Tadcaster Tower Brewery Co. Ltd Ceramic Jug

Tadcaster Tower Brewery Co. Ltd ceramic jug dating from the 1930s.

Hotham & Co.

The business and its brewery was founded on George Street in York in 1716 . The Company traded as Hotham & Co.
The Hotham family sold the firm to a consortium of local aristocrats in 1875, ushering in a period of expansion.
Hotham's owned 87 public houses.

The Tower Brewery

Lack of capacity and room for expansion at the George Street site, led to the construction of a new brewery in Tadcaster in 1882, which was named the Tower Brewery.
The Tower was 100 feet high and had eight floors. Unlike the other breweries in Tadcaster, the brewery had its own railway sidings, making the transportation of ingredients and supply of its beers to other towns and cities, including London, much easier.
The firm's offices remained in York.
The Company was registered as the Tadcaster Tower Brewery Co. Ltd with 108 public houses in 1894.
By 1904 the Company owned 356 freehold and leasehold public houses.

Takeovers & Mergers

Times became more difficult and by 1941 the Company was seeking a merger.
The Tower Brewery, with 247 tied houses, was acquired by Hammond's Bradford Brewery Co. Ltd in 1946.
In the same year the Company was renamed Hammond's United Breweries Ltd, then having merged with the Hope & Anchor Breweries Ltd of Sheffield, and John Jeffrey & Co. Ltd of Edinburgh, it was renamed Northern Breweries of Great Britain Ltd.
In 1962 the Company merged with Charrington & Co. Ltd becoming Charrington's United Breweries.
Construction of a new brewhouse began in 1965 and was completed in 1966.
When Charrington United Breweries Ltd merged with Bass, Mitchells & Butlers Ltd in 1967, the Tower Brewery became part of Bass Charrington Ltd.
In 2000, Bass Charrington Ltd was sold to Interbrew which was forced by the Competition Commission to sell the Tower Brewery to Coors.
Coors merged with Molson's brewery in Canada in 2005 becoming Molson Coors Brewing Co. (UK) Ltd.
Incredibly, despite all these mergers and takeovers, the Wetherby Road Tower Brewery is still brewing and is now named the Coors Tower Brewery, which is part of Molson Coors Brewing Co. (UK) Ltd.