Images courtesy of Mr. & Mrs. Tasker, former landlord & Landlady.
Pierce's & Collett's Langley Brewery Ale & Stout was sold here.
Saturday 28th December 1822 James Usher married Mrs. Sarah Coates, landlady of the Packhorse Inn, Corsham.
From the Devizes and Wiltshire Gazette - Thursday 21 September 1843 p.1.: "AT CORSHAM WILTS, on Wednesday October 3rd, 1843, beginning precisely at 11 o'clock, without the least reserve, on the premises of the PACK HORSE INN AND BREWERY, by order of the Trustees under a deed of assignment for the benefit of creditors: the whole of the valuable STOCK-IN-TRADE, BREWING PLANT, FURNITURE AND EFFECTS OF MR. JAMES USHER: comprising 31 capital STORE PIECES, in most excellent condition, and containing in the aggregate UPWARDS OF 70,000 GALLONS, About 3,000 gallons of sound well brewed STRONG BEER, a large stock of well-made Butts, Hogsheads, Barrells, Kilderkins and Firkins, a well arranged BREWING PLANT, for 40 BUSHELS, with every requisite utensil, Horse, Harness, Trucks, Drays, Beer Engine, HOUSEHOLD FURNITURE and other valuable Effects. Catalogues of this sale are preparing, and will be ready for delivery at appointed places one week before the Sale." The deed of assignment paid the creditors 20s in the pound and the residue went to James Usher.
After James Usher left the Pack-Horse he went to reside at the Hare and Hounds, Pickwick. He there made a deal with his creditors to pay 15s in the pound in installments and regain his property but was embroiled in another wrangle between his creditors. (Wiltshire Independent - Thursday 20th July 1843 p.3). During this time James Little of Biddestone, one of the creditors, came into possession of 12 pockets of hops worth £240 via Usher and the legality of this was under question (he was told he cold take 2 but took 12).
From the Wiltshire
Independent - Thursday 6th August 1874 p.2: CORSHAM WILTS, An
Important Sale, of the STATION HOTEL, BREWERY, GARDEN, STABLES, COACH
HOUSES, &c.
MESSRS. PARRY & SON, are instructed by the
Proprietor, Mr. USHER, to SELL, by AUCTION, on FRIDAY, August 21st, 1874,
precisely at Four o'clock in the Afternoon, at the above-named Hotel,
subject to such Conditions as will be then given, all that Capital and
Conveniently-built HOTEL AND PROPERTY Called the Station Hotel, situate at
the Railway Station, in Corsham, which will include dining rooms, parlour,
bar, tap-room, kitchen and scullery, 7 bed-rooms, with W.C., and a
club-room of large dimensions; 5-quarter brewery, with capital cellarage,
stables, coach-houses, yards, and good garden, well stocked with choice
fruit trees.
The Auctioneer would call the particular attention of
brewers and publicans to the above property, as the situation is
desireable, and the hotel, brewery, stables, &c., so arranged as to do
an extensive wholesale and retail beer trade, posting business, &c.,
&c.
Two clubs, the Odd-Fellows and Patriotic, hold their
meetings at the house, and a good retail trade is done.
Possession may be had at Michaelmas next, with the option of taking stock,
brewing plant, and effects by Valuation. For further particulars apply to
MESSRS. KEARY, STOKES, and GOLDNEY, Solicitors, Chippenham, or at the
offices of the AUCTIONEERS, in Calne or Chippenham. Dated Auction, Land,
Estate, and Surveying Offices, Chilvester Hill, and Market Hill House,
Calne, and High street, Chippenham, August 5th, 1874."
From the above extract we see that the Station Hotel,
far from being just an Hotel, was a fully functioning wholesale and retail
brewery.
At the Corsham Petty Sessions of Thursday 15th Oct. 1874 the license for the "Railway Station Hotel" was transferred from James Usher to William Alway.
William Alway was born in Yate, Gloucestershire, in 1847, baptised 18th June. In 1871 at age 23, William is living with his mother Elizabeth Ann and brother Fitz in Alma Place, St. George, Bristol, and he is a clerk in a Mineral Water factory. His brother Fitz is clerk to a wine merchants. In 1861 William's mother Elizabeth was landlady of the "Packhorse Inn", Lawrence Hill, Bristol so William had a background in the licensed trade from an early age, the license was transferred from Elizabeth Alway to John Welsh in May 1862. William had siblings Sarah (b.1841, bapt. 27th June in Yate); Mary (b.1843, bapt. 8th Oct. in Yate); Thomas (b.1845, bapt. 12th Oct. in Yate); Elizabeth (b.1849 in Camerton, Som.); Susan (b.1851, in Camerton); Lucy (b.1853, in Camerton) and Fitz George (b.1856, in Camerton). William's father Thomas Alway (b. about 1815, in Little Sodbury) had been a farmer on the Common in Yate Village, but farmer of 190 acres in Camerton, Somerset, since 1848, where the family can be found in the 1851 census. Thomas had married Elizabeth Ann Limbrick in Chipping Sodbury by license on 18th October 1836. Thomas died in the summer of 1855 in Camerton.
At the Chippenham Sessions of 6th Sept. 1877, the
transfer of license from William Alway to Mary Alway was refused.
William's mother, Elizabeth Ann, died in 1882.
The license was eventually transferred from William
Alway to John Ogg at the Chippenham Sessions, Thursday 31st Oct. 1889.
In 1891 William had moved to Little Lyppiatt Farm,
Chapel Knapp, Corsham, next door to the residence of the retired Isaac
Belcher of the Pickwick
Brewery. William's sister Lucy was living with him as housekeeper.
William Alway died on 7th Sept. 1892 in Corsham aged 44.
John Ogg died in July 1896 as a result of an accident arising from a large Unionist demonstration in Hartham Park along with a man named Gilbert Davis. These were two separate accidents. Mr. Davis was thrown from his trap when the lynch-pin came out of the wheel, and Mr. Ogg was riding in a gymkhana race when his horse bolted, carrying Mr. Ogg beneath a tree, he was struck in the chest and head by boughs of the tree and died some time later of his injuries. On Thursday, 6th August 1896 the license was transferred to his widow.
The Swindon and Wiltshire History Centre at Chippenham hold showing "Abstract of title, 1866-1894, of Henry Collett, deceased, to a freehold brewery, barn, outhouses, house and public house known as the Langley Brewery, adjoining the Chippenham - Tytherton Kellaways road in Langley Burrell; a freehold public house called the "Rose and Crown" in the Market Place, Chippenham; a copyhold public house called the "Station Hotel", formerly the "Great Western Station Hotel", adjoining the railway station in Corsham" dated 1897. The hotel was for many subsequent years a tied house to the Langley Brewery, later under the management of Ralph Pearce.
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| 1/2 Gallon Stone Jar |  |
| Impressed: W. ALWAY / Station Hotel / CORSHAM. Potter: Price, Bristol. (Round Bodied, Fragment Only). |
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