Joshua Tetley a brewing genius

Tetley’s helped put Leeds on the map. Its founder is among Yorkshire’s most famous sons. Dominic Roskrow reports

I shall call it my Darth Vader moment.

Remember the scene when Luke Skywalker finds out that his father isn’t dead but is in actual fact the black-helmeted one? In a manner of speaking that’s what it felt like when I was told that the bloke in the red jacket on the Tetley’s logo wasn’t ‘Uncle Josh.’ I’ve been living in ignorant bliss for years – ever since I first travelled down to Mirfield in West Yorkshire and discovered the region’s most famous beer.

We would travel down from university on motorbikes, set up sleeping bags on a mate’s floor, and then down pints of Tetley’s in the local hostelry while seated under a big painted mirror featuring the famous huntsman. In those wild, late teenage years, Uncle Josh was a calming influence somehow.

We never once wondered back then just why a brewing legend and entrepreneurial businessman should be dressed this way. Had we thought about it we’d have no doubt concluded that it must have been a weekend hobby or some such.

But we just weren’t bothered. All that concerned us back then was the wonderful beer in our glasses and the fact that it somewhat unusually would leave your pint glass completely white with residue froth when you’d finished it.

And then the bombshell.

“That isn’t Joshua Tetley at all,” someone told me recently. “His name is Eldridge.” While you might be able to question the pedigree of the world-famous logo, there’s no doubting that of the man himself, or the beer he created from his brewery in the centre of L.....

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By Dominic Roskrow

Section : Beer Legends

Page number : 48