Home Ales

[Marrowman 34]

I have a booklet from Home Ales (cost 25p) listing all of their pubs. Unfortunately there is no date of publication but I'm guessing early '80s.

It makes interesting reading, especially of all the pubs that have disappeared. Home Ales also made Apollo soft drinks, which I remember, but I didn't know they also produced their own wines and spirits under the Killingley brand.

 

[Marrowman 34]

Two more images from the booklet.

 

[philmayfield 6,201]

I remember Home Brewery from back in the 60's when I was in the accountancy profession and doing their audit. I got a good insight into the process of brewing. The company chairman, Hordern Farr, used to live in nearby Thurgarton, at the Old Rectory, and drank Home Brew in the Coach and Horses at the end of his street with local farmers who sold him their barley.

[Cliff Ton 10,487]

I don't remember seeing the name Killingley before; maybe I just didn't notice things like that back then.

[philmayfield 6,201]

Killingley for wines and spirits was definitely there in the '60's as was Apollo mineral waters. Daybrook Laundry over the road was owned by the same family and it was rumoured that they pumped the dirty washing water under Mansfield Rd. to make the beer. I enjoyed Home Brew and the Coach at Thurgarton was a regular early doors stop on my way home. That was in the days when you bought rounds for all your mates. I doubt that would be affordable now!

[Marrowman 34]

Thanks for the responses. The Coach And Horses, Thurgarton is listed in the book. Described as traditional with bar and lounge, bar snacks Tuesday to Friday and skittles! Coaches by appointment!

[Cliff Ton 10,487]

For anyone who might be wondering, the building is still there at Daybrook. 

 

https://goo.gl/maps/DibQbJy91RdmKd85A

 

It was partly converted to offices for the Council, but otherwise seems to have been slightly forgotten.

 

 

[Jill Sparrow 10,323]

I know the building well. If you go there, NEVER use the lift!

[philmayfield 6,201]

The Coach and Horses is long gone sadly. Now is houses. The Waggon at Bleasby, a Home Ales pub, is still there and owned by a friend of mine who also owns Blue Monkey Brewery. It wouldn't drink it though as its made from tapwater in Giltbrook behind Ikea! Not a proper craft brewery. He knows my feelings!

[LizzieM 9,514]

@Marrowman is the Horse and Groom at Linby mentioned please?  My Uncle Charlie kept that pub for many years until retirement in around 1980.  In fact the pub was in my family for about 100 years.  Charlie previously had the Duke of Wellington in Shirland for a few years and when his uncle, my great-uncle, George Jennison was struggling to deal with cellar work in Linby, Charlie used to drive over and do it for him, then eventually he took the pub over.  

[IAN FINN 817]

Kimberley ale was brewed from the spring water which drained through the rocks in the cutting on the old Notts and Derby line it is no longer there and the cutting has been filled in and made into a footpath. My dad had a garage at Watnall and in the 60s Kimberley Brewery claimed his paraffin tank was leaking into the ground and contaminating the brew they came and took samples but nothing was proven.

 

I went to the Horse and Groom in Linby back in the early 60s after a car rally which ended up at the Griffins Head at Papplewick it was a nice place from what i remember

[LizzieM 9,514]

Yes it was a well-run pub, Charlie didn’t stand for any nonsense.  When they retired they moved to Papplewick and he used to drink in the Griffins Head and as far as I know he never set foot in the Horse and Groom again!  

[Marrowman 34]

Hello LizzieM,  your uncle's pub is in there. Bar, lounge, snug, smoke room and children's room. Also a b&b and restaurant. Garden and children's amusements at rear. Organist! Over 400 years old, log fires in winter. Sounds like a great pub. 

Kimberley ales was my favourite, especially the mild. Most blokes used to drink halves in the late 60s and early 70s, especially miners. I always remember these big rough miners at the local miners welfare all downing halves! They were constantly to and thro to the bar. I used to like a pint of mixed (mild and bitter).

 

The Griffins Head at Papplewick is also in. Bar, lounge, snug, bar snacks. No other info. 

[LizzieM 9,514]

Thanks for looking @Marrowman I would think that the booklet you’ve got was printed in the mid to late 1980s.  The reason being that children were not allowed in the Horse and Groom when my Uncle ran it and they didn’t have a restaurant, only serving filled cobs (which were excellent though).  While Charlie was in residence he converted a barn at the back into a ‘party room’ but I don’t remember it being used.  He also made the outside loos into part of the pub by building a conservatory to make a covered walkway.
Edit:   They didn’t do Bed and Breakfast either.  

