I don't believe there has been a report on this for many years so figured it's about time for an update. As much as the building is very trashed with sections demolished and other sections having suffered fires, there's a lot of interesting details still remaining including a steam engine in situ.
Explored with @Exploring With Pride 🌈 on an irritatingly warm day as part of our industrial visit to East Anglia.
The History
Family History
The Tolly Cobbold name is an amalgamation of two brewing family names, the Tollymache family, and the Cobbold family. Cobbold's original brewery was founded in Harwich in 1723, with the Cobbold Cliff Brewery in Ipswich being founded on Cliff Lane in 1746.
The Tollemache Brewery was founded in 1888 by three sons of 1st Baron John Tollemache. The family acquired Ipswich Brewery from Cullingham & Co. in 1880, the Essex Brewery at Walthamstow in 1920, and a controlling share of the Star Brewery in Cambridge in 1930. They gained full control of the Star Brewery in 1947.
The Tower Brewery
The building that remains on site today is a tower style brewery built between 1894-1896 to a design by William Bradford. This was later expanded in 1904. A tower brewery works by means of gravity for most parts of the brewing process, with the only powered work being the lifting of water and malted barley to the top of the tower, and the pumping of liquor back up to cooling tanks before the addition of yeast.
Power is provided by means of a steam engine which was primarily responsible for pumping water up from a borehole to the top of the tower along with the barley malt. The engine was also used to power the following;
Driving the grist mill, to crush the grains of malt.
Mashing and raking equipment in the mash tun.
Pumps to raise hot green wort from the brewing copper up to the cooler.
Lifts or cranes for filled casks.
The sack hoist for loading malt. This is often in either an external wooden housing on the side of the tower building or else a protruding lucarne.
Merger and Ownership Changes
Tollemache and Cobbold merged in 1958 to form Tolly Cobbold. This was done due to the decline in the numbers of agricultural workers in the Suffolk villages as remarked by Peter Scully, Head Brewer at Tolly Cobbold until his departure in 1977. Had the companies remained rivals, they both would have suffered from dwindling revenues. The villages that had competing pubs, either the Tolly or Cobbold pub was closed as a result of the merger.
Tolly Cobbold changed hands numerous times over the following years, being purchased by Ellerman Lines in 1977, the Barclays brothers in 1983 and Brent Walker in 1989. Brent Walker announced closure of the brewery in favour of building a marina on the site with brewing transferred to Cameron's Brewery, but this was stopped by a management led buy out of the brewery for £4m supported by the Tollymache and Cobbold families. The pubs were not included in this buyout however.
The brewery's final owner was Ridley's Brewery who acquired it in 2002. Closure of the Cliff Brewery quickly followed, with Ridley's being absorbed by Greene King in 2005. They remain a major sponsor of Ipswich Town FC which was founded by the Cobbolds in 1878.
The Final Years
The brewery began brewing again in 1991 through what was essentially a microbrewery situated to the rear of the site. This allowed the original Victorian brewery to be used for tours which started in 1992, which provided a well needed extra revenue stream for the company until the sale of the company to Ridley's.
More detailed history can be found in @slayaaaa's report (Here)
The Explore
Gained access to the adjoining buildings to seek a way in. Initially this didn't go too well, with the only plausible way appearing to have a sheer drop beyond the window making it unviable.
It would appear the surrounding buildings had other uses post closure of the brewery, with it looking like an aggregate firm or something similar had use of the site before disappearing, with some of their stock left behind. We did find a workshop which was accessible, with it having clues to it's previous life with the signage on the shelving.
Spares -
Records -
We found a way into the main site and brewery building which involved more climbing and some squeezing, with plenty of barbed wire to make things more awkward!
Started off in the cellar which is littered with random crap and the remains of beer apparatus. Only vaguely interesting thing down here was labels for damaged kegs.
Moved on into a burned section, ascending the rickety staircase to reach the remains of the smaller tank room. Not as impressive as Cannon Brewery but still worth the look. I also spied an intact steam engine on the floor below which was a pleasant surprise.
Tank Cavities -
Steam Engine -
I decided to explore the upper levels before heading down to the engine, so moved on to the kiln room. Not much of a view inside from here as the kilns are filled with junk, but I did find a selection of old beer labels, the oldest of which was from 1989. The next floor up offers a view into both kilns from above at least.
