Yorkshire Almanac Thomas Hardwick announces the sale by auction at the Star and Garter of the Kirkstall Brewery, following the death in bankruptcy of Thomas Walker

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

Glorious present, glorious past: Turner’s image twenty years before of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal sets off Ephraim Elsworth’s maltings(?), the Ellers/Ellars, Ellers Bridge, and Kirkstall Lock against the ruins of Kirkstall Abbey (Turner 1981).

Leeds Mercury. 1843/05/13. Sale by Mr. Hardwick. Leeds. Get it:

Unedited excerpt

If an excerpt is used in the book, it will be shorter, edited and, where applicable, translated.

SALE BY MR. HARDWICK.
Important BREWERY & ESTATE, KIRKSTALL, near LEEDS, (Duty Free,)
By Mr. THOS. HARDWICK,
At the Star and Garter Inn, Kirkstall, near Leeds, on THURSDAY, the Eighteenth Day of May next, at Six o’Clock in the Evening, (by Order of the Assignees of the Estate and Effects of Thomas Walker, a Bankrupt, in one or more Lots, as may be agreed upon at the Time of Sale, and subject to such Conditions as will be then and there produced and read, (unless previously disposed of by Private Contract, of which due Notice will be given,)
ΑLL that extensive and valuable BREWERY, situate at Kirkstall aforesaid, called the KIRKSTALL BREWERY; with Engine and Boiler Houses, Stables, Sheds, Granaries, and other suitable Erections; with an excellent Steam Engine of Four Horses power; Mash Tubs, Coolers, Working Squares, Vats, and all useful and necessary Fixtures, lately in the Occupation of the said Thomas Walker; and also, all that Stable and Coach-House adjoining to the last-described Premises, and now in the Occupation of Mr. Simeon Musgrave.
Also, all that extensive MALT-KILN, with the Drying Kilns, Cisterns, and other Appurtenances to the same belonging; together with the Stable, Shed, and Cooper’s Shop adjoining thereto.
Also, all that commodious MESSUAGE or DWELLING-HOUSE, with the Counting-House adjoining to the said Brewery, which said Premises were late in the Occupation of the said Thomas Walker.
And also, all those Eight COTTAGES or DWELLING HOUSES, situate near to the said last-mentioned Premises, and now in the respective Occupations of Geo. Keetlewell and others.
The above-mentioned Premises are situated at Kirkstall aforesaid, on the South Side of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, and adjoining the Bridge which crosses the said Canal, and the old Turnpike Road leading from Leeds to Bradford.
The Premises are substantially built, and in good repair. The Brewery and Malt Kiln are well adapted for carrying on an extensive Business. Twenty-four Quarters of Malt may be mashed at one Brewing, and the Liquor may all be cooled at the same time. There are nine Working Squares, which average about 20 Barrels each, of 36 Gallons to the Barrel; and seven Vats, which will hold about 60 Barrels each.
The Malt Kiln contains Four Cisterns, in each of which can be steeped 18 Quarters every four days.
There is a never-failing and abundant Supply of the purest Spring Water, which is a most valuable acquisition. The Premises are Leasehold for a term of 300 years, very few of which are now expired.
The respective Tenants will shew the Premises; and to treat by Private Contract, and for further Particulars, apply to MR. R. H. SAGAR, Solicitor, Kirkstall, and MR. BLACKBURN, Solicitor, Leeds.
28th April, 1843.

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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.

Comment

It sounds like Thomas Walker was declared bankrupt in March 1843 and was dead before April was out, but I know neither when he died nor how. Further sales of ric-à-brac and equipment followed in November. Here‘s Historic England’s listing for the Kirkstall Brewery. A summary of its history.

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19 October 1808: William Perigo of Bramley finds that Mary Bateman defrauded him in promising to cure his wife Rebecca’s palpitations, and suspects she died of poisoning

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

19 October 1816: Serenaded by the military, decorated barges leave Leeds for Liverpool to celebrate the completion, after almost 50 years, of the canal uniting east and west

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

9 July 1903: Clifford Allbutt, late of Leeds, tells a Bradford sanitary congress to reject the view that (preventive) medicine is antagonistic to the survival of the fittest

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

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

24 October 1877: Six years after the inauguration of its horse trams, the Leeds Tramways Company tests a steam car by Kitson and Co. of Hunslet

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Comment

This trial followed a long period of more or less successful implementations by other builders elsewhere: the article says that “For some time steam cars similar to this have been used on street tramway lines in Russia and in Germany” (really?), while Daniel Kinnear Clark cites schemes starting in 1859 in the United States, and says that Leonard J. Todd of Leith appears in 1871 to have been the first to build a relatively steam-, smoke-, and noise-free car, like the Kitsons’ (Clark 1894). DKC shows a late 1880s Kitson engine, but doesn’t mention this experiment or its somewhat mixed sequel:

Regular steam car services were not operated, however, until two years later, and then only on routes then being operated by horse cars. Steam trams were not very successful as the heavy engines caused much damage to the very light rails and so were replaced by horse trams again on several routes (Garside 1981).

Re “could travel at a much higher rate of speed than is possible with horses”: speeds were kept low by regulation and/or legislation (Leeds Mercury 1877/03/08).

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