The Fielder & Co Brewery

The Fielder & Co Brewery was a successful brewery in Brentwood, founded by Alfred Fielder in the 1850s, and stood on King's Road - the northern part of which was the Brewery Tap.

The founder, Alfred Fielder, was born in Alton, Hampshire, in 1813. While living in Alton, he is recorded in 1847 as being a 'brewer, maltster, and coal merchant' and he ran a pub there called the Queen's Arms along with his wife and four children. Unfortunately, in 1847 his business failed and he was declared bankrupt; the following year his house, the pub, and other lands were auctioned off to pay his debts. He moved to Brentwood shortly after this and initially worked as a coal merchant on the High Street. By 1849 he owned a coal depot by the railway station, and by 1855 he was secretary to the Brentwood Gas Light & Coke Company, which put him in an important position in the growing town.

The earliest mention of Alfred owning a brewery in Brentwood is in the Chelmsford Chronicle of 11th August 1854, by which point a building already existed and the brewery was in operation. The first record of the brewery owning the lease to a pub is from July 1856, when the brewery leased a 'freehold beer-house, the High-street, Brentwood' for £16 a year. Unfortunately it is not recorded which building this was, other than it being described as a 'substantial [...] brick built residence'. This doesn't seem to have been a commercial success for the brewery, and the lease was auctioned off in 1856. By 1858, however, they owned the license to another pub.

The brewery became a large employer in the town, and Fielder himself became an imporatant man - in 1859 he championed demolishing the old Assize House and building a grand town hall in its place.

By the 1860s Alfred's son, Charles, was involved in the business, and the two lived next door to each other on Queen's Road not far from the Brewery. An area to the south of the brewery (the triangle at the junction of King's Road and Queen's Road) seems to have been developed as a private garden for the brewery.

By at least 1867 the Brewery Tap had opened on the north side of the building, where beer could be purchased and drunk directly within the brewery building.

Alfred died in 1885 and the business was taken over completely by his son, Charles. Charles was involved in the business until his death aged 78 in 1919.

The brewery was sold to the Hornchurch Brewery Company Ltd in 1923, who closed the brewery and heavily remodelled the building. The top floor of the main building was removed, the first floor was developed into flats, and the ground floor was converted into shops. The Brewery Tap remained open. In October 2023 the building was demolished except for the Brewery Tap.