Labels -
Kilns -
Moved to the next floor via some stairs that have seen better days. There is the remains of some machinery up here which would have fed the tanks below as the brewing process progressed. The floor is completely rotten in areas up here, so watching your step is imperative.
Proceeded to the opposite end of the floor which housed one of the malting floors. Same story as you head further up, with the odd bit of machinery remaining and hatches to the lower floors through which barley would have been hoisted up.
Machinery -
Hatch -
Weights and Measures -
Old Signage -
The highest floor houses a flock of pigeons and the usual carpet of bird shit that accompanies them along with a hopper, and an intact control panel showing various parts of the production process. Was an absolute pain to photograph with the lighting up here unfortunately.
Control Panel -
Made my way back down to the floor with the dodgy stairs and made a beeline to the larger tank room. It's an absolute state in here with floors in short supply, so to reach the other side you need to negotiate the tank framing. It must have been absolutely stunning in here many moons ago, especially with the stained glass windows in the roof. Unfortunately this has all long since been smashed.
Roof Space -
Nature Reclaiming the Room -
Now on to the steam engine via a different staircase which is encased in some rather ornate ironwork. There's a deep sump between the stairs and the engine with the remains of pipework inside. I would assume the engine was used to pump water from a borehole down here for use in the brewing process as was typical for a Tower Brewery.
Staircase -
Engine -
Steam Engine Governor, blurred shot, but the reflection in the broken glass looks awesome, so I'm including it -
2nd shot courtesy of @Exploring With Pride 🌈 as I cocked most of mine up 😅 -
There were a couple of rooms behind the engine, one of which has numerous beers made by the brewery painted on the walls and another with some valve gear.
Valve Gear -
With nothing else significant remaining intact, we decided to make our exit spying a path leading up out of the grounds. We checked it out and it turns out it leads to one of the buildings we checked earlier, whoops! Much easier way out than the climb in.
Sent the drone around quickly, but only got a couple of shots as the bloody Oyster Catchers started attacking the drone, irritating little shits 😂
Aerial View -
Oddities -
Thanks for looking 👍🏻
Explored with @Exploring With Pride 🌈 on an irritatingly warm day as part of our industrial visit to East Anglia.
The History
Family History
The Tolly Cobbold name is an amalgamation of two brewing family names, the Tollymache family, and the Cobbold family. Cobbold's original brewery was founded in Harwich in 1723, with the Cobbold Cliff Brewery in Ipswich being founded on Cliff Lane in 1746.
The Tollemache Brewery was founded in 1888 by three sons of 1st Baron John Tollemache. The family acquired Ipswich Brewery from Cullingham & Co. in 1880, the Essex Brewery at Walthamstow in 1920, and a controlling share of the Star Brewery in Cambridge in 1930. They gained full control of the Star Brewery in 1947.
The Tower Brewery
The building that remains on site today is a tower style brewery built between 1894-1896 to a design by William Bradford. This was later expanded in 1904. A tower brewery works by means of gravity for most parts of the brewing process, with the only powered work being the lifting of water and malted barley to the top of the tower, and the pumping of liquor back up to cooling tanks before the addition of yeast.
Power is provided by means of a steam engine which was primarily responsible for pumping water up from a borehole to the top of the tower along with the barley malt. The engine was also used to power the following;
Driving the grist mill, to crush the grains of malt.
Mashing and raking equipment in the mash tun.
Pumps to raise hot green wort from the brewing copper up to the cooler.
Lifts or cranes for filled casks.
The sack hoist for loading malt. This is often in either an external wooden housing on the side of the tower building or else a protruding lucarne.
Merger and Ownership Changes
Tollemache and Cobbold merged in 1958 to form Tolly Cobbold. This was done due to the decline in the numbers of agricultural workers in the Suffolk villages as remarked by Peter Scully, Head Brewer at Tolly Cobbold until his departure in 1977. Had the companies remained rivals, they both would have suffered from dwindling revenues. The villages that had competing pubs, either the Tolly or Cobbold pub was closed as a result of the merger.
