The Brewery Tavern

This pub was located at the junction of Brook Street and Paget Road, just to the rear of the former Cook's Shipyard.
Until 1900 it was known as 'The Brewer's Arms'

Behind it was the old brewery building which was built on wooden legs at the end of the pub car park that supplied the pub with beer. The brewery was an old wooden building with a peg tile roof. John Stewart has an old token which reads O.G. Green Wyvenhoe Brewery, 1 penny. Tokens were quite common and shipyard workers might receive these tokens as part of their wages.
The brewery building was demolished around 1965-6 and the Brewery Tavern closed in 1986, and was demolished some years later. The brewery beer was sold under the name of Wyvenhoe ales and stouts.

© John Stewart - Wivenhoe Memories Collection.

This list of names is from census returns and 1933 Kelly's Directory.
They are therefore the occupants, not necessarily the licensee or owner.

1841, 1851 & 1861: Not found
1871: Mary Heavens
1881: Charles Schofield
1891: Jonathan Anderson
1901 & 1911: Frederick A Brown
1933: Not listed
1965: Jack Cross

Brewery Tavern, Brook Street

Brewer: Truman. Licensing hours: 11-2.30, 6-10.30 (till 11 Friday and Saturday), Sunday 12-2, 7-10.30. Food: At the bar on request. Special drinks: Wine by the glass. Bus:Eastern National from Colchester 53, 77A, 78A, 153. Nearest station: Wivenhoe. Telephone: Wivenhoe 573.

Once there was a small brewery now there is just the tavern. You could hardly find a less prepossessing Victorian drink shop than this looks. It finds place here because it is a true individual pub, its character made by the quality of the drink it sells and by the man who keeps it. It was build about 1840; the old brewery building still mouldering behind is now used as a studio by the landlord. Local memory on when the brewery gave up is misty. It lies up a side street two minutes away from the quay. Wivenhoe has been a river port since Saxon times and building ships for at least 800 years: it still does.

Jack Cross, who runs the pub with his wife is a painter and teaches at a local school. Any time you go in you are liable to find an art show; when nnothing special is on there are his own abstract about the place. There is no need to try and understand them; but he is quite prepared to tell you what he thought he was doing when he painted them.

There is one small narrow bar which is called the bar/saloon, decorated in a variety of colours. It has a general air of cheerfulness and excitement. It seems always full of a mixed crowd of shipyard craftsmen, doctors, fishermen, sailing people, a painter or two, students, visitors from foreign parts. The beer comes up in good condition. You may ask for any exotic drink you fancy: Cross has his own version of Pimms with strange garnishings; or you may have a glass of Anjou, Bordeaus or Yugoslav Riesling. By the much used dart board is a chalk notice: 'Under 10, 1d. in the Oxfam box'.