Worksop & Retford Brewery Co. Ltd Small Round Tin

Worksop & Retford Brewery Co. Ltd tin tray dating from 1959.

Foundation of the Prior Well Brewery Co.

The Prior Well Brewery Co. was established between Priorwell Road and Kilton Road in Worksop in 1861 by local timber merchant Joseph Garside & Alderson and Daniel Fossick Alderson. The brewery used water from the well associated with the Worksop Priory.
In 1881, Alderson died while duck shooting.

Smith & Nephew

Smith & Nephew owned the Cresswell Holme Brewery on Dock Road in Worksop, and the Old Brewery situated at Carolgate Bridge in East Retford.
The Old Brewery had been purchased from Hodgkinson & Co. in the 1870s.
In 1881 the partnership acquired the Southwell Brewery Company in Southwell.
Smith & Nephew owned 10 public houses.

Worksop & Retford Brewery Co. Ltd

The Company was registered in 1881 as the Worksop & Retford Brewery Co. Ltd to acquire the Prior Well Brewery Co. and Smith & Nephew.
After the amalgamation of the two firms all brewing was transferred to the Priorwell Brewery in Worksop.
The Old Brewery was initially retained, but was then sold to Birkett & Co. Ltd, chemical manure manufacturers, which traded there until 1926.
Smith & Nephew's trade mark was an oak tree surrounded by oak leaves. This was the emblem of Worksop town. The new Company combined the oak tree and a red iron cross similar to that of the brewer Thomas Salt & Co. Ltd of Burton-on-Trent.
The Company owned public houses in the counties of Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, and Yorkshire.
When Joseph Garside died in 1893, the Company was brewing a range of thirteen draught ales.
The Company gained a reputation for the quality of it ales and this was recognised when it won a second prize silver medal at the Brewers' Exhibitions in 1913 and 1914.

An Acquisition & Further Brewing Awards

In 1939 Worksop & Retford Breweries Ltd acquired the Old Albion Brewery on Eccleshall Road in Sheffield with 52 public houses.
Brewing ceased at the Old Albion Brewery in 1950 when the premises were sold to a firm of toolmakers.
'Priorwell' was registered as a trade mark in 1951.
Priorwell Prize Stout in a bottle, referred to as the 'Cream of Stouts', gained gold and silver medals in 1952 and 1954 at the Brewers' Exhibition.
Dundee nut brown bottled beer won a silver medal in 1954.
One of the Company's beers it brewed in winter was 'Strong Mild Ale' better known as 'Donovan', named after the sixth Duke of Portland, a local landowner's famous racehorse.
Donovan was awarded a diploma at the British Bottlers Institute Competition in 1955.
Don John, a pale coloured bottled beer, also won a gold medal in 1955.

Tennant Brothers Takeover

The Prior Well Brewery, with 192 public houses, was acquired by Tennant Brothers Ltd of Sheffield in 1959.
Brewing ceased at Worksop in 1960 and the brewery was demolished in 1962.
Tennants continued to brew Don John Ale at Sheffield until 1963.

The manufacturer's mark states - Reginald Corfield Ltd Lombard Road London. S.W.19. 598