Goodness Grays!

Great Baddow has been home to a brewery for centuries. The Baddow Brewery was a major employer here from 1789 to 1927, and since 2017 the Brewery Fields has been the location for the micro-brewery called Chelmsford Brew Company. Let me first tell you something about the old Baddow Brewery, and then we can look to the new.

There's no mistaking the old Baddow Brewery building as you enter Great Baddow from the Southend Road. There was a brewery on this site since its founding in 1798 by Mr. R.H. Crabb, and this new building was erected in 1868. According to an article in the Essex Brewers (1992), it was Mr. Richard Hartley Crabb's father who first started a brewery in Great Baddow. The company owners Mr. R.H. Crabb, Mr. Frederick Thomas Veley, Mr. Arthur Curtis Veley, and Mr. Thomas Smee were present during the laying of the foundation stone in 1868. The company was then operated as Crabb, Veley & Co. until 1887, and by 1902 it was managed by Mr. Reginald Watney. "Watney" is a name still associated with the brewery business, the family having run a brewery and pub in Wimbledon since 1509. When Mr. Reginald Watney died in 1923, he was chairman of the Great Baddow Brewery Company. The Crabb family were very well known and feared in the village and it was they who both founded and ended the life of Baddow Brewery.

A fascinating account of the life of the brewery and its owners can be found in a book 'Great Baddow Oral History' (2003) compiled by Allen Buckroyd, from which much of the following information has been gleaned. You can read a copy of this fascinating insight into the life of the village in the 1900's in the local library. For more than 100 years the Crabb family lived in Baddow Place (shown above), just a short walk from the brewery. And Mr. Veley lived in Adstocks, just next to the brewery on Church Street. Apparently there is a tunnel from Baddow Place to the brewery, possibly to allow the owner to safely carry money between work and home. And upstairs was a telescope to spy on the workers in the brewery. In the early 1900's, Baddow Brewery was renowned for its very strong beer, and by 6 am the brewery was in full swing with horse wagons loaded with beer barrels coming out to start deliveries.

According to the diary of Reg Spalding describing a walk through the village in 1900, Mr. Crabb was a little eccentric. He planted apple trees in an area called 'Crabb's Folly' in West Hanningfield Road. After he had planted many trees there, he built an apple house, and then proceeded to dig up all the apple trees.

Mr. Crabb's sisters were very religious, but looked down on the poor, and would only give away religious tracts, not money. And if children did not bow and scrape before them, then one of the Miss Crabbs would go and see the parents about it. The Crabb family owned the church 'living' of St. Mary's Church and if the Reverend Mr. Colley's sermon lasted less than 40 minutes, he too was severely criticised. The two prominent tombs in the graveyard of St. Mary's Church, just outside the main door, belong to the Crabb's. And in the church's lych gate is a memorial stone to Mary Louisa Crabb.

So, why did the brewery close down? It was all the fault of the founder Mr. Crabb's three granddaughters. They were staunch members of the Temperance Movement, so the brewery was doomed. But the life of the Baddow Brewery lives on in the buildings surrounding it on Church Street.

Just across from the Baddow Brewery building on Church Street is the site of the old bottling stores. Today's building (shown above left) maintains the gargoyle and two circular monograms of Edward VII and Queen Alexandra, dated 1902, which were rescued from a Mineral Water Works. And the building to its left was the stables in which the brewery's dray horses were kept.

The brewing process starts with the mixing of the magical components, followed by the controlled fermentation of those components, and finally a product to drink and enjoy! We sampled brews with names like The Cowboy, The Blue Shack Bitter, and Chunnuck. And you too can enjoy these beers in their taproom which opens Thursday to Saturday, see the Chelmsford Brew Co. website for full details.

Back in the early 1900's, you did not have to walk far to find a pub in Great Baddow. Jutting out where Bell Street joins the High Street was The Bell, owned by Baddow Brewery. Written on the Bell sign were the words "Vivos voco morticos plango", meaning "I summon the living: I lament the dead." This pub proved too much of an obstacle for traffic for when the hay wagons passed, they left lots of hay attached to the pub! Consequently, The Bell was demolished.

Another long gone pub is the George and Dragon in The Chase (the road running parallel to Bell Street). While the 17th century King's Head pub on Maldon Road survives today as a guest house. So now we have just two pubs located centrally in the village: The White Horse and The Blue Lion at the extreme ends of the High Street. The White Horse began its life as an ale house at the beginning of the 17th century, and it is believed that there are tunnels under the inn leading under the High Street to the Munnions. A pub has stood on the site of The Blue Lion since the 16th century, but most of the current building is Georgian. The pub's sign shows the 'lion rampant azure', believed to be from the arms of the Mildmay family who held land in the area. In the 17th century, a Thomas Mildmay was Lord of the Manor of Great Baddow.

So when you next drink a pint of ale in Great Baddow, think of the old Baddow Brewery and its influence on the village, and wonder if the Misses Crabbs were right to close down the business? Then pop into the Chelmsford Brew Company and see the future!