I don’t like
the taste of alcohol but I know Thwaites beer has
been around for over two hundred years. Once I visited the sprawling brewery in
Blackburn to carry out a survey (it was demolished in 2019 when they relocated.)
Who was the Thwaite responsible for this
multi-million pound booze empire? Surely he was buried up north. I went to seek
out the grave.
Daniel Thwaites Senior
was 30 years old when he began brewing in Blackburn in 1807. It was a small
affair and served the folk of Lancashire. He and wife Betty had twelve children
- four sons and eight daughters. Daniel Thwaites Junior
was one of them and he would go on to expand the company formidably. When
Daniel Senior died the lads inherited the business. They grew the company but
Daniel was the main driver. He was 40 by the time his brothers died or retired
and he owned the business outright. Aged 42 he married Eliza Gregory and they’d
go on to have two children.
The company's turnover, profit and factory grew
rapidly over the years - 250 tenanted pubs stretching from Birmingham to
Carlisle and North Wales to Yorkshire served their crafted beers. Thwaites public
houses were in abundance across the country and made millions from slaking the
thirst of physical workers. Common sights and sounds were Thwaites
shire horses clattering along the cobbled streets of the cotton towns delivering
beer to mostly men who started drinking in their early teens.
Awash with cash Daniel bought smaller brewers,
bottling plants and vintners. He also bought
a huge country mansion Billinge Scarby
complete with a brace of servants and gardeners. By the time he died aged 66 in
1888 he left an estate worth £998,000 (worth tens of millions of pounds now.)
Arriving at the church in central Blackburn I was
disappointed to see a wooden wall surrounding it. Churches can withstand ageing
and the wet northern weather but this one had lost its roof and its remaining
days are countable. I had a coffee in the car and decided I could bound over
that wall like a kangaroo. Bad news - Blackburn police station sits next to the
church and lots of police in a big open plan office would easy see a scruffy
panting nerd clambering over the wall. I decided not to bother and had to suffice
with the shots shown here. I was disappointed.
The Thwaites family grave
lies in the corner of the small churchyard where Victoria Street and St James's
Street meet. All I could do was stand about ten feet away from the grave, the
wooden wall between us. In time I'd guess the church will be demolished and the
graves will be covered over with lawn or flowers.
What happened the Thwaites
millions? Sadly Daniel’s son died within five months and the money eventually
trickled down line of his daughter Elma. She went on to marry Robert Yerburgh who was the MP for Chester. I did a salute and
left.
The brewery in Blackburn which was demolished in 2019...
The family home (now demolished)...