What are the opening hours?

Monday 8am - 4:30pm Tuesday 8am - 4:30pm Wednesday 8am - 4:30pm Thursday 8am - 4:30pm Friday 8am - 4:30pm

Nottingham Brewery

The Nottingham Brewery is situated at the back of the Plough Inn in Radford, a suburb of Nottingham. Wm. Overall the site occupied 21,000 sq. ft.

The brewery was situated at 52/56 Mansfield Road, Nottingham where York House stood. The origins of the Brewery can be traced back to at least 1847 when James Long was listed as an East India and Pale Ale Brewer on the site. He sold the business in 1875 and after passing through several owners it was purchased in 1879 by Edward Wheeler Field. The brewery became a registered company in 1887 at whic

h time it was recorded as owning many public houses of which several are still standing. For example:-

Sun Inn at Gotham
Great Northern at Langley Mill
Sir Charles Napier on North Sherwood Street, Nottingham
Old Silk Mill in Derby
Vernon Hotel on Vernon Road in Basford
Highbury Vale in Bulwell
and, of course, The Plough in Radford
In 1887 it was decided to completely rebuild the premises to make it one of the best equipped in the country. Bradford of Carlton Chambers in London designed the handsome new building in a Grecian style. In 1900 the Wellow Brewery Company of Messrs. Lewis and Barker was aquired, along with 19 tied houses. This was located on Wellowgate in Grimsby and it continued to operate until it was closed in 1944.After this date the site appears to have operated as a depot for the company as indicated on a bottle label we have uncovered. Nottingham Brewery soon established itself as the City's main brewery, serving fine ales to local citizens from its expanding estate of public houses. It also gained world-wide acclaim for transporting its gold medal winning India Pale Ale to troops of the British Empire across the globe. Two brand names were used and became well known both inside the city and further afield, they were "Maltanop" and "Rock Ales". Nottingham is built on sandstone and beneath the city is honeycomb of caves. Indeed the early inhabitants of Nottingham, "the snots" (hence "Snottingham") originally inhabited these caves (The Caves of Nottingham tourist atraction in the Broad Marsh shopping centre provides more information and chance to explore some of the caves). Beneath the brewery immense sandstone cellars were used as an excellent storage location for beers as the temperature never rose above an ideal 56 degrees farenheit, this of course is where the name "Rock Ales" originated. When the Great Central railway was completed in the late 1890's it ran in a deep cutting behind the brewery into the new Victoria Station. In 1894 a long tunnel was built to enable the brewery to link their network of caves directly to their own sidings in the station. This facilitated the direct transfer of casks and crates of bottles onto rail waggons, placing Nottingham Brewery at the hub of the country's booming rail network and distributing their beers far and wide. The brewery continued to flourish through the first half of the twentieth century but was sadly sold to Tennant Brothers Ltd. of the Exchange Brewery, Sheffield in 1944 along with 150 pubs. Bottling ceased in 1948 and brewing in May 1952. On 15 June 1956 the Nottingham Brewery Company was formally wound up. The deed of conveyance and assignment to facilitate this lists all of the assets of Nottingham Brewery including details of all their pubs and this 29 page document can be viewed by clicking here

However soon after Tennants had closed the brewery it was bought by Whitbread who brewed their own brands there, the name "Mackeson" appearing on the brewery tower, until the site was sold to developers in 1960 and demolished. Ironically Tennants were swallowed up by Whitbread in 1962, although their Exchange Brewery on Bridge Street in Sheffield survived into the eighties. A concrete monstrosity of an office block now stands on the site, although the cellars beneath still remain. However the magnificent brewery tap "The Rose of England" is still standing, right next to York House. It was built in 1899 by the celebrated Nottingham architect Watson Fothergill. It replaced an earlier brewery tap, Filo da Puta, named after the 1815 St. Ledger winner which when translated means "son of a whore"! The 1960's marked the onset of the demise of the smaller regional breweries to make way for the bland keg products forced upon the populace by the marketing men of the mega brewers. But all things turn circle and Whitbread themselves became the target of a buy-out by an even bigger fish Interbrew of Belgium. This left the name and brands of the Nottingham Brewery available once again so local brewers Philip Darby and Niven Balfour saw the ideal chance to give the city its brewing name back and by delving deep intto the archives, have resurected some of the fine brews that gave Nottingham 'BEER TO BE PROUD OF'

A Business Improvement District for the retail sector in the city centre has recently been given the go ahead.

