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Date: |
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Description: | 8th September 1910.
Image shows a temporary bridge under construction and water mains pipes are in view. In the centre background are the buildings of Kirkstall Brewery, situated on Broad Lane and running along the canal side. A brewery had existed on this site since 1833, taking advantage of the source of high quality spring water. Prior to that there had been a maltings run by Joseph Musgrave and subsequently by Ephraim Elsworth. Thomas Walker, an 'Ale and Porter Brewer and Maltster? bought the former maltings for ?7,000 and built Kirkstall Brewery in 1833. He died in 1844 and the following year the brewery was sold to John Dawson, the elder, at auction and he initiated his 20 year-old son, Benjamin, into the business. By the time of the census of 1851 Benjamin Dawson had 26 men in his employ and his younger brother, John, was working alongside him as a Managing Brewer. Kirkstall Brewery Company was formed following the deaths of John and Benjamin in 1867 and 1869 respectively. By 1890 the brewery had a chain of public houses. It had a good export trade to Australia and New Zealand, sending casks along the Aire and Calder Navigation to Goole. They were taken on in two steamships, likely to have been charted by the company, called the Charente (built 1865) and the Kirkstall (built 1870). By 1893 Kirkstall Brewery was producing 72,000 barrels of beer a year. In 1936 the company was bought by Dutton?s Blackburn Brewery Ltd which was taken over by Whitbreads in 1957. Whitbreads began brewing Mackson Stout and carried out a modernisation programme. This programme increased production of bitter and mild to a quarter of a million barrels annually. The plant closed in 1983 and has since been converted to flats for students of Leeds Metropolitan University. One of the student residential units has been named Dawson House. | License: | http://www.leodis.net/article.aspx?id=12 | Rights holder: | Leeds Central Library | Subjects: | Kirkstall Bridge Brewery | Source: | Leodis - A photographic archive of Leeds | Identifier: | http://www.leodis.net/display.aspx?id=20... | Go to resource |
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