Powerful clan were fine brewers

August 23, 2005

PATTESON ROAD
(Waterloo Road to Aylsham Road)

The powerful Patteson clan played a major role in Norwich life for centuries — and the name of Steward & Patteson still raises a smile across the city and county.

The S&P brewery provided work for generations and gave us a range of some of the finest beers in the land.

Meet the men who ran the Steward & Patteson Brewery in Norwich. H T Patteson is standing on the left at the back while H S Patteson is sitting on the right.

Several members of the Patteson family became mayors and back in 1766 John had to read the riot act because of the turmoil across the city when food prices went up.

Before doing so he left his chain of office with his sister-in-law, saying: “Take care of this, little mother, God knows if I shall come back alive.”

Eventually two of the rioters were executed.

His nephew, also John, went on to be mayor in 1788.

The Patteson family had a large house in Surrey Street, which was sold to Sir Samuel Bignold.

John was said to be the first man in Norwich to drive his own private chariot through the city streets.

In 1783, there were nine breweries in Norwich. It was a growing and booming business.

John Patteson started his brewery in 1793, having bought out James Beevor of Magdalen Street and Jehosophat Postle (what a wonderful name) of Cowgate.

By 1801, he was brewing 20,000 barrels a year. A remarkable figure for a provincial brewery and it matched the production of some of the London breweries.

He then teamed up with the Steward family who ploughed in much needed capital to keep the brewery up and running — and enabled it to expand ever further.

Steward & Patteson, or Steward, Patteson, Morse, Finch & Co to give it its correct name, became a massive operation based at the Pockthorpe Brewery.

In the early part of the 19th century the brewing industry expanded in Norwich and by 1836 there were 27 breweries in the city — S&P was the biggest.

Motors eventually took over from horses and S&P were proud of their fleet of vehicles.

They used the river to expand their market and had their own steamer, which took beer to Great Yarmouth and brought back coal.

The major breweries in Norwich also bought pubs. Morgans controlled 178 pubs in 1866, Bullard’s held 441 in 1895 while in the same year S&P had 489.

S&P also bought up the Reepham Brewery in 1878 and the Swaffham Brewery in 1895 which provided another 51 pubs.

By the end of the 19th century the brewing industry was still booming and its leaders became closely involved with civic life.

Prestige, honour and a desire to serve the city were perhaps not the only reasons for this.

Brewers had been under attack from the growing temperance movement and civic service added respectability to an industry that was seem by some as the instigator of the downward path to ruin and depravity. And while the brewery bosses got fatter, their workers worked hard for a pittance.

In 1896, the average wage of a skilled man at S&P was about 16 shillings (80p) while draymen who delivered the beer got about 10 shillings a week.

Mind you, the draymen made up for this by sampling a pint of beer at each pub they visited.

Many well-trained horses knew their own way back to the brewery at night!

The major Norwich breweries were still going strong until they got caught up in the merger mania of the early 1960s. S&P took over Morgans to get their pubs, but then they sold out, along with Bullards, to Watneys.

The famous old Norwich breweries finally ran out of beer.

It was the end of an era.

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