#Pubruary Trip to Yorkshire’s Brewing Capital and catching up on some York icons
Half term holiday resulted in a chance for a MalTravAle Podcast face to face get together that could not be missed even if it was wet miserable February Sunday – the plan was to have a reunion with Tadcaster and put boots on the ground in a town we have mentioned a lot in our podcast episodes – especially the complex, ongoing legend that is Sam Smiths and its owner and then call in York on the way home to meet up with Bruce, try and catch some of the England Rugby match against Italy and revisit some of the fantastic pubs we covered in the York Podcast episodes – and to be honest one or two for me – a 1st time visit now I’m exiled in Staffordshire.
An early drop off in Tadcaster – It was a free lift – meant we had a little time to spare (and it being Sunday so 12pm opening) so wandered up and down the high street in a steady drizzle – we were already aware that a number of the town’s Samuel Smiths (Sam’s)pubs were post pandemic closed – new managers being trained we had heard but the choice of pubs to visit was severely restricted – it was quite depressing to see a number of said Sam’s pubs (Bay Horse, Royal Oak, Falcon) looking sad, tired and dark – especially the flagship and unofficial Sam’s Tap the White Horse and Griffin which fronts the Brewery.
The John Smiths ( Heineken) Brewery was showing some forms of life – a delivery of malt being unloaded and various chimneys spewing – though no longer the impressive Magnet chimney – though there was no longer the satisfying smell of malt n hops that I always remembered from visiting Taddy in the past – maybe modern brewing methods – the John Smiths logo still dominates the brewery and to be honest the town – there is just one subtle sign announcing “Welcome to Heineken UK’ – but this is set back from the road – as you would expect this is in stark contrast to the non existent signage around the Old Brewery - we had to resort to looking through windows to determine if this was a bit of the Sam’s Brewery – the two breweries pretty much share Centre Lane – all was very quiet on the Sam’s side of the street.
Tadcaster has a long history – though now a fairly nondescript small town – I can just about remember the days before the A64 Dual carriageway, when the main York to Leeds road went straight through the town – indeed its transport status dates back to Roman times when it grew up beside the Roman road to Eboracum – modern day York then Roman Capital of the North.
The Romans named the town Calcaria from the Latin word for lime, reflecting the importance of the area's abundance of Limestone which was used extensively for buildings in the area, including York Minster.
This abundance of limestone was also the reason why the town would be known as the Brewing Capital of the North. The local water is rich in lime sulphate after filtering through limestone, in the right conditions freshwater springs, known locally as popple-wells, still bubble up near St Mary's church. By 1341 Tax registers record the presence of thriving breweries and brewhouses in the town. One of the oldest wells is retained in the Sam’s Brewery – 85 foot still used for brewing.
As mentioned for a smallish town is does have an impressive heritage. Tadcaster is first mentioned in the Anglo Saxon Chronicle written int h 9th Century, where it appears as Táda, referring to the place where King Harold assembled his army and fleet before entering York and proceeding onwards to the Battle of Stamford Bridge (and then went on to lose the away leg at Hastings) in 1066. The second part of the name - Castra was anglo-sized Roman word for fort or walled settlement – so Tadcaster – the fort of Tada
The town is also mentioned in the 1086 Domesday Book as "Tatecastre" and and was also later the site of a major Civil war and later, it is said, that the US of A founders, the Pilgrim Fathers met in a 15th Century half timbered building on Kirkgate known as the Ark, so called as there are two carved figures on the exterior that are said to be Noah and his wife, but it was known as Morley Hall in the 17th Century. In 1992, Tadcaster Town Council purchased the building in 1992 and now use it as Council Offices and Council Chamber.
Tadcaster still has three breweries operating in 2022 – hence its title the ‘Burton of the North’:
The Tower Brewery is a little way out of town to the west – originally a York based brewery in the 18th Century is now run by Molson Coors previously Bass – I did try to find out what is brewed here – but very illusive – guessing it’s a ‘needs operation’ now – brewing what every in the Coors range needs brewing to meet demand – Probably the ubiquitous Doom Bar – (having been to the Sharps Brewery in Rock cant see how that site could brew the scale required to provide every other pub in the land with a handpull of the Doom) Though very much a modern brewery complex – if you look hard enough there are still a few remnants of the Victorian Brewery left – and there is still a tower of sort.
