THE nature of local character is hard to define; a sense of place, a smell or taste, something that could only come from this blessed plot, this earth.
Once, every town in every corner of the land had its own dialect and its own food and drink. Many small differences added up to what we would recognise as a character distinct from the neighbours, near or far.
In the latter half of the 20th century the pace of homogenisation quickened in Britain as national then international brands replaced the particular and peculiar local suppliers. The brewing industry saw mergers and take overs for decades but in the 1950s new motorways, national TV advertising and larger industrialised brewing processes pushed smaller regional businesses into the arms of their larger competitors.
In Northamptonshire, Phipps Brewery could trace its roots back to Towcester in 1801 and had been successful through catering to the particular tastes of the county’s shoe factory workers. All that was to change in 1960 when keg beer kings Watney-Mann bought out the family firm and began the inevitable run down of the Bridge Street Brewery and its distinctive brews. The ornate Victorian brewery was demolished in 1974 to make way for Carlsberg’s brutalist lager plant and the company became nothing more than a regional pub chain within a larger business.
Slumbering on through the Seventies, Eighties and Nineties it entered the 21st century as a mere Midland pub division within Scottish & Newcastle.
At this point, local directors saw a chance to buy out the business back into independence and return the iconic Phipps IPA to the area’s pubs. With the help of a number of the old Phipps brewers, the golden session IPA was re-introduced in late 2008. It was soon joined by Diamond Ale, Ratliffe’s Stout and NBC’s Red Star bitter and the business started to consider a permanent new brewery back in the town.
When The Albion Brewery building became vacant in 2013, the chance to complete the revival of Phipps as an independent brewer back in a restored Victorian brewery was too good to miss. Since 2014 Phipps ales have been brewed in the heart of Northampton again and with the addition of a brewery tap bar, The Albion Brewery has become a tourist attraction drawing historical brewing fans in from around the country as well as abroad. The company has also returned to gin distilling reviving another aspect of Phipps’ glorious past.
To find out more see the website at www.phipps-nbc.co.uk