Campaigning for good beer in good pubs in north Lancashire and the Ingleborough area
CAMRA Lunesdale
Mitchells
malt awaiting transfer to Old Brewery
Mitchells is a long-established firm, owned and largely run by the Barker family, descendants of the founder. They ran pubs and a brewery until 1999, when the firm became a pub chain. In December 2008, they acquired the micro York Brewery with four pubs. Recently Mitchells have bee selling many of their pubs and in five years are down from about 67 pubs and hotels to 39 (about 31 in this area), from Milnthorpe to near Preston, near Bolton, in Leeds and in York.
Unlike most pubcos, Mitchells put their name prominently on the outside of nearly all their pubs (except the York Brewery ones). This is not as helpful as it might appear as the pubs vary so much in almost every respect. All but a handful have cask ale. If there are only one or two, it will be something from Everards or York. Some of their pubs have four to six cask ales which may include a wide variety of other breweries. One pub has nine cask ales.
William Mitchell began his brewing career in 1865 by renting the Black Horse, Common Garden Street, Lancaster (New Look occupies the site). Here, as was normal at the time, he brewed for the pub and was successful enough to supply beer to other pubs too. In 1874, he purchased the New Inn in Market Street, which had land behind on which he built a bigger brewery, completed 1880. On his death in 1919, he left a brewery running about 100 pubs. His son, also called William, died without an heir; his daughter, Annie, married John Faulkner Barker, a chemist from Arnside. For about half a century, the firm was run by “the executors of William Mitchell” and perhaps for this reason rode out the post-war takeover era unscathed.
The Old Brewery stands in Brewery Lane and has a datestone of 1669. As it doesn’t appear on maps older than this, but it does on newer ones, it seems reasonable to believe this is when it was built, although little of this structure has survived rebuildings. Nothing is known of its early history, but a William Jackson was brewing there before 1817. In 1878, a nephew of the then owner returned to Lancaster, having been brewing for the navvies working on the Settle-Carlisle Railway, and went into patnership with William Yates. Two very small local breweries were purchased in 1891. Yates left the partnership in 1903 and the Jackson family ran the company, which continued as “Yates & Jacksons” until 1985, when it was sold to Thwaites. Thwaites promptly stopped production of Yates & Jackson beer and sold the brewery to Mitchells, who moved their production there. Their own Central Brewery was soon demolished, shortly to be followed by the New Inn and the site is now occupied by Vue cinema.
After brewing ceased, the pubs were supplied with a range of boring national brands. Since then the situation has slowly improved, so the better pubs now offer an excellent choice. In summer 2002, Lancaster Bomber was launched, a Mitchells brand licensed to Thwaites. This is sold as a Thwaites beer and appears in some Thwaites tied houses.
Mitchells become brewers again in late 2008 with the acquisition of micro York Brewery (brewing within the city walls). York’s four pubs joined Mitchells existing 63 and their beer became widely available in Mitchells pubs.
The Brewery in Brewery Lane was to have been demolished as part of a retail development by Centros, but English Heritage having twice not recommended it for Listing, decided that parts of the Brewery should be retained. It will possibly be converted to house a music centre with other small businesses.
