The Phoenix Brewery (also known as Finns Brewery) was a
brewery run by the Finns family in
Newbury, Berkshire
Newbury is a market town in the county of Berkshire, England, and is home to the administrative headquarters of West Berkshire Council. The town centre around its large market square retains a rare medieval Cloth Hall, an adjoining half timbere ...
, UK.
History
The brewery was founded in the early 19th century.
[ ]
Premises
The brewer's house on
Bartholemew Street was built in the 17th century and designed by
James Clarke.
The main brewery buildings including the two-storey beerhouse and the three-storey brewhouse date from approximately 1842. The beerhouse features recessed
sash window
A sash window or hung sash window is made of one or more movable panels, or "sashes". The individual sashes are traditionally paned window (architecture), paned windows, but can now contain an individual sheet (or sheets, in the case of double gla ...
s and
hipped roofing. The doorway to the building is wide and designed to be used for service access.
The top floor of the brewhouse contained a
hoist
Hoist may refer to:
* Hoist (device), a machine for lifting loads
* Hoist controller, a machine for raising and lowering goods or personnel by means of a cable
* Hydraulic hooklift hoist, another machine
* Hoist (mining), another machine
* Hoist ( ...
,
grain mill, water tanks and
malt
Malt is germinated cereal grain that has been dried in a process known as " malting". The grain is made to germinate by soaking in water and is then halted from germinating further by drying with hot air.
Malted grain is used to make beer, wh ...
stores. The first floor held the
engine room and the
tuns while the ground floor housed the boiler, pumps, the well, and stores for barrels. The exterior of the brewhouse features a
slate
Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock. ...
d roof,
dentil cornice
In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, around the top edge of a ...
and arched windows. The
gables include
crown glass louvres.
The complex became a
Grade II listed building in November 1981.
Closure
In the 1923, the brewery closed and was taken over by
Ushers of Trowbridge. The closure meant that there was no commercial brewery in
West Berkshire for 71 years, until Butts Brewery opened in
Great Shefford
Great Shefford (or West Shefford) is an English village and Civil parishes in England, civil parish on the River Lambourn in the West Berkshire district of Berkshire. The present civil parish includes the historical parish of Little or East She ...
in 1994.
Upon closure, the brewhouse was converted to be used for storage.
Current use
In the early 2000s, the brewhouse was used as a restaurant and bar. In 2004, however, the business was refused an entertainment licence due to objections from local police.
In 2008, the main brewery building was opened as
apartment
An apartment (American English), or flat (British English, Indian English, South African English), is a self-contained housing unit (a type of residential real estate) that occupies part of a building, generally on a single story. There are ma ...
s.
References
{{reflist
See also
*
List of Breweries in Berkshire
This is a list of breweries in the English county of Berkshire. The list includes both operational and defunct breweries, as well as microbreweries.
Caveats
Some breweries, such as the Morland Brewery in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, Abingdon, were in B ...
Grade II listed industrial buildings
Grade II listed buildings in Berkshire
Breweries in England
Companies based in Berkshire