The following is extracted from The Bassingham Story (Wilson, B. & C., and Ash, 2003)…
Bassingham was also noteworthy for its brewery. First mentioned in the early Stuart period, the Birks family were malting there from 1656. In March 1719 Richard Birks‘ inventory records brewing vessels in the kitchen together with nine quarters of malt in the chamber. His father had bequeathed to him in 1664 half the house and the Malt Kiln. Richard handed this on to his son in 1719. In 1765 the brewery was sold to William Taylor of Burton, and by 1772 was in the hands of William Arrowsmith, maltster.
John Rose, maltster, and his wife Sarah, both aged 45, were there on the night of the 1841 census. Several maltster’s labourers are also listed there in 1851. John Rose himself died in April 1851 and the brewery was then purchased by John Hammond who was there the night of the 1861 census aged 35, ‘Maltster & Farmer of 40 acres employing 3 Labourers’. Wife Sarah 48, niece Ruth Day 7, housemaid Harriott Tate 18 of Langrick [were there too].
It was Edward Spencer ‘maltster’ by [the time of] Morris’ Directory of 1863. Edward died in March 1869 however and the brewery was advertised for sale at the Great Northern Hotel, Lincoln, 16 April 1869 as a Messuage* with 7 -qtr malt-kiln & Brewery stables Gig-house, etc., a “first class paying business connected with the property and an active, energetic, careful man may acquire a fortune at it in a few years.”
This led to its purchase by John Alfred Ford of Hainton for £1200. Ford married Miss Hibbitt of Hainton Inn that October and was still there in 1885 according to the Post Office Directory, but [by the Kelly’s Directory of] 1889 [he] had been replaced by Thomas Emerson and by 1891 the brewery was again advertised ‘to let’. Its last occupant was John Henry Tarbuck but in March 1893 he advertised it for sale. Unfortunately the highest bid, £3000, was below its reserve price and the sale was withdrawn. After this there is no further record of it in use for brewing. No surprise at a time when everywhere the smaller village breweries found themselves outpriced by the larger concerns at Newark and Burton on Trent.
For much of the Twentieth Century it was Marshall’s grocery shop, although the malting floor remained into recent times, before removal.
*a dwelling house with outbuildings and land assigned to its use
This photograph © Historic England 1969, shows “The Old Brewery”, now 56 High Street The building stretches the full length of the frontage although the right part of the building was probably used as a private house. The large obtrusive bays have now gone to be replaced by smaller more elegant ones.
In this c1920 postcard (below) “The Old Brewery” can be seen in the middle distance at a time when it had become Marshall’s grocery shop. Mr Marshall himself can be seen outside and there is shop advertising stretching the length of the upper floor.
On a personal note, at the time of writing I have lived in the village almost four and a half years and I have yet to see any kind of movement at this property. The curtains/blinds are always closed and it seems to be permanently unoccupied. 🤷♂️
Bassingham Back Then... 