Hi guys just thought I’d say I love you’re your website and I love your beer, well done keep up the good work.

Roy at Hoggleys Brewery.

Found your website today. Please find this picture, not the best as I only had a Brownie 127 when I took it. It is the Wheatsheaf at Ailsworth Peterborough and I lived opposite and in the place for twenty odd years. It was an old NBC house which went on to Phipps NBC .

When I was aged 9 or 10 I would collect my uncle's beer on Sundays after Sunday School. My cousin, who was a year older than me, and I would take the empty Bison Brown bottles up to the pub and collect two, sometimes four, pint bottles. We would then put them in a bag and walk the 200 yards back  to her house with them. We had done this for a few years but we only went to a nearer pub, but that closed and we were then sent on the long trek to the Wheatsheaf. My uncle would always complain about NBC beers but the bottles were still empty by the following Sunday . The land lord in those days was Jim Fox and he ran the place with his widowed daughter until his death. It was the only pub in the joined villages of Castor and Ailesworth which had an underground cellar, the flood plane of the Nene valley made it almost impossible to create cellars. There had been six pubs in the village,  there are now to three, The Wheatsheaf closed a few years ago and a house now stand on the car park.

Regards Dennis, now living in Devon

             Robin Seward wrote;

I was interested to read about the re-introduction of Phipps I.P.A. My paternal grandfather (A.G. Seward) was Head Brewer at Phipps & Co. and my father (W.G. Seward) was also on the brewing staff. He would often take me on a tour of the brewery which invariably ended up in the sample cellar. Unfortunately I was too young to sample the amber liquid !

            The Seward family home at 4 Harborough Rd Kingsthorpe, next to the Cock Inn. The house was owned by P.Phipps and Robin's father was born there. A company employee tended the garden for his family. The photo was hand tinted by Robin's mother for an Xmas card

In late 1973, early 74, I was in between jobs, so I took on a temporary job at Watney-Manns in Bridge St. on the production line, filling metal casks with the days brew. My stay there was no more than about 4 months, and of course the working day was very much just that, on the production line. I was introduced to Bill Urquhart, who knew my father and I remember that us workers were entitled to a free pint or two per day. Some time in that period demolition had started on the main Phipps building, and during a lunch break I entered the building, and found my way to the brewing staff office, whereupon I found my father's handwritten (brewing student) notebooks, dated in the mid 1920's. He had passed away in 1966, so naturally I took one noteboook as a souvenir. I was at the Bridge St. site until the final day.

Tom Whapples wrote:

Leaving school on a Friday in July 1950 I started an apprenticeship the following Monday in the engineers shop at Phipps. I was the youngest of 3 trainees and our tuition included a day plus 2 evenings a week at Northampton College of Technology.  Most employees were confined to their workplace but I was fortunate to have the freedom to work wherever needed.  I did jobs in every department and soon got to know the brewery complex in depth including the two maltings and the Cattle Market Transport & Estates Department.

Whilst I was at Phipps there was little contact with the NBC other than collaboration by management over wholesale beer prices and wages to maintain parity.  I do recall that the NBC directors then were Ballion, Page, Watkins and Heron. When my wife and I were courting we often called at the Malt Shovel Tavern where I used to enjoy NBC's draught PA.  It was darker than Phipps PA and somewhat nutty and I preferred it to Phipps’s.

In my opinion IPA was the best of Phipps running beers and most important, was equally good in draught and bottled form. My wife and I first lived in an idyllic setting in Church Way Weston Favell and my local was The Bold Dragoon, where I regularly enjoyed Phipps IPA in the company of Mr Milner.  By then he had become Phipps head brewer and I was an industrial engineer at British Timken.  Milner loved his IPA and always savoured and drank it in a half-pint nonic glass!  I don’t remember him drinking anything else.

   

In its heyday Phipps provided employment and nourishment, consistently demonstrating brewing excellence thus setting standards for others to benchmark.  Its loyal following extended from the Midlands to the coast of East Anglia and their products quenched the thirsts of holidaymakers from Grimsby to Clacton on Sea.  Its beers fuelled elation and also drowned the sorrows of spectators at the County Ground, Franklins Gardens and cheered revellers at the Salon Ballroom.  Phipps IPA was especially welcomed by troops in India and other Colonies and its beers followed armies in two world wars and greeted them home again. My association with Phipps ended when I was called up for National Service in the RAF in 1956 and I soon realized how good my training had been because I was singled out for challenging tasks beyond my trade description.  If I had served a graduate apprenticeship at the renowned B.T.H Company Rugby, I wouldn’t have received a better start to my career. Regards Tom