Interestingly and some thing new for me – having done a bit of background reading about Taddy Brewing cam across several references to Tower Brewery being know locally as the Snobs Brewery –Tadcaster History Tour’ by Paul Chrystal gives a good account and overview
Tower Brewery earned its nickname from the aloofness of the original owners: affluent young men from fashionable York who rarely came to Tadcaster and remained somewhat mysterious to local townsfolk and even the workers. The owners were in fact Hotham & Co. – brewers of York in George Street since 1716 who also owned ninety of the 284 pubs in the city around 1870. In 1875 Hotham’s sold up for £36,000 to a consortium of York and London businessmen, who promptly bought Yates’s brewery in York for £12,000 including a further twelve York pubs. The new owners were in their late twenties, old Etonians, and shared a passion for horse racing, which they were able to indulge at the Knavesmire. The company changed its name to the Tadcaster Tower Brewery Co. in November 1882.
Tadcaster History Tour’ by Paul Chrystal, Amberley Publishing, ISBN: 9781445677309
It’s the John Smiths Brewery that dominates the town – irony is of course that it was John Smith that put Tadcaster on the map as a brewing megalith- like most good Yorkshire Brewing families – there’s a story of family fall outs and one-upmanship – the original John and Sam were brothers – though the real villain seems to have been the third brother William, who, on John’s death ignored is stated wishes took all the brewing kit from the original original Old Brewery (Sams) and set up stall next door in what was the Backhouse and Hartley Brewery – leaving Sam with an empty brewery. In more recent time the JS brewery has been the playing think of the Mega brands – initially bought out by Courage in 1970, Scottish & Newcastle in 1995 and most recently Heineken in 2008 – with the recent demise of JS Smooth (When was the last time you saw a can of it?) – Im guessing Amstel and Kronenbourgh 1664 are keeping the Brewery busy – with a brewing capacity of 30 million litres it still one of the UK’s biggest breweries.
The success of the Taddy breweries at the end of the 19th Century – owes much to the ‘bright’ water and the heights of the industrial revolution especially in the seething cauldron of the West Riding – Taddy Beer is ‘Pale Bright Bitter’ – refreshing and lowish ABV compared to the sweeter and heavier stouts and porters that had been the market leaders in the mid 1800’s – if you were working in a hot sweaty cotton, woollen Mill, Steel foundry or Coal Mine pale beers were the answer and like Burton it was this style that dominated not just the UK but world beers and still do – a lot of Craft Beer icons in the States talk of Sams being one of the main inspirations.
Side by side with the John Smith’s Brewery, though much more discreet – indeed you would miss it driving down the high street, is the Samuel Smiths Old Brewery, (the Angel & White Horse and Old Brewery Office are the brewery’s high street face – If open, the carriage arch in the Angel leads you to the Shire horses.The Old brewery is the oldest brewery in Yorkshire and only remaining independent brewery in Tadcaster – famous for its Yorkshire Squares and still using the Yeast strain first used for brewing in the 1880’s though, it visits and tours seem to be a thing of the past – which only tends to hype up even more the ‘Willy Wonka’ myths about Sams.
The Old Brewery Offices on Tadcaster High Street
A fourth brewery stood by the river on the site of the present central car park this has been difficult to track town but can find a reference to a Braime’s Tadcaster Breweries Ltd on Chapel Street – which links to the Car park – the Victoria Brewery was registered in 1895 to a Benjamin Braime and merged with Wharfedale Brewing Co Ltd in 1899 when it looks like all breweing wa moved to their exiting brewery in Wetherby. A brewery named Wilson & Cundall is also mentioned near to this Braime’s site.
Tadcaster, also hit the news more recently with the flooding in 2015 which was so severe that the main road bridge connecting the east and west of the town was swept a way leaving a 13 mile detour – the supermarket on one side and the doctors on the other -the town council proposed a temporary bridge, but Mr Humphrey Smith of Sam’s fame, who owns much of Tadcaster objected – eventually a temporary footbridge was built whilst the road bridge was eventually repaired and widened, but the work took until early 2017, you can still see the new stone work in the middle of the bridge.
