church in spring
wall box at Chapel House
post box at Chapel House
travellers in spring
travellers near Hooky
old gypsy caravans
paddle back to front?
2006 aerial map of Jericho
The Perch Inn at Binsey
misty dawn on the river
At Boston MA
Christian Science Monitor Premises
Jericho Street Fair 2006
how it used to look
Castle Mill Boatyard (poster)
Jericho Boatyard (poster)
Community Boatyard (poster)
ethnic warning painted green
razor wire removed from fence
church not prison camp
razor wire round gardens
razor wire on the boatyard gate
21st century canal scenery
evicted boat
"ethnic cleaning" warning
razor wire by the canal
fenced off boatyard
fencing off the view
British Waterways fence going up
shame on you British Waterways
canalside eviction
evicted boater
towing his home away
Hooky Brewery
Hooky dray horse
itchy bum?
shire horse at brewery stables
dray horses at the Pear Tree Inn
Roger with Major and Consul
Roger the brewery drayman
bungalow in spring
garden path in spring
Cotswold staircase turret
East End spring
Ironstone Hollow
walk around the viaduct piers
remains of the old railway viaduct
disused railway
country seat
Bells Lane cottages
Ashburton Lane
Magdalen Lodge in spring
Hook Norton Manor
windows in spring
April showers in Hooky
Chapel Street pillar box
Netting Street post box
kiddies' playground
the stream at Willow Green
Queen Street daffs
springtime at the Pear Tree Inn
St Peter's Church
Down End
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Hook Norton Brewery
Hook Norton Brewery is a traditional Victorian tower brewery, founded in 1849.
It has been steam powered since 1899 and makes real ale cask beer.
It has been steam powered since 1899 and makes real ale cask beer.
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www.britainexpress.com/counties/oxfordshire/properties/hook-norton-brewery.htm
The pretty Oxfordshire village of Hook Norton is home to a historic rural brewery founded in 1849. Hook Norton Brewery still delivers barrels of beer to local pubs in a traditional dray drawn by shire horses, and visitors can tour the 19th-century brewery buildings and enjoy the on-site brewery museum.
History
In 1849 John Harris purchased a 52-acre farm in Hook Norton. The farm estate came with an existing malthouse. Harris was more interested in brewing than he was in farming, and he took over the malting business.
Harris saw an opportunity to expand his trade and began dealing in hops. From those small beginnings to handling the brewing himself was a short leap and it seems he began to brew beer around 1856. The brewery's record books have kept careful track of every brew ever made on site, and the first record comes from 1 November 1856 with the notation 'Mild XXX'.
In 1859 the brewery bought its first 'tied house' at Down End. Tied houses are inns required to buy at least some of their beer from a particular brewery. Contrast that to a Fee House where the publican can buy beer from any supplier they choose. In 1869 the brewery bought the Pear Tree Inn, which stands a stone's throw away at the end of Brewery Lane. Today Hook Norton Brewery has thirty-seven tied houses.
Though many of those pubs received deliveries of beer in the traditional way, from a horse-drawn dray, the arrival of the railway into Hook Norton in the 1880s meant that the brewery's products were able to quickly reach a wider audience.
Founder John Harris died in 1887 and the operation was taken over by his nephew Alban Clarke. Under Clarke's ownership, the brewery doubled in size. Clarke added a bottling room, shed, storehouse and stable block, built new offices, and erected the present six-storey brewery on the site of the original building. It is this picturesque late Victorian building that forms the core of the brewery today.
To power the brewery, Clarke installed a 25 HP steam engine to pump water from a well beneath the brewery. This same steam engine still powers the operation and it is thought to be one of the last steam engines in Britain still in use for its original purpose.
Steam power did not stop there; in 1904 Clarke bought a steam-driven wagon for delivering beer. This wagon was used to carry heavy loads to Banbury for further transport. Clarke wasn't slow to realise that this large wagon would make an excellent travelling billboard and had brightly coloured signs made for the wagon's sides. The steam wagon was decidedly old-fashioned by 1928 when the brewery bought its first lorry. The shire horses still delivered locally but the lorry handled anything further away.
Shire horse deliveries finally stopped in 1950, only to start again in 1985. As of this writing, the brewery has a stable of four shire horses, two of which are retired and two are still working. These horses deliver to pubs within five miles of the brewery and you can usually see them in action three days a week.
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