We often went to Kettering where real ale was obtainable easily. Cross's Brewery in Lower St. had been taken over around 1938 by Marstons so their five houses, including the Three Cranes at Cransley and the Lilacs at Isham (where the towel never went up whilst Sandy was the landlord - just locked the door and closed the curtains!) still shone ! This was the closest Marstons got to Northampton. Also the George Hotel at Kettering had the wonderfully smooth Bass on draught - almost unbeatable as it was Bass and Marston's Pedigree that were the only beers produced using the Union System. Wells was obtainable at Wellingborough in 3 pubs but that was the sum total there (Prince of Wales, The Star and the one in Mill Road). When Wells tried to force the landlord of the Star to go to fizz he bought his own handpumps, had adaptors made for the new casks and carried on selling real ale - as he'd gone to so much trouble we made certain we supported him.

I was weaned on Phipps IPA and was really annoyed when it was replaced by the ghastly Red Barrel and Starlight, "girl guides water" as it was described at the time. I tried the Starlight and, having had my throat scorched by gas, said to my landlord at the Royal Oak in Cogenhoe “I’m sorry John, I can’t drink this”. It was over ten years before I set foot in my local again.

At one time Northampton was a real ale desert until the Saddlers Arms in Bridge St. came on again with their "Traditional” again and the Garibaldi in Bailiff St. came on with M&B. I vividly recall crossing Bridge Street having had a few Davenports Traditional and wandered down Angel Street - and couldn't feel the road at all !

Real Ale almost disappeared around Northampton but we eventually won the fight and now its available in most pubs. Lets hope the new Phipps IPA lives up to the pre-1968 original, I still have my NBC-starred pot so I'm all ready.

All best wishes and Good luck. Ian Lyman

Many moons ago I worked for Phipps NBC in the newly formed managed house department

In the Watney days, the gods were in London and the ghosts in Northampton.  One day out of the blue a large box arrived in our office which turned out to be a safe. I thought to myself what in G's name is going on as we had neither money nor documents anywhere near us. Some few days later a packet of white gloves arrived, we thought the ghosts had gone quite mad. Then came another box. On opening it we saw it was a calculator, the first in the offices costing more than a rep's Ford Anglia car (an Anita)  So rare nobody was allowed to use it for a least a year, far too precious for us mere mortals.

In 1970 we were all called together for the purpose of meeting God. I had to have 7 pubs painted on the road side between the station and the brewery, new signs, flowers and everything so we looked smart!  No thought to the budget, cut down elsewhere, no thought to roofs, central heating, hot and cold water or inside loos. We were the rich department! The meeting was to tell us the Northampton site of 35 acres or so was no longer valuable to the company. From a transport view point it was better to pour money into Dryborough's, Brighton and Wilsons. (that was an island site) and Norwich than to redevelop Northampton. At this point I decided life in Northamptonshire was not for me. Carlsberg arrived and effect was to smash up Phipps NBC, rather like Northamptonshire skittles.

Regards  
Howard Sumner-Fergusson
Le Pech
Saux 46800
Lot, France

John Clipston wrote:

I was an employee of Phipps & Co on leaving National Service in 1954 as an office junior. I worked in all departments until finally being Brewery Clerk in charge of Customs & Excise. I then transferred to Carlsberg in 1973 part time but still worked for Grand Metropolitan which part owned the new brewery on Bridge Street

I was a Phipps man and I always thought their beers were better than NBC. The head brewer then was Mr. Milner, up the road at NBC was Mr. Miller. When we merged in 1957 they both became joint head brewers and some of the brews were merged too. NBC had Jumbo Stout and Phipps had Ratliffe’s which was sweeter and smoother. I remember them knocking a hole in the wall between us and NBC, we called it the tunnel of love. There was also a pipe-line built to get water from our wells to the North brewery.

The best beer we brewed was Phipps IPA and I never understood why we dropped that in favour of the Watney and Manns alternatives, economics I suppose. Back then we had our own Coopers shop for the wooden barrels but that was done away with and by the late 60s, everything came out in metal barrels. It wasn’t just bitter beer we brewed, we had our own Stein lager before Carlsberg. They put a great big dinosaur on the roof of the brewery to advertise Stein, I don’t know what the connection was but it caught the eye.

Watney Mann trained me up to be a beer taster, I went on a 3 day course in London. We tasted for strength and had a scale of -1 to +2. If a brew was too strong we’d add cutting Liquor to get the gravity down.

Although I was in the office, during the big strike in 1969, it was all hands to the pump and I got to pitch in at the brew house and shoveled out the mash tuns after brewing. The union convener at this time was Bill Morris, now Sir Bill.

