Hence a beer can retain much of its sweetness without an appreciable increase in alcoholic content. Mackeson is a beer of this type and is probably one of the few milk stouts left.

Probably the most famous Brickwoods beer of all. "Little Bricky" was a full strength barley wine sold in nip bottles.

I still have a bottle of this although it is a Little Bricky label it has Whitbread details on. There are several different versions of this label .

Original malt stout. In later years this became Admiral Stout. The label was designed to mimic the rings of rank on an Admirals uniform. This label however is earlier and is of a basic design.

On the right is a Coronation label from Youngs Victory Brewery in Portsmouth. This was a small set up although successful. It was bought out by Ind Coope and shut down. Parts of the building still remain as does the original stone sign above the entrance. It is near the Tricorn centre off Commercial Road. I have been unable to ascertain whose Coronation the label refers too. The label is glossy and in good condition so I suspect it was our present Queens.

Longs were the Southsea Brewery. Based in Castle street near the old clock tower.

Parts of the brewery can still be seen and the chimney remains to this day. It is less than 5 minutes walk from the site of the old Portsmouth & United brewery in King Street. Long.'s were taken over by Brickwoods in 1933.As you can see from this label Brickwoods continued to brew the beers under Long's name. As to how long this practise occurred I have no idea. This label would appear to be from the mid/late 30's.

Number 3 mash tun at Brickwoods. Capable of mashing in 45 quarters of malt in any one go.

The normal day was for 5 mashes, starting at 6 am with the first three then second mashes at 11 am. Number 3 was normally used for Pompey Royal. The triangular funnel device above is the grist case. Here the crushed malt waits to be mixed with the hot liquor. (Liquor = water). Temperature is vital as the mashing procedure is enzymic in nature. 150 F is normal although this does vary from brewery to brewery. The liquor and malt are mixed by an auger system. Mashing in in on a cold winters day is a brewers perk I can assure you !

Number 3 Wort receiver. This is in fact a boiling copper. Here the hot sweet wort from the mash tuns is run in. At this stage the hops are added. This is an interesting copper and is called a saddleback. Where the operator is pouring the hops in you can make out the shape of the copper's dome. Surrounding it on top though is a large horseshoe receptacle. In this the next wort would be held and therefore pre-heated. An energy saving method. I have never seen these in any other brewery except Brickwoods.

The hop backs. After boiling the mixture is pumped into these hop backs and allowed to settle. The hopbacks have a false bottom which allows the wort to pass through but, obviously, not the hops. The wort is pumped away to be cooled whilst the hops are removed automatically and used as garden fertiliser. In many modern breweries the hopbacks have been replaced by whirlpools where the hop sediment is removed by centrifugal force. Incidentally many breweries now use hop concentrates or pellets. They are less cumbersome than the traditional pockets.

Yeast is self propagating and hence brewers always have fresh supplies of the same family of yeast.

On the left a Hopkins Goliath cask washer - note the air lines blowing sterile air into the wooden casks to keep them fresh. On the right the Racking Backs for cask filling. Two of the men in the picture are 'Mack the Rack' & Harry. Both spent 30 years at Brickwoods.

The Bottling line.

The man is standing by the Worsam super 40. The female operator is 'candling the bottles' for imperfections. All Brickwoods bottled beer was pasteurised. Bottling ceased at Portsmouth in March 1981.At one stage Brickwoods were bottling 270 barrels of Guinness a week !

The last stages. Here the fleet of Brickwoods drays await their days work. I remember these red and white vehicles when living in Portsmouth in the 1960's.These are Morris lorries. At the height of their powers Brickwoods supplied some 800 tied houses and a large free trade.

The 1950 Brickwoods works outing to Weymouth.

The 1969 Brickwoods outing to London.

A Brickwoods advertising 'flyer' -evidently from a theatre or cinema.

The July 1970 edition of Whitbread news announcing the "Joining of Brickwoods to Whitbreads"

Now let us look at what has happened. Here are series of photographs taken firstly in 1982 when the site was still working as Whitbread Wessex Ltd. The rest are from 1988 when I returned to the now defunct brewery to look over items of plant for another brewer. It was very depressing to see the neglect that had been allowed to occur. Certainly I was surprised to see that so much of the plant was left, my experience at Romsey was of the opposite. However I think this was probably due to the fact Portsmouth closed totally where as Romsey still processed beer from other sites although it did not brew it's own.

The author (left) and engineering colleague at Brickwoods in 1988.The mash tun behind is number 3 (pictured previously). What was really sad about that days visit was that the entire brewery was still totally intact and ready for use !

The left hand picture shows the author at number 3 copper.270 barrels worth ! The 'steel' device on the side was to allow the hop concentrate to be added from tins !

The left hand picture shows the saddleback copper. During my time at Brickwoods the saddle was never used although the copper was.

This picture shows the outside of the brewery (not from the main road).

This was the old chapel building and ,of course, the brewery was meant to be haunted !

The last two pictures show the sample room before and after. I can assure you that the barrels in the right hand picture were exactly as we found them some FIVE years after the brewery closed !! The beer was a little hazy.....Quite a difference ! Many happy Friday evenings in here !

The George Inn on the top of Portsdown Hill. It is still there today. It now serves Boddingtons YAK !