Stotfold Brewery

At the time of the 1846 tithe map, the site of the eventual Stotfold Brewery was used as a farm, owned by Catherine Wilkinson and occupied by Samuel Bowman who continued to occupy the property until his death in September 1873.

The buildings were converted into a brewery and the farmhouse used as a brewery. In the 1877 Commercial Directory, George and John George Flitton were listed as brewers. In the 1881 census under Rook Tree Road, George is living with his wife, three daughters and three sons (plus one servant) at the Brewery House. By 1885 George is listed as being a brewer on his own. By 1894 he had died and his executors ran the Stotfold Brewery.

By 1906 George’s sons, Thomas and Frank, were running it under the name Flitton Bros. The two brothers were also acting as Insurance Agents. They continued in partnership until at least 1914. By 1920 it appears that only George was involved in the business, he continued until at least 1940. It is probable that the brewery was sold off after the Second World War.

In 1946 Rupert Donald Kitchener was listed in the Register of Electors as living at the Brewery. In 1948 Rupert was at the brewery, neither him now the site are mentioned in the 1949 Register of Electors. The site was still marked as a brewery on the 1960 6” Ordnance Survey map with Rooktree House next door.

The brewery seems to have had no public houses of their own and relied on Free House business.

List of sources at Bedfordshire Archives: 

• WB/Flitt4/3/2: Correspondence regarding Whitbread takeover of Flittons Brewery Limited, 1949
• CRT130/Sto8: Notes on Stotfold Brewery