Building record MDO43497 - Badger Brewery

The brewery was built circa 1900 as a replacement for the old Ansty and Blandford St Mary breweries, to the design of Arthur kinder and Sons Ltd. <1>

The brewery was founded in 1777 by Charles Hall at Ansty, Dorset (Monument HOB UID 1543367). The partnership of Hall and Woodhouse Ltd was established in 1848 between Charles' son Robert and George Edward Woodhouse and during the later 19th century acquired many small breweries throughout Dorset. In 1875 the company had adopted the badger logo as its trademark. One of breweries which was acquired by Hall and Woodhouse was Neame and Trew of Blandford St Mary in 1883. This was situated south of the river in Blandford (Monument HOB UID 1514390) and was operated alongside the Ansty Brewery until the construction of the current brewery was completed. Construction on the new brewery started in 1899, however in the summer of 1900 the original Blandford Brewery was destroyed by fire. The Ansty Brewery continued to be operated until the new brewery was opened on the 16th October 1900. The new brewery was named after the firm's logo, Badger Brewery.

The new brewery was built by the brewers' engineers Arthur Kinder and Son, which was established by Arthur Kinder (born c1825, died after 1910) from 1870. Harold A. Kinder, Arthur's son started working in the early 1870s, and was taken into partnership in 1891, from which time the practice was known as Arthur Kinder and Son and was operational until 1919. The brewery comprises a substantial red brick block with two 25 quarter plants. Although the brewery was modernised shortly following World War II it retains items of old equipment which are still in use including the original copper, installed in 1899; the Morton's Steel's masher -which dates from around 1900 and the mash tuns from 1914. The brewery's annual output is about 135,000 barrels.

In 2007-2008 Hall and Woodhouse had intended to build a new brewery on the same site. But by 2010 this development had been delayed. Outline planning permission has been granted for the old brewery site to become a mix of offices and housing, with some restoration and conversion. <2-5>

<1> Royal Commission on Historic Monuments, National Record of Industrial Monuments (NRIM), DO7 (Index). SDO17399.

13-May-1971

<2> Pearson L. and Anderson R, 2010, Strategy for the Historic Industrial Environment: Gazetteer of Operating Pre-1940 Breweries in England, 3 (Index). SDO17598.

<3> Anderson, Lynn, 2010, Strategy for the Historic Industrial Environment: The Brewing Industry, 21 (Index). SDO17707.

<4> 2011, World Wide Web page at Hall and Woodhouse <http://www.pub-explorer.com/realale/badgerbrewery.htm> [Accessed 27-JUL-2011] (Digital archive). SDO17708.

<5> Richmond, L, and Turton, A, 1990, The brewing industry: a guide to historical records, 164-165 (Monograph). SDO17599.

<6> Historic England, Historic England Archive, NRI01 (Index). SDO14738.

National Record of Industrial Monuments (NRIM): Index Cards: This material has not yet been fully catalogued. Copyright, date, and quantity information for this record may be incomplete or inaccurate. The collection consists of topographically arranged index cards and copies relating to individual monuments and county lists of monuments associated with the National Record of Industrial Monuments (NRIM) between 1963 and 1980. The NRIM was set up by the Council for British Archaeology (CBA) in 1963 and administration was taken over by the University of Bath in 1965. Record cards for individual buildings were completed by interested parties and submitted. Sets of cards were maintained by the CBA, University of Bath (latterly the Industrial Monuments Survey) and the National Monuments Record. In 2012 the collection was updated by Heritage Data and where appropriate monuments were allocated a county designation number.

<7> National Record of the Historic Environment, 1514161 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Feb 25 2022 9:49AM