Joules Brewery, Stone

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No 5 - Joules Brewery, Stone

Offices of Joules Stone Brewery, High Street, Stone

photo: © Staffordshire County Records Office - Staffordshire Past Tracks

"Francis Joule came into possession of the White House Inn and brewhouse at Stone in 1758. Nine years later he demolished the inn and built a house, which later became the home of the head brewer. In 1780 he established a public brewery, to supply its own premises and other public houses. To expand production land was bought in the High Street.

Francis' son, John, took over the company in 1813 and the brewery was named John Joule and Son. In 1873 Joules was sold to three brewers from Liverpool - John Parrington, Thomas Harding and John Harding.

Joule's thrived throughout the second half of the nineteenth century. Local deliveries were made by dray and the company owned forty shire horses and twenty drays. The Trent and Mersey Canal which passed behind the Newcastle Street Ales Stores enabled transport to other parts of the country, and exports to America and Europe left from the docks of Liverpool and Hull respectively. Transport by barge eventually gave way to railway and from the 1920s drays were replaced by lorries.

Joule's was taken over by Bass Charrington in 1970, but production ceased four years later."

Staffordshire Past Tracks

""And by Joules it's good"—so hails that once familiar advertising slogan. Surely the many generations who have had the pleasure of enjoying such distinctive and celebrated ales as "Royal" and "Stone" will all agree.

The vital water, drawn from their own inexhaustible well, has supplied the needs of the brewery for more than 200 years. It is said that water from the site has been used for brewing since the earliest settlement days.

I am told that an apparition of a monk frequents the premises during the early hours and some nightworkers have experienced very strange happenings, especially the mysterious tolling of a bell. It appears that the monk is still going about his duties as he would have done in the distant past when the land was occupied by some monastic order.

Currently the brewery is experiencing that all-too-familiar programme of phasing-out, although a Joules Bitter and Dash Mild are still brewed."

Neville Malkin 24th April 1974

Joules produced Stone Ales for the home market and for export to Europe and America from their Crown Street and Joules' Brewery. This site is now the Somerfield supermarket car park.

The Trent and Mersey canal played a great part in the export of Beer. Joules once owned a pair of boats that delivered coal to the brewery and as late as the 1950s had the telephone number ‘Stone 1’. The Joules bottle store remains an imposing building on the canal and can be clearly identified by the red cross logo of John Joules in the brickwork.

There was also another brewery in Stone - in 1902 Thomas Montgomery's brewery on Mount Road in Stone was purchased by Bent's Brewery of Newcastle-under-Lyme.

Francis Joule

Portrait of Francis Joule, member of the Joule brewing family of Stone. Born Youlgreave, Derbyshire, 21 Feb 1755. Married Sarah Hill of Bolsover, Derbyshire at Youlgreave Church, 15 Feb 1779. Died Park House, Ashley, Staffordshire 21 Feb 1837.

picture: County Museum, Shugborough - Staffordshire Past Tracks

A hanging sign from the Green Man public house, Hixon.
The red cross was the trade mark of Joule's brewery of Stone.

"Joules celebrated Stone Ales. Established 1780. Brewery, Stone, Staffs."