Some history of the Hockley Brewery of Birmingham in the county of Warwickshire.

Breweries | Birmingham | Hockley Brewery

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Located in Nursery Terrace [Later Nursery Road], close to the corner of Villa Street, this brewery is thought to have commenced in business during 1833 and was owned by the partnership of Cox & White. The partnership was dissolved in October 1835 from which date George Skinner Cox continued as the sole proprietor. His business partner had been Robert White.

© Crown Copyright. Reproduced with kind permission of the National Library of Scotland under the Creative Commons Attribution licence.

Recorded as a farmer, maltster and brewer, George Skinner Cox operated Bromford Farm near Erdington with his wife Rhoda. The couple had married in December 1812 at Saint Philip's Church. The family also had an interest in the Forehill Farm near Alvechurch. It would seem therefore that brewing was a vertical extension strategy and that George Cox was processing the ingredients produced on land farmed by the family in two locations.

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The Skinner family, a large clan, lived at Nursery Terrace when the brewery business was developing. George Skinner Cox died in 1846 and the Hockley Brewery passed to his sons George Henry Cox and Edwin Cox. Interestingly, George and Rhoda Cox's fourth son, Alfred, would establish the Rowley Brewery next to the Ashley Hotel, a public-house that he also built at Blackheath.

George and Edwin Cox continued the Hockley Brewery until 1851 when they sold the business to George Taylor and George Cowell who traded as Taylor & Cowell, Hockley Brewery. George and Edwin, together with their brother Charles continued as maltsters and occupied part of the site, no doubt supplying the brewery with ingredients for the beers. Indeed, Edwin Cox and his wife Naomi remained in the house attached to the brewery. Eldest son George and his wife Elizabeth moved to Clifton Villa on the Lichfield Road.

George Taylor became the sole proprietor of the Hockley Brewery in 1858. He continued in business for many years before the Hockley Brewery was acquired in 1889 by Showell's Brewery Company Ltd. This was the same year in which the Langley Green-based firm also bought the Brookfields Brewery at Stockport.

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