Hull Brewery

The Hull Brewery Company Limited was a brewery registered in 1888 and based in Hull, in northern England. It was taken over by Northern Foods in 1972 and bought by Mansfield Brewery in 1985.

In 1782 Thomas Ward and John Firbank built a brewery on the corner of Posterngate and Dagger Lane. Ward's granddaughters, Ann and Mary, inherited the brewery. Mary married shipbuilder Robert Gleadow in 1796, and their son, Robert Ward Gleadow, continued the brewing business. In 1846 Gleadow went into partnership with another brewer, William Thomas Dibb, to form Gleadow, Dibb and Co. Gleadow died in 1857 and was succeeded by his son, Henry Cooper Gleadow. Gleadow, Dibb and Co. became a limited company in 1885.

In 1866 Gleadow, Dibb and Co. started work on a new, purpose-built brewery in Silvester Street. This entailed demolishing the existing buildings there; fixtures and fittings from these were sold at auction in February 1867. Builders were invited to tender for the construction work in March 1867, and the company moved to the new premises in 1868. The new brewery had the capacity of fermenting 24,000 gallons of wort at a time. William Thomas Dibb died in 1886 on a journey between Bridlington and Hull; he had rushed to catch a train at Bridlington, causing the guard to stop the train so that he could board. By the time the train arrived in Driffield he was found dead, still sitting upright in his seat. Frederic Gleadow was elected to the board of directors to replace him. The company continued to expand.

In 1887 Gleadow, Dibb and Co. Ltd. was wound up, and a new company, "The Hull Brewery Company Limited", was formed. The company embarked on a period of increased expansion, acquiring other brewers and bottlers, purchasing licensed houses and enlarging the Silvester Street site. By 1890 they were recorded as owning 160 licensed houses. Trade dropped off during the First World War, but by 1919 the company was able to buy two more local breweries along with their public houses. In 1925 it acquired Sutton, Bean and Company, a Lincolnshire brewery. Beer was transported by barge across the Humber.

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