Daniel Thwaites grave (1817 to 21st September 1888)

 

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)...

Houses of Gentry