It would appear that flooding not a particular new feature of life in Tadcaster; the towns main lace of worship - St Mary's Church was taken down stone by stone and rebuilt 5 feet higher, in 1857 to avoid flood damage.
There is also a beery legacy to the 2015 floods, the Leeds Arms up the road on the eastern side of town was renamed The Broken Bridge, its What Pub description suggests it does offer a range of cask beers, but the very large Sky Sports banners suggest it may specialise in locally brewed Amstel and Kronnenbourgh – however not made a visit so shouldn’t be to hasty in making any judgements – it is close to one of the Coastliner bus stops so maybe a future stop.
The Guardian in November 2015 in one of its regular ‘why move here’ features reported that Tadcaster, is a small market town not making much fuss. If you head there, you won’t need to look for it so much as sniff it out, since Tad has been dominated by its brewing industry for, ooh, about 800 years, thanks to the limestone water. As a result, the town may smell a little fruity, but it’s actually quite pleasant: the Sam Smith’s brewery (not to be confused with the pop star) still employs a cooper, a signwriter and an ostler, its shire horses making local deliveries five days a week. If this sort of thing was happening anywhere near London, they’d be spaffing on about their artisan values in a chunky hipster typeface and hoiking up their prices. As it’s the friendly people of Tad doing what they’ve always done, they just get on with it.
So, back to our visit one wet Sunday morning – after a saunter across to Sainsbury’s on the east side of the river to check on the beer range – no Tadcaster beers but a small scattering of Yorkshire fare mainly Black Sheep and Saltaire – but heavily outnumbered by Kent and south west beers? And a coffee and quick warm/dry out in Costa – housed in what look like a former Nat West bank but scenically directly across from the Old Brewery and Angel it was time for beer.
One of the Sams Pubs still trading in town is the Howden Arms on the west side of town – a modest wee pub right on the main road and directly opposite the posh entrance to the John Smiths Brewery – we arrived to gladly see the front door pen at 12:03pm – we ventured in – one regular already tugging in to a Taddy lager and a welcoming bar man – slightly limited choice of Old Brewery on cask, Taddy lager and Double Four lager – when asked if they had any bottle (I was particularly after a bottle of India Ale) the Bar man laughed and said “Wer’e not the bloody Angel you know” – I did respond “well at the moment no one is as they’re closed’– but he then pointed out that the only stuff he had been able to get in the fudge was a few bottles orange and lemonade – issues with the brewery – so Nick went for a OBB which he reported to be on top form and I went for a new one for me a Double Four (I’ve gone off OBB – you need to be regular drinker to enjoy the slightly chalky taste I reckon)
Howden Arms – was a pub from at least 1891 its WhatPub description; Traditional pub with comfortable interior round a central bar with a blazing fire in the winter. Dogs are allowed in the side room off to the right as you enter the pub. Pictures of Tadcaster in the old adorn the walls all round the pub.
Though, we noted the stern message on entering that dogs as well as children were only welcome in the beer garden and not the pub and only if they were in the full control of their guardians- the no dogs rule is apparently a more recent directive from HS.
We obediently stuck to the no mobile etc rules so no piccys – we sat to the right hand side of the bar and were left to our own – just had the one and decided to head up to Coach and Horses and get the next bus to York in about 30 minutes – a few more regulars had joined the bar – when we returned our glasses and bid farewell – definitely worth a visit to the Howden
Handily the Coach and Horses a former JS pub is next to the small buss station – with Coastliners going to a from York/Leeds once an hour on Sunday (more regular n the week) – now proudly announcing it’s a free house – though seems to have a Theakstones tie as does the Broken Bridge further up York Road. Quite a large pub looked like it was just gearing up for the Sunday Lunch rush – quite a large pub with a number of siting areas – but be warned it’s a bit blue – a group of happy locals looked liked they roosted in the rear right area – seemed friendly enough – a coupe of cask on offer we both went for the NailMaker Brewing Company Mosiac – which pulled hazy but then settled into a nice pint – neither of us could place the brewery – but logging into Untapped revealed it to be a micro brewery in Barnsley – a first check in for me. Nicely timed pint sat on a settee in the front right bar and then nipped out to the bus station to get on a busy Coastliner doubler decker to York.
