The story of this company can be
traced back to 1760 when the Gardner family starting brewing in
Cheltenham. In April 1888 the Cheltenham Original Brewery
was registered to acquire the business of
Sir James T. Agg-Gardner.
Although a Member of Parliament, he still had control of the brewery
that was managed by G.P.Hopcroft. The company's name changed to
the Cheltenham and Hereford Breweries
in 1945 following the acquisition of the
Hereford and Tredegar Brewery Ltd.
The company, trading as Cheltenham Brewery Holdings Ltd.,
merged with the
Stroud Breweryin 1958 to form West Country
Breweries Ltd. The brewery, along with a tied estate
of almost 1,300 public houses was acquired by Whitbread's
in 1963.
Later based in Stroud's Rowcroft,
this brewery was founded in the mid-18th century by Peter Leversage. He
went into partnership to form a firm trading as Leversage, Grazebrook
and Burgh. However, the partnership fell apart in the late 18th and
early 19th centuries and the brewery continued under a new business
partnership with Joseph Watts, a businessman and local politician who
later became the sole proprietor. Following his death in October 1855,
he bequeathed the brewery to his grandson Joseph Watts Hallewell. In
order to develop the business, he formed a partnership and the brewery
traded as Watts Hallewell, Biddell and Stanton. The company was
registered in 1888 and, by the time it merged with the Cheltenham and
Hereford Breweries, a tied estate of 643 tied houses were being
supplied. When Whitbread's acquired the combined companies in 1963, the
Stroud Brewery was demoted to a supply depot until it was demolished in
1970.
