The former Baddow brewery is now converted to offices but at the end of the 19th century employed over 30 staff ¹. The brewery not only occupied the main building to the east side of Church Street, but also had land in West Hanningfield Road, and stables in the building opposite². It also owned the adjacent properties of Adstocks and Baddow Place, residences of the owners, and land up to and including what is now Baddow Place Avenue.

Started in the mid 1800s and run by the families of Crabbe, Smee and Veley it eventually closed in 1930.

The Crabbe family comprising three sisters, Charlotte, Elizabeth and Mary together with their brother Richard were well known in the village for being forthright and assertive. One of the sisters was a dominant lady, expecting submission by both children³ and other residents⁴.

In 1874/5 Richard Crabbe who was a keen supporter of the Evangelical movement opposed the introduction of the Ancient and Modern hymnbook at St Mary’s church because “some hymns contained sacerdotal and roman doctrines”. He was defeated and for 13 years withdrew to Sandon church⁵.

The brewery complex was sufficiently large such that when sold by auction in 1930, there were 30 lots some of which were made available as building plots with restrictive covenants including” not at any time to carry on or permit to be carried on upon the said premises for the sale of excisable liquor of any kind whether for consumption on or off the premises nor allow the premises to be used as a club where intoxicating liquors are sold, consumed or distributed”. This covenant persists in the deeds of at least one local property today.

When sold the agents made specific mention of the brewery well – one of several in the village – stating that it was “a deep well with an abundant supply of excellent water, and the sinking and construction of the well, and the pumping apparatus of the same has been a matter of costly expenditure”. It also noted that “the district is a good one for hunting” ⁶.

Little remains today to show a brewery once existed here, there is no local hunting but the tethering rings and drainage channels from the stables remain in the building opposite⁷. 

References
¹ Buckroyd, A (2003) Great Baddow Oral History (GBOH) Baddow & Galleywood U3A Publications page 10

² GBOH page 41

³ GBOH page 1

⁴ GBOH page 18

⁵ Essex Record Office T/P 181/1/13 – Newspaper cutting Richard H. Crabbe, obituary 1899).

⁶ Essex Records Office D/F 3/14/10 – Auction sale particulars, 1930

⁷ GBOH  page 41