Not just a case of 6x appeal (Wadworth’s)

Wadworth’s has a highly renowned ale. But as Adrian Tierney-Jones discovers, there’s much to the brewery beside

If you want brewing tradition, then Wadworth has it by the dray load. The brewery has been a fixture of the Wiltshire market town of Devizes since the 1880s, when Henry Wadworth commissioned its gorgeous looking redbrick tower brewhouse.

Wadworth was no Johnny-come-lately, eager to make a few quid as beer tastes changed from murky porters to sparkling, golden pale ales. He already ran a small but successful brewery in Devizes in partnership with brother-in-law John Smith Bartholomew (whose descendant Charles is the current chairman). Business was so good that they needed to expand and the splendid building he had built still stands proud at the northern end of town.

If we can be romantic about such a hardheaded activity as brewing for a moment, then Wadworth’s is a rare survivor of a town centre brewery in an age when industrial parks and complexes are the normal homes for many of the beers we drink.

When I visited Ridley’s equally heart-stopping vision of a Victorian brewery in early 2005, I felt the same thing — here was a living embodiment of our brewing heritage, but we all know what happened soon afterwards.

Then there are the gee-gees, and we’re not talking Paddy Power. Wadworth’s shire horses are a common sight across Devizes as they deliver casks to pubs that feature their dark blue livery.

“If you put your accountant’s hat on they are not a good idea,” says the brewery’s sales director Fred West. “But on the other hand they are good public relations and get the .....

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By Adrian Tierney-Jones

Section : British Breweries

Page number : 24