The Brewery

The Brewery. . A brewery operated on this site between 1881 and 2003. It was run by Eldridge Pope and Co. and brewed ales such as Huntsman's Ales, Royal Oak and Thomas Hardy's Ale., Dorchester had a long tradition of fine brewing. In Dorsetshire, published in 1720, Thomas Cox wrote that "Since by the French Wars, the coming of French wine is prohibited, the people here have learned to brew the finest liquors in the kingdom, so delicately clean and well tasted that the best judges not only prefer it to the ales most in vogue as Hull, Derby and Burton, but look upon it to be little inferior to common wine.", The brewery was founded by Charles and Sarah Eldridge at the Green Dragon tavern in Durgate Street, Sarah ran the brewery while Charles was a wine and spirit merchant. Sarah was a shrewd businesswoman who continued to run the business after Charles' death., After Sarah's death and the retirement of her business partner Alfred Mason, the brewery was bought by the Popes, a local family of landowners and lawyers., Eldridge, Pope and Co. grew from one of several small Dorchester breweries to be one the town's largest employers., The brewery site is being developed as Brewery Square with housing, leisure and shops. Dorchester has always had imaginative architecture, although it hasn't always preserved it. The photograph shows the fantastic art deco building that was Thurman's shop in South Street. The frontage was tiled in blue and black, with an electrically lit globe and flagpost on the roof. It was built in 1932 and demolished after World War II.