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Monument details
| HER Number: | TQ 76 NW 316 |
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| Type of record: | Monument |
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| Name: | Site of Troy Town brewery, Rochester |
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Summary
Brewery on Victoria Street, Rochester. Founded in 1750 by Henry Shepherd. Some of the brewery buildings are still standing but the maltings do not seem to have survived.
| Grid Reference: | TQ 7444 6812 |
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| Map Sheet: | TQ76NW |
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| Parish: | ROCHESTER & CHATHAM, MEDWAY, KENT |
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Monument Types
- BREWERY (Post Medieval to Modern - 1750 AD to 2007 AD?)
- MALTINGS (Demolished, Post Medieval - 1750 AD to 1750 AD)
Full description
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The Troy Town Brewery was founded in 1750 by Henry Shepherd. By 1870 Lewis Levy was trading from the brewery and by 1880 Woodhams & Co had taken it over. As a brewery it concentrated on domestic supply, i.e small kegs of weak ale to be consumed at home, rather than have many tied houses. It was one of the first firms in the Medway towns to adopt electric power. In 1918 it was acquired by Style & Winch.(1)
Some of the brewery buildings, notably the brewhouse, are still standing but the maltings do not seem to have survived.(2)
It is possible that maltings did not exist on this site as Woodhams and Levy owned maltings nearby at Free School Lane, Rochester, [see TQ 76 NW 292] and any reference to them also being maltsters may well refer to this location. {records at Strood archives} The brewery building on site is most certainly a replacement for the original brewery, supposed to have been decayed in Dicken's time [Great Expectations]. The extant building was most likely constructed in the late 1850s, the red brick window headings and door and gate headings contrasting with the stock brick walls just coming into fashion [it can be contrasted with Hulkes brewery building in Chatham High Street [TQ 76 NE 410]. It current state [2009] is largely intact, but gutted, and partly modified before being abandoned with work incomplete by a developer.
The brewery was closed on being acquired by Style and Winch, and latterly been used as a cash and carry warehouse under the style of Sentry Supplies.(3)
Jim Preston Personal Communication (Verbal communication). SKE13236.
Jim Preston Personal Communication (Verbal communication). Ske13236.
Archaeology South-East, 2007, An Archaeological Desk-Based Assessment of the former Troy Town Brewery, Victoria Street, Rochester, Kent (Unpublished document). SKE18069.
<1> Norman Barber (Brewery History Society 1994), A Century of British Brewers 1890-1990 (Bibliographic reference). SKE6449.
<2> N/A, Kent SMR Quarry Industries Survey (Chart). SKE6452.
<3> Jim Preston Personal Communication (Verbal communication). SKE13236.
Sources and further reading
| Cross-ref.
| Source description | | --- | Verbal communication: Jim Preston Personal Communication. |
| --- | Unpublished document: Archaeology South-East. 2007. An Archaeological Desk-Based Assessment of the former Troy Town Brewery, Victoria Street, Rochester, Kent. |
| <1> | Bibliographic reference: Norman Barber (Brewery History Society 1994). A Century of British Brewers 1890-1990. |
| <2> | Chart: N/A. Kent SMR Quarry Industries Survey. |
| <3> | Verbal communication: Jim Preston Personal Communication. |
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