Tolly Cobbold changed hands numerous times over the following years, being purchased by Ellerman Lines in 1977, the Barclays brothers in 1983 and Brent Walker in 1989. Brent Walker announced closure of the brewery in favour of building a marina on the site with brewing transferred to Cameron's Brewery, but this was stopped by a management led buy out of the brewery for £4m supported by the Tollymache and Cobbold families. The pubs were not included in this buyout however.
The brewery's final owner was Ridley's Brewery who acquired it in 2002. Closure of the Cliff Brewery quickly followed, with Ridley's being absorbed by Greene King in 2005. They remain a major sponsor of Ipswich Town FC which was founded by the Cobbolds in 1878.
The Final Years
The brewery began brewing again in 1991 through what was essentially a microbrewery situated to the rear of the site. This allowed the original Victorian brewery to be used for tours which started in 1992, which provided a well needed extra revenue stream for the company until the sale of the company to Ridley's.
More detailed history can be found in @slayaaaa's report (Here)
The Explore
Gained access to the adjoining buildings to seek a way in. Initially this didn't go too well, with the only plausible way appearing to have a sheer drop beyond the window making it unviable.
It would appear the surrounding buildings had other uses post closure of the brewery, with it looking like an aggregate firm or something similar had use of the site before disappearing, with some of their stock left behind. We did find a workshop which was accessible, with it having clues to it's previous life with the signage on the shelving.
Spares -
Records -
We found a way into the main site and brewery building which involved more climbing and some squeezing, with plenty of barbed wire to make things more awkward!
Started off in the cellar which is littered with random crap and the remains of beer apparatus. Only vaguely interesting thing down here was labels for damaged kegs.
Moved on into a burned section, ascending the rickety staircase to reach the remains of the smaller tank room. Not as impressive as Cannon Brewery but still worth the look. I also spied an intact steam engine on the floor below which was a pleasant surprise.
Tank Cavities -
Steam Engine -
I decided to explore the upper levels before heading down to the engine, so moved on to the kiln room. Not much of a view inside from here as the kilns are filled with junk, but I did find a selection of old beer labels, the oldest of which was from 1989. The next floor up offers a view into both kilns from above at least.
Labels -
Kilns -
Moved to the next floor via some stairs that have seen better days. There is the remains of some machinery up here which would have fed the tanks below as the brewing process progressed. The floor is completely rotten in areas up here, so watching your step is imperative.
Proceeded to the opposite end of the floor which housed one of the malting floors. Same story as you head further up, with the odd bit of machinery remaining and hatches to the lower floors through which barley would have been hoisted up.
Machinery -
Hatch -
Weights and Measures -
Old Signage -
The highest floor houses a flock of pigeons and the usual carpet of bird shit that accompanies them along with a hopper, and an intact control panel showing various parts of the production process. Was an absolute pain to photograph with the lighting up here unfortunately.
Control Panel -
Made my way back down to the floor with the dodgy stairs and made a beeline to the larger tank room. It's an absolute state in here with floors in short supply, so to reach the other side you need to negotiate the tank framing. It must have been absolutely stunning in here many moons ago, especially with the stained glass windows in the roof. Unfortunately this has all long since been smashed.
Roof Space -
Nature Reclaiming the Room -
Now on to the steam engine via a different staircase which is encased in some rather ornate ironwork. There's a deep sump between the stairs and the engine with the remains of pipework inside. I would assume the engine was used to pump water from a borehole down here for use in the brewing process as was typical for a Tower Brewery.
Staircase -
Engine -
Steam Engine Governor, blurred shot, but the reflection in the broken glass looks awesome, so I'm including it -
2nd shot courtesy of @Exploring With Pride 🌈 as I cocked most of mine up 😅 -
There were a couple of rooms behind the engine, one of which has numerous beers made by the brewery painted on the walls and another with some valve gear.
Valve Gear -
With nothing else significant remaining intact, we decided to make our exit spying a path leading up out of the grounds. We checked it out and it turns out it leads to one of the buildings we checked earlier, whoops! Much easier way out than the climb in.
Sent the drone around quickly, but only got a couple of shots as the bloody Oyster Catchers started attacking the drone, irritating little shits 😂
Aerial View -
Oddities -
Thanks for looking 👍🏻
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