Showell's Dictionary of Birmingham - A History and Guide Arranged Alphabetically by Thomas T. Harman;Walter Showell
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page 57 of 741 (07%)
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medicinal qualities what they might in the days before Harry the Eighth
was king, the Cross Wells water retained its name and fame for centuries after the monks were banished and the burly king who drove them out had himself turned to dust. It has always been acknowledged as one of the purest waters to be found in the kingdom; but its peculiar and special adaptability to the brewing of "good old English cheer" was left to be discovered by the founder of the firm of Messrs. Walter Showell and Sons, who, as stated before, some twelve years back, erected the nucleus of the present extensive brewery. Starting with the sale of only a few hundred barrels per week, the call for their ales soon forced the proprietors to extend their premises in order that supply should meet demand. At first doubled, then quadrupled, the brewery is now at least ten times its original size; and a slight notion of the business carried on may be gathered from the fact that the firm's stock of barrels tots up to nearly 60,000 and is being continually increased, extensive cooperages, blacksmiths' shops, &c., being attached to the brewery, as well as malthouses, offices, and storehouses of all kinds. The head offices of the firm, which are connected by telephone with the brewery, as well as with the stores at Kingston Buildings, Crescent Wharf, are situated in Great Charles Street, and thus the Crosswells Brewery (though really at Langley Green, some half-dozen miles away as the crow flies) becomes entitled to rank as a Birmingham establishment, and certainly not one of the least, inasmuch as the weekly sale of Crosswells ales for this town alone is more than 80,000 gallons per week. ~Brickkiln Lane,~ now called the Horse Fair, gives its own derivation. ~Bright.~--The Right Hon. John Bright, though not a Birmingham man, nor connected with the town by any ties of personal interest or business, |
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