15/04/2026

Digging out the Mash tun is a right of passage every member of our team goes through !!

We’re very pleased to welcome David Hughes to the Silhill/Nottingham Brewery Team as our new Area Sales Manager for the East Midlands.

David previously worked with Grasshopper Brewery (_later becoming 52 Degrees Brewing_) and has a number of years of experience of sales in the brewing industry.

Residing in Nottingham David will be key in the development of our new Nottingham Brewery venture as well as introducing the Silhill brand into new regions.

David has already had a very busy start getting in touch with interested parties regarding our beer, but feel free to reach out to him directly if you’d like to discuss any of our beer brands in your establishment.

03/04/2026

We officially have our Dolphin Ale back thanks to our friends over at Nottingham Brewery
Come and give it a go tell us what you think! 🍻

24/03/2026

Coming to Villa Park to watch the Slater Cup ? Why not pop into the Silhill Brewery Tap Room and enjoy some amazing Silhill and Nottingham Beers.

28/02/2026

Returning for a second year with two days of beer, food and live entertainment

27/02/2026

25/02/2026

So 2 weeks ago the authentic Nottingham Brewery EPA and Legend were brewed to the original recipes by Darryl one of our old brewers. Beers should start arrive on bars in Nottingham this week.
Enjoy

18/02/2026

🍻 Supporting independent never tasted so good 🍻

Castle Beer Fest brings Nottingham’s breweries together for one brilliant weekend at the castle - What's not to love? 😍

🎟️ Tickets start from just £11 - https://www.gigantic.com/nottingham-independents-castle-beer-festival-tickets/nottingham-nottingham-castle/2026-04-24-17-00

Black Iris Brewery Blue Monkey Brewery Castle Rock Brewery The Grumpy Fish Brew Co Hollow Stone Brewing Co. Lenton Lane Brewery Lincoln Green Brewing Company Liquid Light Brewing Company Magpie Brewery Neon Raptor Brewing Co. Shipstone's Sneinton Cider Company Nottingham Castle

23/01/2026

We are delighted to announce that the long term future of Nottingham Brewery and its beers has been secured. Birmingham based independent Brewer Silhill Brewery Ltd have today completed the purchase of the assets of Nottingham Brewery Ltd to secure the future of the much loved brand and ensure the continued production of such great beers as EPA, Legend, Bullion and Rock alongside many others.

Mark Hitchcock, Director of Silhill Brewery who was born and raised in Nottingham said “We are thrilled to be able to bring Nottingham Brewery into the Silhill family. It’s a privilege to be able to step in and secure the future of the business and we are looking forward to being at the helm for the next chapter in Nottingham Brewery's history."

Silhill's Operations Director, Adam Stevenson, who is also originally from Nottingham, explained that “unfortunately, it’s just not financially viable to bring the original St Peter's Street brewery in Radford up to the required modern standards. So, as a temporary measure, production will initially be switched to Silhill's SALSA accredited brewery site in Aston, Birmingham. However, this will only be on a short term basis as we are fully committed to completing the £100k+ redevelopment and refurbishment of the new brewery and taproom site near Meadow Lane. Once completed, brewing of Nottingham Brewery Beer will be switched back to Nottingham.”

The purchase by Silhill has the full backing of the original founders, Niven Balfour, Peter and Philip Darby who commented "We are absolutely delighted that the future of the brewery and beers has been secured. Knowing and working alongside Silhill over the last few years, we are all confident that they were the right team to secure the brewery's future and we look forward to The Legend living on "

22/01/2026

Exciting news on the future of the brewery tomorrow

08/01/2026

Following a post on social media last night we felt we should make a comment.
For clarification the beer being sold by Magpie Brewery is not our beer and it saddens us greatly that they are trying to to pass it off as being the same.
We are in the process of licensing another local Nottingham Brewer to continue to brew our beer to the original recipes so we can all continue to enjoy our range of beers.
Keep a look out for the Original Nottingham Brewery EPA and don’t be hoodwinked by poor imitations