P Phipps & Co Ltd and Northampton Brewery Co Ltd Family Tree

Key dates

1801 P Phipps first Brewed beer in Towcester

1817 P Phipps Brewery Moves to Northampton

1857 Phillips Brothers (NBC) open The Phoenix Brewery in Northampton

1873 Phillips Brothers launch Northampton Brewing Company as their trading name

1887 Phillips Brothers register Northampton Brewery Company as Limited Company

1901 P Phipps Brewery burns down in Towcester

1916 Huge Fire at the Phoenix Brewery forced NBC to buy beer from the neighbours Phipps until rebuilt site

1957 P Phipps and Northampton Brewing Company merge to form Phipps Northampton Brewery Company Ltd

1960 WatneyMann purchases Phipps Northampton Brewing Co

1972 Watney Mann Ltd was acquired by Grand Metropolitan Hotels Ltd

1974 Phipps Brewery Demolished make way for new Carlesberg Brewery

1974 Bill Urquhart, the last head brewer at Phipps Bridge St., founds Litchborough Brewery

1983 Liddingtons Brewery buys Litchborough Brewery

1986 Liddingtons Brewery closes

1991 Courage and Co (now S&N) Ltd bought Watney Mann and Truman Brewers Ltd

1993 S&N purchase many ex Phipps/NBC pubs under the Chef & Brewer Brand from Grand Metropolitan 

2003 Courage/ S&N sells ALL their pubs to The Spirit Group (including many ex Phipps & NBC Public Houses)

2004 Phipps Northampton Brewing Company re-registered as brewer 

The History of P Phipps & Co Ltd  Northampton Brewery Co, and Phipps NBC

Phipps 1801 -1957

In 1801 Pickering Phipps started to brew beer in Towcester, Northants. In 1817 a wharf and brewhouse in Bridge Street, by the Nene, was put up for rent by J.C. Barratt. Pickering Phipps, took up the lease and our story really begins.

Pickering clearly prospered, as he became mayor of Northampton in 1821. His two sons, Richard and Thomas inherited the business on his death in 1830. Later a younger son, Pickering also joined. The firm, known as P.Phipps and Company from 1880, continued to prosper under the stewardship of various family members. In 1886 the third Pickering Phipps became a director.

In 1888 the company built grand new offices at 8 Gold Street. Later the Church of St Mathew`s Northampton was paid for by the family, cementing their place as one of the premier families in the town. The area around it, east of the Racecourse came to be known as Phippsville. They exhibited the classic style of high Victorian capitalist philanthropists, amassing a fortune but putting a lot back into public good works. Like NBC, Phipps saw the benefit of linking up with the new craze for Association Football and Pickering Phipps became the Chairman of Northampton Town AFC.

By 1892 P.Phipps and Co. had the largest pub estate of any Midland brewer, 9th largest in Britain. As a public company many of the shares were in the hands of the family at the end of the 19th century but Boddingtons of Manchester had a small stake.  A Home Office report in that year recorded their number of tied houses as 242, compared to the largest at the time Greenall Whitley at 681. Interestingly given the sad event many years later, Watney & Co had 258 at the time.

In 1899 Ratliffe and Jeffrey became part of Phipps and with them came Ratliffe`s Celebrated Stout which would continue to be a separate brand into the `60s. The Ratliffe family also joined the company as management and directors.

In 1901 the old Towcester Brewery was destroyed by fire and around this time the Bridge street brewery was rebuilt and extended as well as being fire proofed. Just before WW1 a large, modern bottling plant was added to the site.

Following the fire at NBC`s brewery, Phipps stepped into supply some of that companies` brews until their plant was restored after the war. Another consequence of this was a beer price agreement with NBC and Mannings.

In 1920 Hipwells of Olney was purchased and in 1926 Mannings followed.

In 1937, the last Pickering Phipps died rich but heirless at 76.

After having quite a good war Phipps entered the post war world in an expansive mood, taking over their Wellingborough rivals Campbell Praeds in 1953. The deal was a big one and caused some financing problems even for Phipps. The industry and market was changing, nationally branded beer was making inroads into traditional markets and by the end of 1956 directors of both Phipps and NBC were talking of;

“ considerable economies in operation….. if there were a closer association between the two companies” (Chronicle and Echo, 7th Jan 1957).

