Details
STONE
651-1/0/10011 NEWCASTLE STREET
04-JUL-08 Former Ale Stores, Stables and Nos. 29
A and 29B
II
Former ale stores and stables. 1881 with early and late C20 additions, for the brewery John Joules & Sons.
MATERIALS: Red brick with dressings and decorative banding in contrasting Staffordshire blue brick, and tile roof coverings. Timber windows, some are early C21 replacements.
PLAN: Roughly rectangular plan bounded by Newcastle Road to the north and the Trent and Mersey Canal to the south. The stable building is located at the south east end of the site; to the east is an attached row of earlier cottages and to the west a former Canal Company warehouse which were both incorporated into the stable complex. At the west end of the site is a 1930s three bay addition and a shallow pitched extension of the 1960s.
EXTERIOR: The buildings present a handsome street frontage to Newcastle Street, united by a cill band along the length of the stable building which becomes a plat band to the ground floor of the former ale stores; there is also a first floor plat band. The north elevation of the stables has a symmetrical arrangement of twelve small windows, set high in the wall, with surrounds of alternating red and blue brick. Every third window (four in all) has been altered to create a larger opening. Above is a deep moulded eaves cornice. There are four evenly spaced ventilating cupolas rising from the slope of the roof, each topped with a wrought iron finial displaying the red cross of Joule's Brewery, and the apex of the roof has a louvered clerestory. To the right is the former Canal Company warehouse which was extended in the late C19 to create a uniform façade to Newcastle Street. It also has two high windows, now blocked, with a blocked doorway below. At first floor the former taking-in door has been replaced by a timber window and the hood for a hoist survives in the gable apex. There are five bays to the ale stores with small grilled camber-headed openings at basement height, large openings (most with roller shutters) to the ground floor and pairs of windows above, linked by a plat band. Bay three has a large opening that rises to first floor with a lintel inscribed `JOHN JOULE & SONS, 1881, STORE AND ALE STORE'. In the upper gable of each bay is a roundel and a red cross in the brickwork above. As with the cupolas to the stables, there is a decorative finial to the apex of each gable.
The canalside elevation of the ale stores is similar to the roadside façade both in its window openings and its decorative treatment. Small grilled openings with cambered heads light the basement and there is a canalside loading bay with taking-in doors to the central bay. There is painted lettering to bays two, three and four that reads: `Joule's STONE ALES'. To the right is a brick-built chimney, sited against the south gable end of the former canal warehouse, its corners built in contrasting blue brick. The upper part was rebuilt in the late C20. The south side of the stable building is obscured by a mid-C20 flat-roofed extension that is not of special interest, but it has the same roof cupolas as the north elevation. The entrance (west) front to the stables opens onto a courtyard and is dominated by the large opening of the central bay, flanked by full height pilasters of red and blue brick. The brand identity of the brewery is evident in the tile hanging (restored) of the gable and on the corbels carrying the lintel. A later opening with a concrete lintel has been inserted to the left of the entrance.
INTERIOR: The stables comprise a large single spanned central bay that provides access to the flanking stable ranges. There are window and door openings, each flanked by full height pilasters, in the side walls of the stable ranges, though many are now blocked. At first floor are circular openings to the haylofts. The roof structure consists of collar and tie beam trusses with angled V struts and metal tie rods. A king post rises from the collar to support the clerestory. Internally, despite the loss of individual stalls, the stables retain chamfered ceiling beams and timber cladding to the ceiling. The haylofts occupy narrow spaces in the eaves above the stable ranges and have openings in the floor to the stables below. At the rear of the stable building is the former canal warehouse, and a stone staircase leads to the first floor which provides access to the haylofts. The floors of the adjacent ale stores are supported on cast-iron columns that rise through the building and, although the first floor has been removed throughout, the principal beams remain. In the early 1950s the stanchions, brick piers and foundations were strengthened, additional columns introduced, and the principal beams spliced and thin steel beams inserted within them, to increase the floor loading. The roof is carried on collared trusses, with queen struts to the roof of the central bay, double rows of purlins and is strengthened with tie rods.
SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: The row of former cottages adjacent to the stables was converted to a farrier's workshop and possibly offices in the late-C19. They were renovated in the late C20 or early C21, lack any internal historic fabric, and now provide office accommodation. They are principally of interest for their contribution to the street frontage and the interior lacks special interest. The 1930s three bay addition at the east end of the ale stores was built as a bottling store, with an engine room, fitter's shop and store to the rear. It lacks the decorative treatment of the late-C19 buildings, except for a moulded cill band to the ground floor. Internally the floors are supported on steel columns and the roof is of steel truss construction. Both the basement and ground floor link through to the former ale stores, but the first floor has been refurbished and is currently office accommodation. The building provides evidence for the continuing development of the site and contributes to the townscape value of the roadside frontage, but is of lesser interest than the earlier buildings. The shallow pitched extension of the 1960s is not of special interest.
HISTORY: Brewing prospered in Stone, a small market town, from the C18. The most notable brewer was John Joule who brewed beer in the town from 1758. The business thrived during the second half of the C19, its most famous product being `Stone Ale' whose name was copyrighted in 1888. The brand identity of John Joule and Sons was a red cross which was displayed on a green background from the late C19 to avoid confusion with the Red Cross Agency and the British Red Cross Society. In 1881 the ale stores and large stable building were constructed alongside the Trent and Mersey Canal on the site of the Canal Company warehouse. This location enabled the brewery to transport their ale more easily to other parts of the country, including Liverpool and Harwich for export to America and Europe respectively, reflecting the continuing importance of canals for the distribution of goods during the late C19 and into the early C20. The stable building provided accommodation for the company's forty horses and twenty drays, and continued to be used for local deliveries until the introduction of lorries in the C20.
The complex was expanded westwards with additions in the 1930s and the 1960s and in 1968 the London brewers Charrington & Co. purchased a fifty per cent share in the company. The remaining shares were purchased in 1970 and brewing continued until the brewery closed in 1974.
REASON FOR DECISION: The former ale stores and stables of Joule's Brewery are designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* A most distinctive late-C19 brewery-related complex that forms a coherent ensemble of attached buildings which also share common external architectural detailing.
* Their design is above the purely functional with finely detailed decorative treatment to the principal elevations including contrasting brickwork and a wealth of features pertaining to the company's brand identity: the red cross
* Imposing and highly prominent buildings strategically located alongside the Trent and Mersey Canal and which have considerable townscape value
* Very interesting, and now rare, example of a late Victorian industrial stable building, indicating the importance of horse transport in the C19
SOURCES: P.A. Talbots, `John Joules and Sons of Stone, Staffordshire', (2000) Journal of the Brewery History Society, No. 100 Summer, pp 44-50
Plans relating to alterations at Joules Brewery, Stone (1952), Staffordshire Record Office, 5243/10
Stone: Ales Stores, J. Joule and Sons Brewery (1966), Staffordshire Record Office, C/P/65/6/1/78
Photographs of Stone (1968), Staffordshire Record Office, D/1502/13/51
http://www.search.staffspasttrack.org.uk
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