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Best Brewery Chatham

 

Best of Chatham, run by Thomas Best from 1666 till his death, received regular commissions for beer from the Admiralty. Between 1707 and 1710 Thomas Best was involved in fraud totalling 3450 barrels of beer. Another Chatham brewer by the name of Tyhurst was also involved in fraud at the same time. Best was still trading with the navy  until 1749 when their own brewery could keep up with demand.

On the 21st October 1724, Thomas Best was one of the seven persons responsible for managing and carrying forward to purchase land and building of a workhouse for employing the poor of the parish. Thomas Best and his son Mawdestly Best,were trustees of the Gregorys charity in 1730, supplying food and shelter for the poor and homeless.

In 1754 Best’s distributed beer to 95 pubs in the Medway and Sheerness area, 46 being in Chatham. One of their pubs “Sunne in the Wood” Brompton had a turnover of £180 p.a in 1753 and “Crispin and Crispinus” Strood, £120 p.a.

Best Pubs

Kings Arms and The Angel, Rochester and The Jolly Sailor, Chatham.

The Bests were undoubtedly the biggest of Chatham breweries with an output of 15,000 barrels in 1755, increasing to 23,000 barrels in 1772. Their success was probably due to James Best’s interest in the latest techniques of brewing Porter, about which he corresponded with top London brewers. Best was probably the first brewer in Medway to use a thermometer.

Inventories of the firm dating from 1754 and 1763 show that between these dates, several important items of equipment  were introduced to keep pace with expanding production.

The first of these inventories shows that six pumps were owned by the company (variously named”Worst pumps”, “Jigger pumps”, ” “Copper pumps” and “Hand pumps”) While the latter inventorys  reveals the number of pumps to have increased to eleven (including a “Force liquer pump”, “Wooden pump” and several “Cleansing pumps”)  As further evidence of the expansion of the company during this period. James Best had increased the size of his business property, the lease of a storehouse at Sun Quay being taken on in 1775, while a Malt House, Mill House and Stable were added four years later.In 1772 it is recorded, the company used 23,000 barrels of malt and hops, with suppliers including Mitchells of Gillingham and William Finch of Rainham.

By 1782 Best decided to enter the export market. There was demand for beer in the West Indies and the accessible market due to cheap freights, as many ships sailed outward bouind with just ballast aboard. Other markets were Cork,Dublin and Waterford Ireland, However the venture did not succeed and was wound up in 1786 after only two trips to Ireland,Madeira and Antigua. The company instead proceeded to tied houses and by 1793 Best had acquired 65 freehold and 16 leasehold houses, some as far away as Gravesend and Sheerness . The attempt to secure outlets for beer was a process going on nationally with half of all houses being tied by 1800.

Rome or Room House was rebuilt in 1727 and became the property of the Best family. Originally a spacious mansion erected in the Paddock in 1615, as the residence of Mr. John Leggatt, and faced the thoroughfare known as Room(Rome) Lane.  It was here with Mr Leggatt that Prince Henry, the son of James I, dined on the occasion of his inspection of the Dockyard.

After the Best family left Rome House it became a High School, which became long associate’s with the names of Walter and Edwin Wanstall, the respected principles. The house was demolished in 1882, when the most interesting parts were used at the residence of Mr. Humphrey Wood in the High Street. Cambridge Terrace now occupies the site of the old Rome House. Colonel Best purchased the Manor rights and title from the Spratt family and in 1742 James Best built a Mansion in the High Street, known as Chatham House, with the Brewery attached.

best brewery

The Mansion in the High Street { said to have been designed by Inigo Jones} was intended to have served as a family inheritance. A cleverly wrought device containing the letters BEST was to be seen in the iron railings at the front of the principal  entrance. A very interesting inscription, about five feet in length  and referred to  in a document State Record Office,”AE DII MDCCXXXXII,” was discovered in 1893 at the back of the house, under the parapet, which after careful cleaning by one of the workmen, revealed the date of erection as 1742, and probably the origin of some  family connection in the year 1240.

There was also a very old memorial stone of granite which originally bore the arms of one of the Earls of Kent, which I should judge, had been taken from his estate. Unfortunately it had been roughly used, and had been defaced too much to trace the name of the family, and no one appears to have a record of it. When Major Best moved to Boxley, this now historic mansion and Brewery came into possession of Edward Winch and Sons, who used the whole for business purposes.

On the side of the house looking towards Rochester and near the roof was a stone that bore an inscription, but became merely an interesting relic of the two great fires of 1800 and 1820, that destroyed a large portion of the town. By the action of the fire and water, this large block of sandstone had been split up into a network of many fragments. It presents a curious map like appearance as seen from the ground, and the inscription had almost entirely disappeared.

The whole of these premises were demolished in 1902 for the widening of the High street and opening of Manor Road. When removing the foundation a brass plate was found, measuring eight inches by seven, with the inscription :-chatham house brass plateIn the two great fires the devastated area was much the same, extending from the Brewery on the east to Hammond Hill ( then known as Heavy side Lane) on the west, and from the present New Road to the river. In 1800, ninety-five dwellings and warehouses (chiefly wood) were burnt; in 1820, fifty-three more substantial dwellings and thirteen warehouses were destroyed. On both occasions Chatham House was burnt,  and in 1820 nothing was left save the very thick solid walls.

30th June 1800

In the great fire of Chatham, the Brewery and house Known as Chatham House were amongst a large number of properties destroyed.

One of the four persons to lose their lives was William Bassett, a servant to the Best family, he went back into his burning house to save some money and the house collapsed and he was buried under the ruins.
Indentures of lease and release of 8th and 9th of November 1810, describe this estate, bequeathed under the will of James Best(1779) as ” Formerly an orchard, by estimation 3 acres, meadow or pasture land, formerly a cherry orchard called Samsons”.

It was laid out for building and several streets have been formed thereon and called or known as Richard Street, James Street, Best Street, Rhode Street and Clover Street, with the exception of the latter all were named after members of the Best family.
3rd March, 1820.
The second great fire of Chatham, extended from Brewery House to Hammond Hill. After the fire James Best moved to Rome House.
3rd September, 1864.
Chatham local board of health purchased Sun Pier from the devisees of the trust of James Best, Esq. (Deceased) for the sum of £1500.
Local Government sessions were regularly attended in the 1760s and 70s, and among the few who were neither a squire nor a person was James Best, Brewer who later became a printer and book seller.
From their success and wealth the Best Family Brewers from Chatham bought country estate, Boxley Abbey and formed an alliance by marriage with the Fairfax family of Leeds Castle, and several of them sat in parliament.
Thomas Best spent many years working In local government as magistrate and sitting through hours of sessions trying to help the local community. Many of the Best family followed Thomas into politics, namely Thomas junior, James and Robert.
Best Brewery suffered after the death of James Best in 1782. Inherited by James, Richard and George Best, they did not have the business acumen, and lived extravagant lives.
The Brewery ended being run by the family solicitors, then James Best until his death in 1828. His nephew. Col James Best assumed control until his demise in 1849, after which the family gave up any personal interest in the management of the Brewery and the business was leased to Edward Winch of Sun Hotel, Chatham from 30th August 1851. Around this time the new railway network and improved transportation of beer broke the monopoly of local breweries.
By 1851 Best Brewery already controlled 90 freehold and leasehold public houses and rented four more.
Bests, after being leased to Edward Winch for £5,375 per annum from 1851, was eventually sold to him for £150,000 in December 1894, only to merge with the Medway Brewery in Maidstone to form Style and Winch.
Soon after the Chatham Brewery closed and all production moved to Maidstone.