NBC 1857 -1957

The Northampton Brewery Company grew out of a company run by the famous Midland brewing family, the Phillips. The Phillips Brothers had converted the site by the River Nene on Bridge Street, into The Phoenix Brewery in 1857.

This firm became known as The Northampton Brewery Company after 1873.

NBC had been first in the town to use the new “ steam “ Burton Union technology and produced clear, clean ale that quickly caused rivals such as Phipps to drop their traditional thick brews to compete.

The company not only owned the Malt Shovel, now the home of all things real ale in Northampton, but the near by and more impressive Plough Inn.

NCB’s attentions were often to the west of Northampton perhaps because of links with other Phillips family breweries and one oddity in the company’s history is that it once owned Molineaux, the home of Wolverhampton Wanderers. Two years after selling the ground in 1901, the company donated £100 to the fledgling Cobblers “ to encourage sport in the town”.

In 1916, after a huge fire that put the brewery out of action NBC started buying in beer from their near neighbours, Phipps. Despite some talks about closer links, the rebuilding of the Brewery in the early 20`s ended co-operation, not to be resumed until the 50s.

In 1931 the Market Harborough brewers Eady and Dulley was absorbed. In 1952 Phillips of Stamford went the same way, a company founded by the original Phillips Brothers` uncle.

NBC always seemed to capitalise on the clear link with Northampton implied in it`s name, using slogans

“ Good for you and for Northampton”

" NBC Beer Radiates Good Cheer" and

“ Brewed in Northampton by Northampton men”

Placed alongside the later merged company slogan, “ Phipps is Beer” they seem almost Shakespearean.

By the 1950s the economic climate continued to push breweries towards mergers or take-overs. NBC and Phipps had been linked by a pricing deal since 1955 and it was a logical next step to talk about a genuine merger.

Phipps NBC 1957 -1970

The two Northampton brewers came together to create a regional business with 1131 pubs ( 711 from Phipps, 420 from NBC ) Phipps was clearly the larger partner but was still financially unsettled from the Praeds take over, NBC smaller but more profitable. Their breweries had grown up side by side on Bridge street and had co-operated in the past; Phipps brewing for NBC after their fire in 1916 whilst NBC had helped Phipps with water shortages with access to their well.

The company decided to continue using the NBC star as it`s logo but with the addition of the Phipps name over the NBC button. This was not surprising as Phipps themselves never had an original logo. Their bottles carried the Northampton Town crest in the `50s but before that the serifed typeface, often seen on the Mosaic pub signage, was their only corporate brand.

The two breweries were soon physically linked, initially by the simple expedient of knocking through doors in dividing wall. Later a rationalisation plan would try and make sense of the numerous brands and brews; all stout and dark beers would be brewed in the NBC/ North side, Pale Ale and IPA in the Phipps/South. No doubt dedicated drinkers of each companies beers would have disagreed but many of their products were similar enough to be brewed as one lot and branded separately.

Lager was making inroads into the nations pubs and Phipps NBC launched Stein in May 1959. This was partly to replace the exotic Danish import, Carlesberg, which was sold in some of their more cosmopolitan outlets. Keg ale was also a straw in the wind but as the quantity was still small, consideration was given to purchasing it as needed from Watney Combe and Reid. So into our story for the first time, comes the future owner and nemesis of Phipps NBC, a keg of Red Barrel the Wooden Horse which got the Londoners past the brewery gates.

The brewing industry was awash with takeovers and mergers in the late `50s and Phipps NBC knew they were a potential target. The company was a big regional player but still not too big to be swallowed by one of the emerging nationals. It`s Stein lager was doing well but cost cutting on other brands, especially Pale Ale was having an adverse effect on sales. In a bid to merge themselves into another league talks were held with Charles Wells of Bedford and Hunt Edmunds of Banbury but nothing came of it. Instead 151 more pubs were added to the estate, mostly from Ind Coope`s Chesham and Brackley.

Meanwhile down in London, the newly merged company of Watney Mann was growing fat on the back of their famous Red Barrel. They had just survived a hostile take over themselves and needed to get bigger fast.