Departing the bus outside York Railway station, rain still persisting – with a bit of encouragement Nick did agree that we should pop in the York Tap – he’s been a bit anti for a while – my premise was that we could just have a halve and plan a route and when and where to meet Bruce our 3rd MalTravAle amigo – the tap was nicely buzzing – the usual vast range of cask on offer requiring a full circle of the bar – though the city side pumps mainly devoted to Timmy Taylors offer. I settled for a Marble Manchester Bitter, got to say both mine and Nick’s pints were on good form – we sat on the city side which is slightly more comfortable – did agree that it just feels a little like a waiting room (Which of course is what it is for many) – battle plan sorted with an agreement to meet Bruce at the Ackhorne and lift home arranged from the Maltings at 6pm
A quick ramble across town past the Grand and up Micklegate with a quick detour to the Oxfam book ship opposite the once regular haunt – Walkers Bar once the one pub in town that sold Theakstones- now the Artful Dodger – and up the cobbled lane to the Ackhorne and busy pub in full Sunday lunch mode – heard that they have recently put these back on – lucky to get a seat in the far room/area opposite the bar billiards table – was hoping to break my Yankee duck for this year – Ackhorne normally a good shout – but out of luck so had to settle for a locally brewed Ainsty Ales Cool Citra – again a solid pint – Bruce shortly joined us and we spent a good half an hour catching up before heading off to the next stop.
We talked a lot about the Golden Ball in Podcast Episode 9 – dating back to late 18th Century, Grade II listed and possibly frequented by one Mr C Dickens its now York’s 1st community Co-operative run boozer – it’s a cracking place to drink beer – multi roomed and enclosed beer garden – we got in the corner of the Bar room – fir lit with Rugby on the telly above again it was gently buzzing with a range of clientele throughout – locals in our bar – a few loners with the Sunday papers in the quieter rooms and a group of Americans out in the beer garden – only downside they had run out of the community pork pies and scotch eggs – so lunch was a bag of crisps each – again a wonderful range of tempting beers – an lIkley Promise for me and other 1st – very nice set of lIkely branded pint glasses with Powered by beer slogan emblazoned on the side – another pleasant half an hour spent – England already 21 – 0 up in the rugby so time to move on.
The Golden Ball 
Bruce in the Ball chair
Fine Ilkley beerAnother favourite next up the Swan at the start of the finest independent street in England Bishopthorpe (Bishy) Road – again a pub featured in a number of our York episodes – a little quieter at around 3:30 when we arrived – nice corner seat in the rear room and a very agreeable pint of Goose Eye Spring Wells Pale. Bruce very happy has Villa have their equalising goal against the Toon disallowed.
Off to the Swan
Time to turn and head back into the city centre and 2 new checkins for me – time for a York Sams pub (we had initially planned to head out to the Wellington in Fulford – but the miserable weather and potential limited beer choice suggested leave it for another day) – The Seahorse must have a long heritage – it is still a hotel with a clear carriage tunnel – now a little marooned in an island on York inner ring road and just across rom the Barbican – very impressive frontage and gold leafed seahorse - more Victorian than Disney in style. A multi roomed pub which Bruce is always to happy remind everyone has four, yes four, open fires including a very impressive Yorkshire rage in the rear room – and very glad to report that all four fires were blazing away despite it being fairly quiet on a Sunday afternoon – again no joy with bottle choice – only Organic lager so a pint of Light Mild for me and a very nice seat by the fire in the Parlour – which we had to ourselves – noted the big notice on the fire place forbidding swearing – and it was nice to keep phone sin the pocket and just chat (as you may see form the other photos we did look like a bunch of screen addicted teenagers in other pubs!)
The Seahorse (pics from Samuel Smiths website)
To round off the day a visit to an old favourite – though haven’t been in enough over the last couple of Covid ridden years – The Maltings – for once a little quiet -think we were in that twilight zone between afternoon session and evening boozers – great welcome, seat and pint – for me a Kirkstall Jasper to round off my 8 pint Yorkshire beer journey (with 1 Lancashire thrown in as well – that’ll will be for my mother sides of the family!)
Pints & pies in the Phoenix
A great day – again spoilt a little by the weather – becoming a bit of a theme for our MalTravAle get togethers – but a day of fantastic beer and some simply stunning independent pubs - 3 new venues for me– a great #Pubruary day out.
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