Not long after this we heard that the brewery would close. Milner had retired and  Miller moved on so Bill Urquhart was the head brewer then with Guy Phipps-Walker taking over as Chairman, he was a real gentleman.

Some of the younger brewery workers transferred to Carlsberg in 1972-73 but a lot of the older men stayed on to the end helped by some younger fixed term contract workers. By this time I had moved over to Carlsberg but I recognise many of the faces in the last day's brewing picture; John Welsh, a brewer and John Hensman the chief engineer, and still stay in touch with some; Roger Wright from the brew house, the only man to blow up a yeast press, and Mick Leatherland, the sugarman who once left a valve open filling the floor with sugar and the building with wasps,

These days I’m still active in the bowling world and I go to annual Carlsberg reunions.

                                          John and Susan Clipston today                                     John with other Phipps men on a tour of Guiness, Dublin

                                                                                                          

Peter Mauldon wrote:

I was employed as 3rd Brewer at Phipps South Brewery in 1966 and was perhaps the only brewer in those days who managed to gain acceptance in the sample rooms of both the North & South Breweries. This was nothing to do with my personality, it was just that I was accepted as an outsider and knew no better. The relationship at that time between the two breweries can only be described (in the nicest possible way) as feudal!  I remained at the brewery until 1973 when I moved to brew in London. I was fortunate to spend 7 happy years in Northampton at Phipps NBC.

On Bill Urquhart's St. Helena adventure, I was the idiot back in the UK who on receipt of a telex (No telephone, fax, or internet) had to find second hand brewing plant from somewhere then get it shipped via Bristol to St Helena together with instructions on how I thought it might be assembled. The real problem was that the ship in question (The St Helena who I think still does this job) used to leave Bristol at six week intervals, thus mistakes were unforgiveable. Having got the brewery up and running Bill went back a year or two later and set up a bottling line. It has since closed down and in all probability now rests at the bottom of the Atlantic.

A bit about Phipps IPA. This was a cask conditioned bitter with an enormous following, and you would have described it as a drinkable beer!  Whilst I was at Phipps I used to return in the winter months to my rural Suffolk  to go shooting, I was also in receipt of a company beer allowance which I took with me, the custom being that all members brought along some beer which went into a community pot. Invariably the Phipps IPA was finished first. Particularly interesting as all the drinkers except me were out of the Phipps area.

I don’t remember any particular oddities but what I do remember and which I think was significant, was the use of a liquor (water) that came from a deep bore hole at the top of Victotia Promenade somewhere near to Northampton General. The peculiar point about this water was that you don’t get very good hop utilization, thus you have to use more hops per given barrel brewed.  On the other side of the coin the beer drinks in a softer manner which may well have been its secret.

As to the water from Victoria Promenade, I’m sure Carlsberg did not come to Northampton because of the water. Water quality in terms of its salts content is a vital element in the brewing of any beer, just alter Calcium, Sodium, Sulphate, Chloride, Nitrate etc level in the brewing water and the flavour will be changed. On the other side of the coin it is easy and cheap to demineralise any water and add back those salts that are desirable for any particular beer.

I must congratulate you on the website I’ve spent an hour browsing this morning and its brought back some happy memories. I don’t think I have any memorabilia, I only have some pleasant memories.

Trevor Davies wrote: 

I was brought up in Little Brington and my father had a regular delivery of Phipps IPA. All these years later we have 7 or 8 crates in good condition. We plan to use most of them in our kitchen. One crate we have out is Oct 63 but there are several others..

I imagine he would have had them delivered from the Saracens Head (still in Brington) as I don't recall the brewery delivering, he was just a private customer. What came next? Horrors, there was a red barrel thing with a pressurised dispenser from Watney's I presume.

Well, it is certainly good to hear that Phipps is going to be available again, good luck in your re-launch. I now live near Hook Norton and I expect you know their beer. Somehow they came through without being taken over by anyone: I suspect because no one knew they were there. If you haven't done the HN brewery tour, I can recommend it.

Hi, I had my first pint of Phipps IPA in the Admiral Hornblower on Sunday. OUTSTANDING!!! Is all I can say. Manythanks for reviving this superb beer.

Regards Paul Nichols, 11-08-09

           

Andrew Stretton wrote: Just thought this may be of interest. I bought this crate at a car boot sale in Hampshire for storing my albums in. It is in very good condition, I googled the name and found your superb site.

The Barleycorn trip boat tied up by the brewery wharf, decked out in Phipps Brewery livery. Sent in by Jim Payler