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Hi there,
I was wondering if anyone knows how to track down breweries that have been gone for a (fair) while? I was flicking around sites about my area (I moved there three years ago) and one of them said that there was two at one time (although I can't see any evidence). I've written to that site and the local heritage site but to no advail. Any help would be....(hmm)....helpful

The local history section of your nearest public library might be able to help. Old maps, commercial directories or even local newspapers could be useful.

I've been thinking about this myself recently. I'm moving to a town in Wicklow in the next while and I know it had a brewery (as a lot of towns did) about 200+ years ago. I'd love to find a description/recipe for what they brewed. There's nothing left of it now apart from a road called 'The Brewery' and a 'Brewery Lane'.

The local Library probably is the best place to start, but I'm hoping there might be a local historian in the area too that could shed some light on it. Best of luck with your search anyway Joeby!

"modfan77":2s0awwow wrote: I'd love to find a description/recipe for what they brewed.[/quote:2s0awwow]The problem is that a lot of these breweries got taken over by breweries which eventually ended up as part of the Big Three. And Diageo will not give the public access to their archive ("we're still using the recipes" -- yeah right). Heineken are ignoring me and I don't reckon there's any point in contacting Beamish & Crawford until their status as a company is finalised.

Anyway, if anyone does find brewing logs or similar details from old breweries, Ron Pattinson is interested[/url:2s0awwow] and is offering free[/url:2s0awwow] beer[/url:2s0awwow] in exchange for data.

Not sure but this maybe of help?

Brewers' Trade Organisations

The Irish Brewers' Association
84/86 Lower Baggot Street
Dublin 2
Tel. : (353) 1 660 10 11
Fax : (353) 1 660 17 17
Director : Paddy Jordan
Email: <!-- e --><a href="This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.">This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Ordnance Survey Ireland (OSI) have an online historic mapping browser that has mapping from the 1830's ("First Edition" six inch) onwards. You can access this freely from most libraries. I was involved in the building of this (the system on which it runs), but although they had digitised lots of stuff from the old maps to aid geneological research, I don't recall if they had digitised labelled buildings like breweries. I've sent a mail to my former colleagues to see if this data is available.

Another possibility is the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage[/url:3ji63vxk] from DoEHLG. This can include industrial archaeology, which [i:3ji63vxk]may[/i:3ji63vxk] also include [i:3ji63vxk]some[/i:3ji63vxk] breweries. There doesn't seem to be a search function for building use, but at least you might learn about some nice buildings in your town/townland <!-- s:) --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_smile.gif" alt="" title="Smile" /><!-- s:) -->

<edit> I correct myself. The advanced search within the NIAH allows you to search by building use, and this includes Brewery. See this search within the Wexford Inventory[/url:3ji63vxk], or this one for Waterford[/url:3ji63vxk]for an example. There are textual descriptions of the buildings, which may or may not give background as to the brewing operations, but will certainly give details on the architectural significance of them.

I miss working in archaeology sometimes... <!-- s:) --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_smile.gif" alt="" title="Smile" /><!-- s:) -->