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3 Responses to “GILL BREWERY ULVERSTON.”

1. jeff Sechiari says:
   25/06/2009 at 09:11 am

   According to the BHS book ‘A Century of British Brewers Plus 1890-2004′
   Robert Robinson was at the New Brewery, Brook St, Gill, Ulverston. Robinson was recorded here in 1851. For sale in 1896 with 18 houses by the exors of the late Robert Robinson and acquired by Hartley’s (who were, in turn, acquired by Robinson’s of Stockport - isn’t that a nice return to the name?)
   Jeff

2. John Mulholland says:
   09/07/2009 at 07:57 pm

   I have a scan of the brewery but don’t know how to upload the image.
   Anyone?
   Thanks for that - now uploaded. Jeff

3. Tony-Hunt says:
   23/10/2011 at 10:31 pm

   I am also descended from Robert Robinson, so I was very pleased to see this photo of the Gill Brewery. There are some brief references in the book “The History of Robinson’s Brewery” (Frederic Robinson)by Dr Lynn F. Pearson:- “Ulverston was the home of two breweries, the Old Brewery and the Gill Brewery. The Old Brewery was built in 1755 by John Booth and James Machell, while the Gill Brewery had been in existance since at least 1751, when it was owned by the Clore family.” “Ulverston’s two breweries continued in production, although the ownership of the Gill Brewery passed through the hands of a succession of owners” throughout the ages since 1763, including John Robinson, Rev. Samuel Irton Fell, “Jackson, Benson then Askew, before it was bought by the Yarker family in 1800. It was sold again, to the Robinson family (no relation to Frederic Robinson) in 1834.” “It was the 17 July 1896 before the firm of Hartleys came into existance, when Robert and Peter Hartley of Burnley bought the Old Brewery and its eleven fully licensed houses (one on lease), fourteen beerhouses and thirty-one cottages.” “Shortly after their purchase of the Old Brewery , the Hartley brothers bought the Gill Brewery from its Leeds-based owners. In early September 1896, the two breweries became fully integrated and Hartleys was born. The family registered the firm as a private company in October 1918, when it became known as Hartleys (Ulverston) Limited (another Hartleys already existed on Humberside), and brewing was rationalised in the Old Brewery.”

   I am puzzled by the reference to Leeds-based owners since the Robinsons were all from the Ulverston area and, following Robert Robinson’s death in 1860, the Gill Brewery passed to his widow Margaret (nee Mashiter)and seems to have been run by his son Thomas, who died in 1870, so perhaps there were intermediate owners between the Robinsons and the Hartleys. Does anyone know?

   Another son, also Robert Robinson, left Ulverston for Burton on Trent and the Bass Brewery where he rose to become the chief brewer in both their Middle Brewery and New Brewery. He is mentioned in Alfred Barnard’s “Noted Breweries of Great Britain and Ireland”.
   Tony Hunt.

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