Colchester brewing company bottles are found throughout East Anglia as they had many outlets through out Essex,Suffolk and Norfolk.
Most collectors will have seen the large "spread eagle" trade mark beer bottles in a variety of sizes that also include an acid etched version.I am often asked if there are any codds or ginger beers with the same trade mark but unfortunately the answer is no.
The companies history evolved when the Eye and Falcon breweries were merged to form the Norfolk and Suffolk brewery in 1886.In 1887 Messrs. C.Stopes and Sons of East hill,Colchester joined the partnership and the company then became known as the Colchester brewing company Limited.They then purchased the Halesworth brewery Co.Ltd in 1888 and had spread their distribution throughout East Anglia.
Under the above title the widely extended business formerly run by C.Stopes and sons (brewers and malsters)was then conducted.The brewery premises,at which the registered offices of the company were situated,covered a large area down East Hill,where they had a frontage of some 50 yards which extended back approx.250 yards with a total of some 12,500 square yards of premises.The brewery bulding was an imposing block of three stories built in red brick,relieved in white of the same material.
On either side of the large covered way upon entering the works were pillars bearing the dates 1828 and 1888 representing the dates of the first foundation and that of the new addition.It is noted that a Mr.John Hurnard was the original founder of the brewery in 1828,to whom Mr.Christopher Stopes was apprenticed as a miller at Kelvedon in Essex.Owing to the lack of work in the milling industry in England at that time, Mr.Hurnard travelled to America taking Christopher Stopes with him where they stayed in Wilmington.Following a short but highly profitable venture they were able to return to England to establish the brewery in the year following.The buiseness became known as the eagle brewery and by around 1840 another brewer later to be known as Nicholl (Charrington)Ltd had opened up next door.By 1850 Christopher Stopes had branched off on his own and was running a grocery and ginger beer shop in nearby East Street.In 1866,John Hurnard passed away and it appears his son passed up the opportunity to continue the family business for we found that by the late 1880s it was back in the hands of Christopher Stopes.By 1888 Christopher Stopes had passed away and his son Arthur was appointed to M.D of the newly formed Colchester brewing company.His brother Henry was the architect who designed the brewery building that still stands today.Arthur Stopes continued at the helm of the company into the twentieth century and also became the first Colchester resident to own a motor car.
A massive golden eagle surmounted the archway,and the designation of the "Eagle Brewery" is still given to the building as it stands today.On the foundation stone,of which can be viewed to the corner of the present building it is inscribed "This stone was laid May 12th 1888,by A.J.Newton,Director.F.Dupont,contractor and H.Stopes,architect."
The Colchester brewing company was taken over in 1925 by Ind Coope Ltd,however,the Colchester brewing company Ltd continued in business holding and leasing premises and properties until it was finally swallowed up by Ind Coope (South Wales Ltd.) in 1959 leaving behind a legacy of the famous pictorial eagle beers!