An offer was received in January 1960 for Phipps NBC and at that time Watney`s assets were £22 million compared with Phipps £5. The deal was styled as a marriage benefiting both partners; Watneys had the cash and needed more capacity and more outlets, Phipps had spare capacity and could sell it`s products into the adjacent Manns estate.

Wasting no time, Red barrel was being trialed in the Northampton Brewery by March 1960. Soon this and other Watney Mann brands would be brewed at Bridge St.

The company’s name was eventually rationalised to Phipps Brewery Limited and the star logo lost it`s NBC script. The range of local beers was cut to Pale Ale, IPA, Jumbo Stout and Stein lager.

The `60s was the low point for real draught ale and keg beer seemed to be the future. It looked at first as if the business plan for what had become Watney Mann Midland Division was to continue Phipps beer as the traditional Ale brand alongside the new owner’s brands but by 1968 draught Phipps was gone and by 1970 bottled Phipps went as well.

Watney Mann Midland 1970-1974

For a while an attempt to woo local drinkers with something called Manns Northampton Ale was tried to no great acclaim. Phipps draught, along with other regional traditional brews owned by Watneys, would be replaced on the pumps by Watneys SPA and Manns IPA. The theory being that these brands could benifit from national advertising.

As the `70s dawned it was Watney's turn to be the focus of a take over as Grand Metropolitan Hotels launched a hostile bid. Watneys fought, decking their Phipps delivery lorrys with " Keep Watneys, Watneys" slogans as if punters and publicans could or would save them. Grand Met won and began to re-organise their new aquisition. Watney Mann Midland was profitable but the Bridge Street brewery was soon identified as being too sprawling and badly laid out for modern styles of brewing; it was still really two separate plants cobbled together. At first thought was given to rebuilding a modern plant to serve the existing pub estate but an approach from over the North Sea soon chnged the plan.

In the early `70s, like Watneys before them, Carlesberg were riding the changing tastes of British drinkers with cash bulging in their pockets. Grand Met entered into a joint project with them to rebuild Bridge street as their UK lager facility, Watney Mann Midland became just a Pub chain and distribution company and the old Victorian building was torn down. The beautiful tiled and terracotta P.Phipps offices on the banks of the Nene were meant to be kept but as often seems to happen at such times, a mysterious fire burnt them to the ground whilst the new brewery was being built. Today the modernist Carlsberg brewery that replaced it has almost been accepted as a part of the Northampton skyline, but not quite!

          Litchborough 1974 – 1986

At the time of the closing and demolition of the Bridge Street Brewery, the head brewer was Bill Urquhart. Clearly there was to be no job for him in the new streamlined, state of the art lager factory that Carlsberg were building. Around Britain at this time many other traditional breweries were closing so finding similar employment with another company was unlikely.

Bill however was a resourceful and practical man who decided to strike out on his own. Using his redundancy money and contacts within the brewing fraternity, he cobbled together one of the country's first micro breweries in the small Northamptonshire village of Litchborough. His product range was spares and simple, traditional bitter in the Phipps style but it gained a loyal following

The mid ‘70s saw the beginnings of the Real Ale revival and Bill was to play a key role as consultant to many small independent brewers setting up at this time. At his brewery he took on apprentices and passed on his knowledge directly. One such was Richard Jenkinson who would go on to found his own company down the road in Aylesbury, and The Chiltern Brewery continues to flourish there today. Another, John Heaverman would eventually take over the Litchborough concern when Bill literally flew off to St. Helena to help the government there set up an indigenous brewery.

 In 1983 Liddingtons, Rugby based beer and wine wholesalers, bought the company from John Heaverman although he continued working at the re-located plant with his sons. The new owner's enthusiasm soon faded and the end finally came in 1986. Bill and his wife had by this time retired to their native Scotland but in the years following the demise of Bridge St. he had successfully passed on the Phipps way of brewing to the next generation.

The Dry Years 1974-2004

Watney Mann entered the ‘70s as a motley collection of old breweries servicing a number of separate pub estates, headed up by a brand that had quickly gone from being the dashing modern hope for brewing to the butt of radical humour and one of the hate figures for the emerging real ale movement.
The famous Monty Python travel agent sketch where Eric Idle’s Mr Smoketoomuch rants on about Spain being full of tourists drinking “bleeding Watney’s Red Barrel” was first aired on 16th November 1972 and captures the moment the tide turned against Watneys.

