Yorkshire Almanac 2025

Unedited excerpt

The excerpt in the book is shorter, edited and, where applicable, translated.

“At ARTHINGTON & HANFORTH’S WHOLESALE BREW-HOUSE, in Holbeck Lane, near Leedes, after the 13th December next, innkeepers, publick-houses, and private families may be served with Fine Malt Liquor, from 2d. to 9d. per gallon, in any quantity not under two gallons. Orders to the Brewhouse, as above, will be duly executed; and any quantity (not less than six gallons), from 4d. a gallon and upwards, will be delivered at their own houses. The small beer at 2d. only at the Brew-house.-N. B. Any person that has occasion for grains, by applying immediately may contract for a quantity to be delivered weekly for a year.”

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

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Grain mills and a malthouse on the 1840s map, but our brewers are gone. It sounds like life was hard for professional brewers in Yorkshire:

In several of the northern counties in England, where they have good barley, coke-dried malt, and the drink brewed at home, there are seldom any bad ales or beers, because they have the knowledge in brewing so well, that there are hardly any common brewers amongst them. In the west there are some few, but in the south and east parts there are many (Ellis 1742).

An interesting-sounding Yorkshire oat beer (Ellis 1743).

Another advantage these gents had was Holbeck water:

The village is on the south side of the river Aire. It was formerly in repute for its spa, the water of which resembles that of Harrogate, though of inferior strength; but from the sinking of numerous wells for the supply of works in the vicinity, the water, which previously rose to the surface, is only to be obtained by pumping from a considerable depth: it is much esteemed for culinary uses, and is carried through the streets of Leeds for sale (Lewis 1842).

Ron Pattison on March and October beer, with several process descriptions:

The best months for brewing were March or October because the ambient temperature was optimal. Though some thought March best, most brewers preferred October because it was followed by 6 months of relatively cool weather, perfect for maturing beer (Pattison 2008/08/24).

See also his post on early 18th century beer styles (Pattison 2008/08/22).

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Tags

Tags are assigned inclusively on the basis of an entry’s original text and any comment. You may find this confusing if you only read an entry excerpt.

• Alcohol (drug) (62) W/G ·
• Barley (5) W/G ·
• Beer (36) W/G ·
• Brewery (2) W/G ·
• Brewing (4) W/G ·
• 📌Holbeck (10) W/G ·
• Leeds Intelligencer (4), one of the first regional newspapers in the country, founded 1754, renamed the Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer in 1866, Yorkshire Post in 1883; conservative, anti-Catholic, anti-Chartist W/G ·
• 📌Leeds (249) W/G ·
• Malt house (3) W/G ·
• Malt liquor (3), used in our sources as a synonym for beer W/G ·
• Malt (4) W/G ·
• March beer (1), strong keeping beer brewed at the end of the best brewing season W/G ·
• October beer (1), strong keeping beer brewed at the beginning of the best brewing season W/G ·
• Seasonal beer (1) W/G ·
• Wholesaling (1) W/G ·

All tags.

Order the book:

Subscribe to the free daily email:

To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

Comment

Comment

Grain mills and a malthouse on the 1840s map, but our brewers are gone. It sounds like life was hard for professional brewers in Yorkshire:

In several of the northern counties in England, where they have good barley, coke-dried malt, and the drink brewed at home, there are seldom any bad ales or beers, because they have the knowledge in brewing so well, that there are hardly any common brewers amongst them. In the west there are some few, but in the south and east parts there are many (Ellis 1742).

An interesting-sounding Yorkshire oat beer (Ellis 1743).

Another advantage these gents had was Holbeck water:

The village is on the south side of the river Aire. It was formerly in repute for its spa, the water of which resembles that of Harrogate, though of inferior strength; but from the sinking of numerous wells for the supply of works in the vicinity, the water, which previously rose to the surface, is only to be obtained by pumping from a considerable depth: it is much esteemed for culinary uses, and is carried through the streets of Leeds for sale (Lewis 1842).

Ron Pattison on March and October beer, with several process descriptions:

The best months for brewing were March or October because the ambient temperature was optimal. Though some thought March best, most brewers preferred October because it was followed by 6 months of relatively cool weather, perfect for maturing beer (Pattison 2008/08/24).

See also his post on early 18th century beer styles (Pattison 2008/08/22).

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Similar

28 April 1843: Thomas Hardwick announces the sale by auction at the Star and Garter of the Kirkstall Brewery, following the death in bankruptcy of Thomas Walker

5 January 1726: Mr Wordsworth of New Laithes Grange (Horsforth) produces evidence of an attempted burglary and a lucky escape

20 February 1582: Part of the household inventory made on the death of farmer Richard Best of Elmswell, including his homebrew kit

12 November 1207: Leeds’s municipal charter seeks to encourage female publicans

11 October 1776: The civil engineer John Smeaton advises Leeds Infirmary on the storage of water for washing and brewing

17 January 1865: At Leeds, temperance advocate Wilfrid Lawson MP calls for the sale of alcohol to be banned

27 August 1754: The (Tory) Leeds Intelligencer calls on Holbeckers to accept the appointment by Samuel Kirshaw, Vicar of Leeds, of a new curate, Richard Fawcett Snr, to St Catherine’s Chapel

5 November 1754: A French fencing master turns highwayman on Rothwell Haigh (Leeds)

10 August 1756: Leeds “gentlemen” burn an effigy of Admiral John Byng, scapegoat for the Whig government’s failure to save Minorca (and the Mediterranean theatre) from the French during the Seven Years’ War

10 October 1908: Morley-born Liberal PM Asquith gives a speech on alcohol licensing at the Leeds Coliseum, as suffragettes, suffragists, unemployment activists and mounted police entertain outside

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

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Comment

Via Leeds Riot Map:

A great number of the tickets were overstamped “Men only”, and the door stewards were commanded to not allow any woman not holding one thus stamped; this was because the organisers knew that the suffragettes could disguise themselves to make them appear fully respectable members of a Liberal audience. Meanwhile, in Victoria Square, a large meeting of unemployed took place by the Leeds Permanent Committee on Unemployment, chaired by a man, Mr. Kitson. As the PM Asquith approached the Coliseum, some 600 or so men moved up the hill to where Ms Baines was declaring that unemployment was “more a woman’s question than a man’s, for it was the wife that had to meet the landlord’s demand for rent”. Precisely what happened next, and what was intended, remains unclear. The press, in the form of the Evening News and the Leeds Mercury, agreed that Ms Baines was heard to say “Break down the barricades and compel a hearing”, but it is not clear if this was intended as an explicit incitement to the men to interpret her literally. Whatsoever, there was a rush of people which was subsequently interpreted as a riot, although the only recorded damage was a broken pane of glass. It seems one stone was thrown which a policeman claimed had hit him, but no injury was recorded, to him or anyone else. In Leeds, Kitson and five suffragettes were arrested. Trial proceedings dragged on into the next year and the excitement subsided, but Jennie Baines is recorded the honour of being the first suffragette to be imprisoned after conviction.

Who was Vera Lambert? Who was Mr Kitson? Presumably no relative of Lord Airedale. I hope I’ve tagged the right Gladstone.

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