This web site updated 14th November 2011
Campaign to save the brewery Gary Timmins (CAMRA West Mid's Regional Director) and
I did an interview on the Carl Chinn Show on Radio WM on Sunday 20th June. I know
quite a few of you have heard it and it was well received. We hope to have started
the ball rolling to save the brewery.
A facebook site has been set up to ‘Save Highgate
Brewery’ which has around 1650 members, Friends of Highgate have been asked by its
author John Wilkes to take over leadership of the campaign which we are happy to
do. We have also set up our own Friends of Highgate facebook site which is being
hosted by young CAMRA member Paul Flint.
With the help of FoHB member Keith Watkins
who is also ‘Pubs Preservation Officer’ for Walsall CAMRA and Trevor Jones from Walsall
Civic Society, we hope to raise the listing of the brewery with English Heritage
from ‘grade 2’ to ‘grade 2 star’, offering extra protection from redevelopment.
At
the Friends of Highgate committee meeting, on 28th June, we decided to answer the
call to hold a public open meeting and here we are.
We hope to further raise public
awareness of the situation and discuss any options which may be open to save the
brewery.
Ideas so far
If the brewery cannot be sold as a going concern, we are exploring
the possibility of creating a Heritage Brewery Museum, with a limited brewing capacity
alongside a training facility for new brewers. We would hope to get English Heritage,
National Lottery and/or Local University funding to achieve this and made tentative
enquiries with Wolverhampton University.
Future of ‘Friends of Highgate Brewery’
Friends
of Highgate Brewery will continue to operate and our main aim is now to spearhead
the campaign to save the brewery. As such we have decided to suspend all non ring
fenced charity donations and use our assets as a fighting fund. Starting with the
cost of renting the hall tonight which is nearly £400 plus £300 deposit so please
don’t break any thing and all contributions in the buckets around you will be gratefully
received.
Hand you now to our first guest speaker Gary Timmins
Guest Speaker Gary Timmins
It’s
great to see so many here. Thanks to Steve Orford for organising this meeting. CAMRA
resources will be thrown behind this campaign; we have 10,500 members in the Midlands
Region and all will be asked to sign a petition. This petition will also be taken
to the Great British Beer Festival in London for all visitors to sign.
Guest Speaker
Keith Watkins
Our former MP Bruce George once said that few towns systematically
destroyed their past like Walsall had done. He was principally talking about the
destruction of Walsall High Street; if this had been saved, restored and used it
would have been one of the finest market High Streets in Britain. Highgate Brewery
does not quite fit that category but it is just as much a part of the town and is
woven deep into the social history of the area. Further more we are talking about
a working industrial building eminently capable of providing employment and making
a profit. I believe there is a sense in which buildings like this are not the sole
possession of those who hold the deeds to dispose of as they see fit. Highgate Brewery
has been a significant part of Walsall life for 112 years; its mild ale has made
it highly regarded and famous throughout the borough and beyond. As far as I am concerned
a building like this belongs as much to the community as to the deed holder. There
are two parallels here, not breweries but pubs. One is the Stag in Bloxwich that
was demolished a few years ago; at the time it was Walsall CAMRA Pub of the Year
and an almost listable thirties building, well patronised and providing employment
and much loved by the community, many of whom had grown up with it. It was a lovely
building in an area that, frankly, did not have a lot going for it. Due to the financial
aspirations of its owner and the weakness of the then Walsall Council, this building
and great pub was lost. Currently, there is the Bell in Willenhall Market Place,
empty for five years, totally neglected by its owner. Walsall council has now commendably
carried out the basic repairs that listing legislation allows and is pursuing other
avenues; as far as I know they are still chasing the owner, a Mr. Ghanshyam Patel
of Perton, for £2237 worth of repairs carried out last December. It seems that Mr.
Patel’s policy is one of willful destruction with the site cleared of the Bell worth
more than the Bell standing. The Stag and the Bell were loved and important buildings
whose owners were, and are, quite happy to exploit the community for their own profit.
It is all very well me saying that the community has a stake in buildings like these
pubs and Highgate Brewery but how does this translate into fact? One thing on the
public’s side is the fact that Highgate Brewery is Grade II listed. An application
to raise this to Grade II* has been submitted. Personally, I think this is too much
to hope for – only 4% of listed buildings qualify for this status. Nevertheless Grade
II listing does give good protection and anyway, it seems very unlikely that the
structure itself would not be preserved. What concerns us is the interior equipment.
Some parts of the interior equipment are mentioned in the Grade II listing; the listing
document notes that the interior retains original planning and many traditional brewing
vessels and equipment. Mentioned are the water tank, hot liquor tanks, malt hopper
with its original wooden spring, malt crusher, coppers, hop back, wort receiver,
paraflow and fermenting vessels. It seems the listing document does place importance
on Highgate as a brewery, not just as a building shell. If these pieces of equipment,
some of large size, have to be retained in situ it will seriously hamper conversion
to residential use. It should be noted, however, that permission to alter a listed
building could be applied for.
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