[LizzieM 9,514]

I’m from a family of drinkers!   My Great-Grandparents kept the Station Hotel in Hucknall in the late 1800s.  They used to open very early in the morning so that miners from Hucknall pit, coming off the night-shift, could get a drink.   My Gt Grandfather died relatively young and my Gt Grandmother had to leave the pub because women were not allowed to be tenants or licensees.  She moved across town to Long Eaton and ran an off-licence.  I have a shoe-box of old family postcards going back to the early 1900s and there’s a postcard addressed to my Gt Grandmother and the address is just ‘the Beer-Off, Long Eaton, Nottingham’.  Beer-off must be a Nottingham term, we lived in the Home Counties for 30 years and never heard an off-licence called a beer-off!

[Oztalgian 3,331]

2 hours ago, Marrowman said:

Kimberley ales was my favourite, especially the mild.

Kimberley mild was the only mild I ever drank, a swift half at the Mucky Duck on the corner of Albert Street and Midworth Street in Mansfield before catching the bus home after an afternoon shift.

1 hour ago, LizzieM said:

Beer-off must be a Nottingham term

It was always a Beer-off where we lived. Here in Oz we call them "bottle shops" often shortened to "bottle o"

[IAN FINN 817]

Did they call a pint of half mild and half bitter a black and tan.

[philmayfield 6,201]

That was a pint of ‘mixed’. A Black and Tan was Guinness and bitter I believe.

[letsavagoo 964]

You beat me to it Phil. You are correct. Black and Tan was Guinness and bitter. I recall a brief period when ‘snake bite’ was a popular drink but I can’t recall what it was. I think Cider was involved. When I first started drinking in the pubs I was 16. I was tall and never got challenged as to my age. Mild was 12pence and bitter 13 a pint. Seems unbelievable now. 
I note what you say about Blue Monkey beer. I’ve not found one of their beers I can drink either.

[Hey Arnold 88]

1 hour ago, letsavagoo said:

. I recall a brief period when ‘snake bite’ was a popular drink but I can’t recall what it was. I think Cider was involved

Snake bite was bitter and cider or you could ask for lager snake bike. Many pubs refused to serve it because it was cloudy in the glass and made the beer look off. Another mix was a pint of Mickey Mouse which was bitter and lager 

[philmayfield 6,201]

I knew girls who enjoyed a brandy and Babycham. I’ll say no more!

[Oztalgian 3,331]

On 6/19/2023 at 5:54 PM, philmayfield said:

I knew girls who enjoyed a brandy and Babycham.

Also Rum and Blackcurrant.

[mary1947 2,090]

Going back o the 2 pubs Horse and Groom Linby (also a pub same named at Mooregreen) Linby lived in Hucknall for quite a number of years and this pub  was one of our locals. It was a pub that seemed to allways welcome you We had a nice family meal in the restrarant, and in the bar you felt as though you had gone back a little in time there used to be a large oak fire place which in winter would have logs burning in the grate. It was not a huge room but you were made to feel weicom by mine host. Outside there used to be a small play area for the children, the amusement which was only 2 fruit machines was in the passage. Oh I think there was one in the bar, At Christmas Linby have a lighting up night around the Christmas Tree and we all would end up in the Horse and Groom,                                                                                                             

 

Now Griffins Head used to be an excellnt pub until they deciced to make it into some kind of eating place, G/H Bonfire night would allways have large bonfiire with outdoor eats and would be well worth a visit, they did discover an old well when they renovted this pub and have put a Glass shelf / floor on it. you can look down into the well                                                                                                                                                           

 

ps When we first moved to Hucknall they allways said that Linby / Papplewick  Hucknall would never never join up  well all I can say is Tesco  Robin Hood LIne and Trams    we all knew once these came along that something would change.

 

If you like old village pubs then take a run out to Lower Bagthorpe and visit Dixies Arms  you won't be dissapointed !!!

 

[letsavagoo 964]

On 6/18/2023 at 7:01 PM, Cliff Ton said:

For anyone who might be wondering, the building is still there at Daybrook. 

 

https://goo.gl/maps/DibQbJy91RdmKd85A

 

It was partly converted to offices for the Council, but otherwise seems to have been slightly forgotten.

Very similar to the Raleigh building on Lenton Boulevard. I assume they were built similar times possibly with a common architect, both with the stone sculpted panels along the fronts reflecting the industries they were involved in. I knew Raleigh head office inside out but have never been to the Home Ales building. Did or does it have a ball room. 
https://www.instantstreetview.com/@52.95311,-1.175141,279.55h,5.86p,1z,xJbXOe2si1YzK0kc8InIcQ

 

Incidentally, if you ever get a chance to visit St Mary’s church just along from the Home Brewery building, it has the most magnificent interior, quite stunning. Built as a memorial to his late wife by Col Charles Seeley, one of the richest men in the country at the time. 

[Cliff Ton 10,487]

2 minutes ago, letsavagoo said:

Pretty much identical to the Raleigh building on Lenton Boulevard. I assume they were built similar times with a common architect 

 

Both designed by Cecil Howitt....the man also responsible for the Council House and the Newton Building.    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Cecil_Howitt

 

Fothergill Watson gets the publicity, but Howitt is easily up there with him for leaving his mark on Nottingham.