Clinch & Co Brewery

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Clinch Brewery (1811 – 1961)

Clinchs Eagle Brewery, Witney

Contents 1 Witney, Oxfordshire, UK 2 Traded as William Clinch and Co from 1877-1950, then Clinch & Co 1950-1977 3 Eagle Brewery, Witney, Oxfordshire 4 References

[edit] Witney, Oxfordshire, UK

[edit] Traded as William Clinch and Co from 1877-1950, then Clinch & Co 1950-1977

[edit] Eagle Brewery, Witney, Oxfordshire

A Brief Family Business History

John Clinch (1754 – 1828) was a prominent Witney banker and landowner who, with his son James, purchased the Marlborough Head PH (Now ‘The Fleece’), at Church Green, Witney, in about 1811. James Clinch (1785-1857) founded the first Clinch Brewery at the Marlborough Head between 1811 and 1814.

James’ brother John Williams Clinch I (1788 – 1871) was also involved the enterprise. John Williams Clinch also assumed control of the family bank, JW Clinch and Sons, sometime around 1828. (Controlling interest in the bank was sold c1878 and the bank was later absorbed by Barclays Bank c1907).

The Clinch family had considerable land interests both in Witney and in the immediate area and during the 1830s demolished cottages on the west of Church Green to make room for a new Maltings building. Clinchs Eagle Maltings was built originally to malt barley for the Clinch Brewery. However, the Brewery moved to the new premises in about 1840.

John Williams I (JWI) appears to have assumed majority control of the brewing aspect of family affairs after his brother James death in 1857. The Brewing, banking, farming and landholdings of John Williams I represented a considerable sized family business in the Witney area.

John Williams Clinch II as a young man

The early death of JWI's eldest son John Williams Clinch II (1814-1861) led to the brewing business coming under the full control of brother William Clinch (1820 – 1891), the year before the death of his father JWI in 1871. (Though Courage records show that William established the brewery business entity at Eagle Maltings in 1840, possibly on behalf of his father)

Malcolm Bee, in his excellent Clinch and Company Brewers: An Oxfordshire Business History notes that the brewing business may have come under the control of William and his brother James Jr by 1867, after the discovery that John Williams I was found to be misappropriating funds from the family banking business. This incident was possibly related to the growing insanity of John Williams I, who is noted in the 1871 Census, a few months before his death, as being 'Imbecile through age'.

James Jr died in 1877 leaving William with the controlling interest.

William’s only son died young, so in 1883 William went into partnership with his sons in law Thomas William Foreshew and Bellingham Arthur Somerville. upon William's death in 1891, his brewery business interests passed to both sons in law.

In 1890, the Clinch partnership bought the Blanket Hall Brewery in Witney. This Brewery had been founded by Joseph Early and William Smith sometime after 1844. No less than 15 public houses were also purchased and the firm's foundations for survival into the 20th century laid.

According to probate records, at the time of William Clinch's death in 1891, his various holdings through family business interests in the Witney area represented between £5 and 10 million in 2007 values (depending on the measure applied). William has been described as having certain eccentricities and being 'casual' in his conduct of business, but this fortune represents the considerable business success of his later efforts, given the bank debts accrued in dubious circumstances by his father and the reported gambling debts of one of his brothers which he took responsibility for settling.

In 1892, a further restructure saw the business begin trading as 'Clinch and Co', with an initial share capital of 4,000 £10 shares divided equally between TW Foreshew and BA Somerville. The day to day business was conducted by Foreshew and a succession of salaried managers.

The fortunes of the business fluctuated widely over the succeeding years and were affected by rising costs, tied house expenses and a linkage between the business conditions of agriculture and brewing.

TW Foreshew died in 1927 during a period of financial uncertainty and profit warnings brought about due to agricultural readjustments in the post WWI years. He was succeeded by his son Thomas William Clinch Foreshew.

The rise in the importance of bottled beer during the late 1920s and 1930s stabilised business conditions and brought a measure of prosperity. The appointment of LB Clark as a brewer in 1937 stimulated sales further and many exhibitions prizes bore testimony to Clark's brewing skills.

Against this was set the poor structural condition of tied houses, the repair of which caused considerable financial difficulties for the business between 1937 and 1940.

The Second World war saw output restrictions and bomb damage to the maltings, but buildings controls averted the crippling cost of buildings repairs in the tied estate. From 1940 profits recovered steadily until an immediate post war boom led to a doubling of profits compared to the 1940 low.

At one time there were 71 pubs held by the Brewery. These were located between Oxford and Swindon and as far north as Birmingham. Also included were 14 pubs in Witney itself.

Clinch Brown Ale Label

Family interest in the brewery was ended with the retirement of TW Clinch Foreshew in 1945. He was followed by a manager who was appointed from a large northern brewery.

This manager, later Managing Director, managed the company well through the 1950s, but with the link between the founding family and the company broken, there was less incentive to remain independent. Economies of scale meant that Clinch and Co was vulnerable to a take-over from a larger company and in 1962 and offer from Courage was accepted. Courage’s were said to be interested in the tied estate and closed the brewery soon after. Clinch and Co went into voluntary liquidation in 1967, though the legal entity ‘Clinch and Co’ may have survived in Courage’s hands until 1977.

The Brewery lay more or less dormant until the site was bought by Paddy Glenny in the 1980s who opened ‘Eagle Brewery’ in the cellar of the original Clinchs Eagle Maltings.

In 1990, Eagle was renamed Wychwood Brewery.

Wychwood is now a successful brewing business, which is still based around the original Clinchs Eagle Maltings buildings.

Clinch and Co Brewery, Isle of Man (1863 – 1945)

John Williams Clinch III (1839 – 1905) missed inheriting the Witney brewing business because it passed to his uncle William Clinch upon the early death of his father (John Williams II) in 1861. At the time John Williams III was a Brewers Clerk at the brewery in Witney.

In 1863, he rented the Lake Brewery in Douglas Isle of Man, with this coming into his ownership in about 1868.

Clinch and Co, Lake Brewery was prominent in the latter part of the 19th century and enjoyed some success during the early half of the 20th century.

However in 1945, the company and brewery were absorbed by Castletown Brewery.

Sources

The Book of Witney (Gott 1994)

A Time of Manx Cheer (Crumplin and Rawcliffe 2002)

Various documents and original research by Craig Carey-Clinch (2007)

The wills of John Clinch (1828) & Probate of William Clinch (1891) (Family records office, London, UK)

UK National Archive. Ref Code: ACC/2305, Archive of Courage, Barclay and Simmonds

England and Wales Census 1841-1901

Clinch and Company Brewers: An Oxfordshire Business History (Bee, Malcolm 1996)

Clinchs Celtic Tavern, North Quay, Douglas, IOM

Wychwood Brewery, Witney, Oxfordshire, UK

[edit] References

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