Joshua Tetley is born – On this day – July 20th 1778

Picture Credit: Alf van Beem wikipedia creative commons.

Joshua Tetley is born

On July 20th 1778, Joshua Tetley was born in Armley, Leeds. He was brought up in a malting family and his grandfather was already a  wine merchant in the city. In 1822 Joshua founded the famous Tetley’s brewery in Leeds at Salem Place in Hunslet, buying the site of the original building for £400. He also acquired some “beer houses” to sell his products in. Joshua Tetley died in 1859, after building the largest brewery in the North of England at the time of his passing. His son took over the running of this highly successful business and by 1875 it was producing 171,500 barrels a year.

In 1931, their headquarters moved to its familiar location in Leeds city Centre and after several mergers became part of the biggest brewing conglomerate in the world. At its height in the 1960s, Tetley’s employed one thousand people. In 1998 it was taken over by Carlsberg and by 2011 Tetley’s brewery had closed down and demolished. The last barrel of beer was made on the 22nd February 2011, ending over two hundred years of brewing tradition in the heart of Leeds.