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Regional brewery in England

Thwaites Brewery is a regional brewery founded in 1807 by Daniel Thwaites in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, now located near Mellor in the Ribble Valley. Part of the company was sold to Marston's in 2015, and the original brewery was demolished in 2019. Thwaites still produces beer on a smaller scale. In 1999, the Mitchell Brewery in Lancaster closed down and was bought in part by Thwaites. Lancaster Bomber, an ale named in honour of the Avro Lancaster, has since been available from Thwaites public houses after being acquired in the takeover and is now brewed by Marston's, as is Wainwright, another Thwaites beer. The company has over 270 pubs, mainly in the North of England. The brewery invested heavily in nitrokeg beers in the 1990s, but is now working to increase the market for its cask beers. Thwaites unveiled their new craft brewery in 2011.

Born in 1777, Daniel Thwaites first began brewing in Blackburn, Lancashire in 1807 when he joined the 'Eanam Brewery' in partnership with local businessmen, Edward Duckworth and William Clayton. At the age of 31, Daniel married Edward's daughter Betty, who later inherited her father's share of the company following his death in 1822. The Brewery became the sole property of 'Thwaites' in 1824, when William Clayton sold his remaining share of the company to Daniel. In 2017, Thwaites was granted planning permission to build a new brewery, stables and head office in Mellor, around 5 miles from its current location in Blackburn.

The sound that was continuously heard in Blackburn throughout the 19th century was the clattering of horses hooves along the cobbled streets. The majority of these were work horses. Stable lads would lead the Thwaites horses out of the stables in Syke Street, across the road (until the end of the 19th century when the stables moved to the brewery site) and into the brewery yard where they waited patiently for their carts and drays to be loaded with the day's deliveries. These 'gentle giants' were to become a familiar sight in Blackburn for many years. In the 1920s however, most breweries decided to put their shire horses 'out to grass' and switch to motor transport. In 1927, the last of the Thwaites shire horses were led out of the brewery for the last time. By the 1950s the shire horse had practically ceased to exist. But in 1957 an enterprising young manager called David Kay of Thwaites' soft drinks department wanted to bring the Shire dray horses back. Two years later, in 1959, he got his wish and was allowed to introduce two dray horses to the brewery's local route. He was convinced that the dray horses would not only attract good publicity for Thwaites but would be financially advantageous against the backdrop of rising fuel costs. On May Day in 1960 the first two shire horses were led out of the new Thwaites stables. In 2016, Thwaites acquired a third horse that has been named Gunner to celebrate 13 Guns, a beer produced by the company.

2010 marked fifty years of the reintroduction of horse drawn deliveries after they ended in the 1920s. To celebrate the anniversary, a commemorative sculpture featuring three of the Shire horses in a unicorn configuration was commissioned. Thwaites started with ten public houses in 1807. Based at the Star Brewery in Blackburn, Thwaites now owns an estate of around 270 pubs, and a portfolio of inns and hotels and spas, which traded under the Shire Hotels banner until 2016 when they were brought under the Daniel Thwaites brand. The family tradition continues to this present day. Ann Yerburgh is chairman, son in law Richard Bailey is chief executive officer and Arabella Yerburgh is a Non Exec Director. In 2011 Thwaites announced plans to build a new brewery. At the end of 2011, Thwaites installed a new 200k craft brewery within the Star Brewery in Blackburn named 'Crafty Dan'. Featuring three new fermenters, Crafty Dan enables Thwaites to create up to three new beers a week as well as one off brews to mark special events. In 2016, as part of a drive to bring all parts of the business under a single brand, it was renamed Thwaites brewery. In January 2012, Thwaites agreed to purchase the free trade interests of Hydes Brewery. In January 2014, the company made national headlines. Thwaites' proposed closure of its Star Brewery and 60 brewing redundancies led to staff temporarily switching off the H, I and E in the company's brewery sign to spell "Twats". Thwaites' inability to select an alternative site for its brewery and to conclude a deal to sell its site to Sainsbury's received criticism from the local press and brewing industry. The Tandleman blog suggested that apart from the beers produced in the renowned Crafty Dan craft brewery, Thwaites would contract out production of its beers permanently to other breweries. This proved prescient; the core beers were contracted out to Marston's and the latter company bought the top two (Wainwright's and Lancaster Bomber) and the bulk of Thwaites' beer business in March 2015 for £25.1m. Marstons will continue to supply Thwaites pubs with beer under a long term contract whilst Thwaites will continue to produce although much reduced volumes for its own pubs by retaining its own microbrewery facility.

Thwaites produce a wide range of cask ales including the core range and limited edition Signature Ale range which was launched in 2011. 2012 saw the introduction of the Quarterly Favorites range featuring the four most popular beers from the 2011 Signature Ale range. In March 2015 Marston's bought all rights to Wainwright and Lancaster Bomber and a short term license to use the Thwaite's brand.