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Wards Brewery Sheffield.

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Wards Brewery was a prominent Brewery in Sheffield. 

 

Were You or do you know anyone that was an employee who worked there?

 

Share your Stories here.

 

 

 

 

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nope but i always remember walking past it, same with Stones on ladys bridge, still remember the smells now from being a kid

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3 hours ago, melthebell said:

nope but i always remember walking past it, same with Stones on ladys bridge, still remember the smells now from being a kid

Wasnt that Tennents/Whitbread's 

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4 minutes ago, kidley said:

Wasnt that Tennents/Whitbread's 

sure it was stones on ladys bridge, wards down Ecclesall road? i was a kid back then so might be wrong?

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Stones brewery was on rutland road.

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3 hours ago, melthebell said:

nope but i always remember walking past it, same with Stones on ladys bridge, still remember the smells now from being a kid

 

25 minutes ago, kidley said:

Wasnt that Tennents/Whitbread's 

Yes Tennant's (Whitbread's) was the Ladys Bridge brewery and Duncan Gilmour's was on the other side of Bridge Street til the mid-60s when parent company Tetley's closed it.

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1 hour ago, kidley said:

Wasnt that Tennents/Whitbread's 

Yes it was, the Ladybridge pub was the only place you could get Gold Label on draught, it was pumped direct from the brewery.

Mel was right about the smell though lol.

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3 hours ago, alarmingmark said:

Cheesy wotsit smell ...lol

That's what you got after drinking a few pints of Wards.  :D

Edited by Ontarian1981

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17 hours ago, FinBak said:

Wards Brewery was a prominent Brewery in Sheffield. 

 

Were You or do you know anyone that was an employee who worked there?

 

Share your Stories here.

 

 

 

 

I remember some nice people at Wards...Peter Holbert,  Roger Hirst and Les Crooks in their free trade department spring to mind...Ronnie Cashmore on the draywagon is another. ...Brewers Paul Simpson and Steve Lloyd....I'm sure more will spring to mind.

 The company originated in the mid 1830's  but only became  S H Ward in mid to late Victorian times when Septimus Henry Ward re capitalised the venture. It traded independently and successfully until 1972 when it sold out to the old established Vaux Brewery of Sunderland, operating as a subsidiary but still run by the Wright family.

 I need to be a little careful about what I say now...I am going from memory and I apologise in advance if I am mistaken. I am repeating what I was told at the time.

   In 1999 Vaux was taken out of the hands of its owners (the Nicholson family) in a very shabby boardroom coup. The shysters who now controlled the group announced the closure of both breweries and the formation of a standalone pub/hotel group called Swallow Hotels. The Nicholson's and Wright's tried to organise a management buyout to keep the breweries open...but were shafted at the last minute...a senior figure told me that he thought the deal was going through until a handwritten fax arrived with a number of technical and financial questions saying that unless they were answered almost immediately the deal was off. I believe Ward's MD Michael Wright wrote a book about the events, unfortunately I have never managed to obtain a copy.

   As to the beer, Wards Sheffield Best Bitter was a uniquely flavoured, high quality, old fashioned malt and hops brew. Some of us used to bland nationally available products may have struggled to appreciate it, but it is a lost gem.

  As a PS, Swallow Hotels was sold to Whitbread shortly after and went into liquidation in 2006....I'm sure those who engineered the boardroom coup will have made a good profit.

   Head brewer Paul Simpson went onto become HB for Old Mill Brewery at Snaith, until his recent retirement.

Edited by sadbrewer

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Don't let the bottom fall out of your world.

Drink Wards and let the world fall out of your bottom! :hihi:

 

Horrible stuff it was!

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Wards was beautiful stuff... you just had to get used to the taste......and the best way to do it ...... was to drink more.. 

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