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The Brewery, Victoria Street

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1345
Earliest recorded brewery on this site

1825
Thomas Bokenham sells his brewhouse on this site to William Crisp for £350 (M). His brother, James Crisp, already owns the adjacent maltings. Thomas Bokenham with his wife, Elizabeth, takes over the adjacent Old Swan as Inn Keeper.

1844
William Crisp dies, virtually bankrupt and the two maltings, the brewery, public houses, grain warehouses and the Crisp High Street home are sold at auction for a total of £2,802. See schedule here.

Note: The buyer is reported in the Norwich Mercury as being Mr Woodley of Cambridge This may be a case of mistaken identity. The person who signs the auction documents is John Woodley*, a corn factor of London, although he may not have been the man who actually put up the money.

1845
John Woodley* is joined by Samuel Gayfer (a Walberswick Miller and son-in-law of the erstwhile owner, Thomas Bokenham.) The brewery now trades as 'Gayfer & Woodley'.

1851
Samuel Gayfer buys out the Woodley share of the business but shortly afterwards has a stroke and effectively retires from active management.

1854
Samuel Gayfer dies and the brewery ownership is left in the hands of his executors, whilst his son, George Eworthy Gayfer, takes over the day-to-day management.

1855
The Brewery is put to action but fails to sell.

1866
Samuel Haydn Fitch - On 18th August this year ownership of the brewery was conveyed to him from John Woodley.


1872
George Edward Underhill Adnams and his younger brother Ernest Michael Underhill Adnams, from a long-established Berkshire-based brewing family, arrive in Southwold and buy out Fisher’s share of the business. George quickly pulls out of the deal and is eaten by a crocodile in South Africa but Ernest Adnams and Thomas Sargeant set up a dynamic partnership which endures for 18 years and includes the founding of a successful hotel chain.

1890
Ernest Adnams buys out Thomas Sargeant and has the business registered as a Limited Liability company, Adnams & Company Ltd

1898
The company embarks on a major rebuilding and expansion programme but soon finds itself overstretched financially and in need of fresh capitalisation.

1903
John (Jack) Edward Blake Loftus, 27, a London stock jobber from Mayfair, and his younger brother Pierse Creagh Loftus, take a stake in the business with financial backing from their step-father. Not only do they bring much needed new money into the business but also invaluable expertise. Pierse has been trained as a brewer in Denmark, Germany and South Africa. and becomes its Managing Director. He remains actively involved in the company until his death in 1956

1907
Pierse Loftus is appointed to the board. His brother, Jack, has by now returned to his work at London Stock Exchange.




 
1912
Pierse Loftus becomes Chairman. Under Pierse's guidance, Adnams has embarked on a programme of cautious expansion, acquiring small breweries in Eye and Orford.
 

1922
Adnams acquires Flintham Hall & Co, a brewer in Aldeburgh.
 

1932
Pierse Loftus is elected MP for Lowestoft

 
 

1956
Pierse Loftus dies in office in January this year,



 

1970s
Brewery considerably enlarged and modernised
 
 
 

 
 
 

2001-3
New fermenting vessels installed

2006
New brewhouse opened
Local delivery by horse and dray discontinued
   

Do you have any memories or records about this address? Can you correct any of our information or fill in any of our blanks? If so, please email Barry Tolfree
or comment right here in our Forum. See below. ***

SOURCES:
BSD - Bernard Segrave-Daly
BCS = Bygones & Characters of Southwold by Barrett Jenkins
C = Census
CP = Cinema Programme 1958
CSP = Coronation Souvenir Programme 1953
G = Gales Trade Directory
GRO = General Register Office
K = Kelly's Directory
LM = Local memory
M = James Maggs' Southwold Diary 1818-1876
MCG = Methodist Church Guide 1930
NA = National Archives
PP = Pantomime Programme 1933
PLR = Petrol Licence Records
POD = Post Office Directory
PPP = Pier Pavilion Programme 1924, 1926
RCE = Rotary Club Exhibition 1969
SCM = Southwold Catholic Magazine 1923
SCTG = Southwold Corporation Tourist Guide
SER = Southwold Electoral Register
SFP = Southwold Scouts Fete Programme 1947
SG = Southwold Guide
SGCH = Southwold Golf Club Handbook
SLHR = Southwold Local History Recorder 1980s 1990s (Mrs R. McDermot)
SMHS = Southwold Museum & Historical Society
SN = Southwold & Neighbourhood 1903
SPM = Southwold Parish Magazine 1895 -1954
SR = Southwold Recorder 1927, 1932, 1934, 1935
SRB = Southwold Rate Book
SRT = Southwold Railway Timetable 1915
SSAS = Southwold Sea Angling Society Handbook 1909
SST = Southwold Summer Theatre Programmes
SSW = Southwold Shopping Week Programme, June/July 1922
STG = Southwold Town Guide 1930
SVL = Southwold Visitors List 1907, 1930
SVCP = Southwold Victory Celebration Programme 1946
SWCG = Southwold Wesleyan Church Guide
TTR = 'The Town Revisited' - Portraits of Southwold by Stephen Wolfenden 2000
TTT = ''To The Town' - Portraits of Southwold by Stephen Wolfenden 1988
W = White’s History, Gazetteer and Directory of Suffolk 1874
 
Note on dates
Unless otherwise stated, dates given do not indicate the years in which the business started or finished but those for which there is firm evidence that it was trading at this address. Sources in brackets; key at bottom of page.


The Adnams Brewery today

William Crisp., first Mayor of Southwold in 1836, following the Municipal Corporation Act .
Reproduced from 'Bygones and Local Characters of Southwold' by Barrett Jenkins, with the kind permission of his daughter, Ann Thornton.

How the Norwich Mercury reported the sale of William Crisp's, home and Chattels on Saturday 20 April 1844. The naming of the buyer as 'Mr Woodley of Cambridge' may be erroneous. We understand that the person who signed the

Click image to enlarge

To see a schedule of the sale as published in the Ipswich Journal April 6 1844
Click here

Notice in the Norfolk Chronicle of the auction of the brewery, High Street Maltings and three pubs. The seven lots failed to sell.

Click the image to see schedule

Advertisement in a c 1910 Southwold Railway timetable.

Adnams' Board in the mid 1980s

Adnams' Board of Directors photographed in the mid 1980s. From left: John Lee, John Adnams, Bernard Segrave-Daly, Simon Loftus .
Reproduced from ''To the Town' by kind permission of the photographer, Stephen Wolfenden

Click the picture to enlarge