New owners Grand Metropolitan were a large, sprawling company that seemed to understand hotels and real estate more than it did brewing. Their plans for the remaining part of the old Phipps NBC business, a pub chain without a brewery, involved building a new distribution centre at Lodge Farm in Duston which would bring in beer from other breweries and brewers to serve the estate, the offices would be in Delapre, Northampton, not far from the old Bridge St. Brewery site. Although the new brewery only brewed lager, it was still part owned by Grand Met until 1985.

Interestingly, the Phipps brand name was set aside at this point, whether Carlsberg had options to pick it up or Grand Met had a notion they might one day revive it, we can’t know from this distance. Watney’s part in the company name was finally dispensed with in 1978 when NBC made a return as the business became Manns Northampton Brewery Co. Just as the Phipps NBC star had gradually been replaced by the Watney red barrel on signage in the ‘60s, the Manns St.George and Dragon figure started to replace the red barrel in the ‘70s

In 1987 Grand Met merged another of its brewery-less brewers, The Norwich Brewery, with Manns NBC to create Manns Norwich Brewery Ltd.  Watneys had taken it over in 1963, their brewery closed in 1985. Northampton remained the centre of operations.

The 1989 Beer Orders, Government legislation designed to end brewer’s monopoly within their own pub estates and regions, brought about a flurry of change in the industry. It led to the creation of chains of pubs not directly owned or tied to breweries, or Pubcos as they became known.

In 1991 Grand Met sold its brewing interests to Courage, then owned by Australians Elders whose best know brand was Fosters.

In 1995 Scottish and Newcastle bought Courage Elders Fosters. It reorganised its assets, renaming Courage the Brewman Group Ltd, one of its subsidiaries being Brewman MNB Ltd, our old friend.

In 1999 it was renamed again this time Cellar Door Direct Ltd but by 2003 S+N had begun taking steps to get out of pub ownership altogether and the company was set to be broken up into its two distinct parts, the pub estate and distribution. The distribution depot at Lodge Farm was sold to Kuehne Nagel, a German based logistic company. The pubco Spirit, based in Burton on Trent, then took over the majority of the surviving pub estate and the Delapre offices were closed.

There was a six month handing over period between S+N and Spirit during which time S+N Northampton purchasing director Quentin Neville was seconded to Sprit to help integrate the old company’s pubs into its new owner’s business. In doing so Quentin became, in effect, the very last employee of the last recognisable part of the old Phipps company which had traded in one form or another from 1801 to May 2004.

Further Research and Credits

If you want to go further into the history of not only Phipps NBC but Northamptonshire brewing as a whole the following book, invaluable in preparing our own history, is a treasure chest of detail;

BREWED IN NORTHANTS - A Directory of Northamptonshire Brewers (including the Soke of Peterborough) 1450 - 1998.

Published by the Brewery History Society, 102 Ayelands, New Ash Green, Longfield, Kent DA3 8JW

By Mike Brown with Brian Wilmott.ISBN 1-8739-06-7.

For those who have not seen the Photo Book website of over 150 images , here is a copy. It includes far more Pubs and Off licenses than contained in following pages of the site.

Please note that it may take some time to load due to number of pictures

Some Corrections and Input from Mr Keith Robinson ( we always welcome comments and additional Information )

The photo of The Nottingham Arms Should read The Northampton Arms, as the town arms above the door depicts , The pub was situated on the corner of Oak St., and Deal St., The Angel on Stony Stratford high street was knocked down in the early 1970's to make way for a Budgens supermarket and a new building for Milton Keynes Dev, Corp, as was The Barley Mow at the very end of the High St, North,

Apparently from 1945 until 1960, a total of over 300 pubs were closed by the brewers or in process of redevelopment in the town, and when you think about all the masses of little streets within a mile of the town centre you can see a pub on every corner, Bridge St alone was claimed to have so many pubs that the hardest drinkers could not have a half in each pub going from the top down to the Level Crossing and back, before throwing in the towel. Did you know that The Turks Head in St Edmunds St, ( N.B.C.) only ever served one draught beer, and never took to selling spirits ?

Thanks Keith