Amersham Museum

Weller’s Brewery sale prospectus

The prospectus on the sale by auction on 25 September 1929 of “The very valuable Freehold Property known as Messrs W & G Weller’s Amersham Brewery together with licensed properties and sundry cottages, parcels of land and other property” has been added to the museum collection of documents.

The prospectus contains two maps, one relating to properties and land for sale in Amersham. The other shows the location of tied houses in Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Hertfordshire and Middlesex.

The map of the properties shows the location of the brewery, the Malting House, the mews and other properties and land associated directly with the brewery, mostly to the north of the Misbourne, on either side of Church Street. Properties in Church Street included Rumsey’s and Three Gables.

The second map shows the location of 143 licensed properties, 133 freehold and 10 leasehold (N.B. the front cover of the prospectus refers to 142 licensed properties). Much of the prospectus is taken up with details of names, locations and descriptions of individual tied houses, some of which were more than 20 miles from Amersham, ranging from Cranford in Middlesex to Quainton north of Aylesbury, and from Hambleden near Henley to Markyate near Luton.

History of the Brewery

Prior to the mid-eighteenth Century, brewing was largely a household occupation, with individual families, farmers and publicans brewing primarily for their own private consumption.  Monastic foundations also brewed beer and it has been suggested that the first large-scale brewing enterprise was undertaken by monks affiliated to St. Mary’s Church.  Unfortunately, there is little evidence to support the existence of such a brewery, or, for that matter, a monastic foundation.

The 1929 auction sale prospectus states that Weller’s “was started in High Wycombe a few years previous to 1771 at which date the “Old Church Brewery” at Amersham (as to the origin of which there is no authentic record) was purchased.” Other sources indicate that the Wellers were maltsters in High Wycombe rather than brewers and that they leased the Amersham brewery from the Hunt family in 1775 rather than purchased it.

Another source states that “The first authentic reference to the Amersham Brewery occurs in an entry for the 17 April 1735 in the Court Baron Rolls for the Manor of Amersham Rectory. In this entry Sir William Drake is recorded as having been fined 5 shillings for having illegally erected a brewhouse on ye Lord’s waste over ye River from St. Mary’s Church. The site of this illegal brewery was on that of the present building, and the brewhouse was probably nothing more than the reconstruction of an existing sixteenth-century building – possibly the Malt Mill recorded in 1504 – already in existence on the site.” The Weller family leased the brewery from the Hunt family from 1775 until 1818, when they purchased the freehold. (The picture to the left shows the Brewery in 1890.)

In 1775, the Saracens Head in Whielden Street became the first tied house to be purchased by the Wellers, followed in the late eighteenth century by the Chequers (in London Road) and the Queen’s Head in Whielden Lane (see left). The Red Lion (in the High Street near the Museum – now a private dwelling) was bought in 1837, and the Eagle in 1838. In Amersham Common (now Amersham on the Hill), the Red Lion was bought in 1848 and the Boot and Slipper in 1849.

The sale and its aftermath

In the 1929 auction, Messrs Benskins of Watford bought the whole of the Weller business for £360,000. Benskins had been interested in the tied houses rather than the brewery and the properties in Amersham. The brewery was closed, leading to “considerable bitterness in the town” despite generous payments by the Wellers to all their past employees. The brewery had been Amersham’s main employer.

One report states “It is possible that it was the ill-feeling engendered by the sale of the brewery that hastened the death of Mr. George Weller for he died at his home at The Plantation shortly after on 20 October 1929 at the age of 84. When the 87 acre Plantation estate was sold to the Metropolitan Railway Country Estates for £18,000 the following year, it finally severed a link the Weller family had had with the town that had lasted for over 150 years.” The Maltings and the other properties near Church Street and the Misbourne were separately disposed of. Barn Meadow, between the Misbourne and School Lane, became Town Council recreational land.

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