A story of revival

Jennings’ recent history is a story of local revival. In July 2025 the brewery opened again, returning to local, independent, family ownership after two decades as a brand of Carlsberg that ultimately suffered site closure in 2022, after operations were moved to Burton on Trent during the Covid pandemic. Local entrepreneurs Kurt and Rebecca Canfield acquired the Jennings site with a vision, not knock it down and build houses as the town once feared, but to revive the forgotten brewery and bring life back to the antique buildings. Chris France, Managing Director leads a small but passionate team in the revival project, including Head Brewer, Buster Grant, who has 20+ years of brewing experience under his belt. The team are eager to bring back classic Jennings recipes from old brewing books found in a cupboard when the site was taken over. The idea is to go back in time and bring Jennings back to life, with a modern twist and some new ingredients.

Community is a huge part of Cockermouth and lies right at the heart of Jennings. Closure was devastating for the town, but since Jennings has returned under new ownership, the response from locals and afar has been outstanding. Lots of happy faces have walked through the doors again! The site has already started to do more than just brewing too and has big plans to become a destination brewery and community hub. From weekly quiz nights to hosting local food and drink festivals, running clubs having it as a meet point
and carol singing round the Christmas tree, Jennings advocates will see more than just beer being brewed here… a long journey begins to restoring a cherished Cumbrian icon!

Beginnings in Lorton

The Jennings story begins in Lorton, a Lake District village in the Cocker valley, 4 miles south-east of Cockermouth, where local farmer William Jennings (1751 – 1848), acquired a malting kiln and a small piece of land, Green Garth for £105 (which is hard to believe! That certainly didn’t age into 2026!).

In 1828, William’s son John (1782-1876) raised a mortgage of £800 (Again, wouldn’t that be nice). Some of this money is thought to have gone towards buying a brewhouse, as a year later, John Jennings was listed as a brewer in a Cumberland directory. In due course, this brewery was taken over by John’s son, also John. In their turn, two of John’s sons, Joseph Henry & John Brown Jennings joined, and then led, the family firm.

By the 1870s, beer sales in the UK had reached an all-time high. So, in 1874 when the Old Brewery in Cockermouth was up for sale, the brothers seized the opportunity to expand to the site, which became known as the Castle Brewery, and that’s where the brewery lives on, re-born in 2025! The Lorton premises were closed for good in 1881.

The Castle Brewery, Cockermouth

There had been brewing at the Castle Brewery for at least 100 years before it was bought by the Jennings Brothers. In 1795, it was up for sale and even then, it was known as the Old Brewery. It’s likely that its origins go further back, possibly as the brewery for the medieval castle, which towers over the Jennings site and now has its own version of ‘The Leaning tower of Piza’ – lets hope it stays leaning!

For most of the 1800s, the brewery was owned by Margaret Hutchinson and her daughter Mary. It was Mary’s sons who sold the brewery to Horace Robert Wyndham who ten years later sold the brewery to Joseph and John Jennings – the family that started it all…

19th century expansion

The Jennings brothers – Joseph and John Brown, along with a third brother, Isaac who was a lawyer and became the chair of the company – were ambitious. In expansionist mode during the 1880s, they made several crucial moves.

Firstly, they began to buy pubs as tied houses, an excellent means of shoring up beer sales. They quickly amassed 23 in Cockermouth and in surrounding towns.

Secondly, they expanded the capacity of the brewery. In 1884 they sank an artesian well, which still produces the water for all Jennings’ beers. When water’s your main ingredient, having your own well is kind of a cool thing. And in 1889, at a cost of £10,000, the four story maltings were built.

In 1887, the three brothers turned Jennings Brothers into a limited company. Perhaps encouraged by the 1886 Guinness brewery flotation? – which raised a remarkable £6 million. The brothers raised a more modest £30,000. Shares were distributed among ‘tenants, customers, housekeepers, clerks, teachers, miners, grocers, joiners, station-masters, farmers, blacksmiths, coachmen, drapers, builders and farmhands’.

A rocky road

By 1895, Jennings owned 46 pubs! But, most of these pubs were borrowed against and the road to financial stability was bumpy. In 1899, the directors tried to sell off the company. A possible act of sabotage – carbolic in the beer – led to complaints. Smooth and efficient transportation of the barrels was difficult back in those days. Although, who knows it’s much better today with potholes, eh?

The Jennings brothers themselves resigned or were fired from the board and in quick succession, John Jennings died in 1896, at the age of 40, and Joseph Jennings in 1899 at 48, leaving the family in financial instability.

It was not until the early 1900s – when the company had joined forces with Joseph Dalzell’s Parton & Harrington Breweries Ltd – that Jennings Brothers began to show a reasonable profit.

In 1916, the last Jennings family member involved with the company, Isaac Jennings died. He had had a difficult relationship with the board after his brothers had been pushed out, but his legal knowledge was invaluable for the company.

A regional brewery

The partnership with Parton & Harrington Breweries was contentious and it was finally dissolved in 1923. But Jennings Bros continued to expand, in 1921 they had bought out four other West Cumbrian breweries, and in 1926 they acquired Faulders of Keswick, including nine pubs in the town.

By the 1970s, Jennings Bros was the last major independent brewery in Cumbria. The closure of the State Management Scheme in Carlisle created opportunities and the company purchased eight pubs in the city, against fierce competition. Bob Monk from the State Management Scheme was recruited as a new head brewer. Some of the more familiar beers were introduced soon after, Castle
Bitter in 1975 and Cumbria Pale Ale in 1978.

Planning for the future

By the 1980s the company’s outlook was optimistic. In 1986 the climber Chris Bonnington opened the new brewhouse and in 1988, Trevor Green became Managing Director. Despite the government’s new brewing industry regulations, he succeeded in bringing the business onto a solid financial footing and has been a huge helping hand in the re-launch of Jennings since February 2025.

It was under Green’s watch that the beers – formerly plain pale, mild, bitter, porter, stout – were branded. Cocker Hoop, Sneck Lifter and
Red Breast were joined by La’al Cockle-Warmer, Golden Host and Cross Buttock. It was also under Green’s supervision that the company acquired many new pubs, including Northumbria Inns & Café Inns, expanding into Yorkshire and Lancashire. Between 1989 and 1999, shareholders’ funds trebled to £30 million!

In 1991, Mary Minty developed Cumberland Ale, and in the same year she was only the 11th woman to be accepted into the Incorporated Brewers Guild. She had started working for Jennings in 1984 and became the only female Second Brewer in the UK at the time. A rare, but fantastic achievement for Mary and Jennings in the 90s – female brewers are more common now and it all began with the likes of Mary. Mary, has too, been to visit the Jennings site since re-launch and has had some wonderful stories to share with the team.

Jennings won multiple beer awards across the years, from organisations including World Beer Awards, CAMRA and The International Beer Challenge. Beers such as, Cumberland Ale, Sneck Lifter and Cocker Hoop were amongst those that were popular winners. In 1999 Cocker Hoop received title of ‘Britain's Best Bitter’ at the Great British Beer festival. And more recently, at SIBA - North West Indie Beer Awards 2025 - the first ever Jennings lager, Jennings Helles, won Keg premium lager and Derwent mild got silver in Cask session Dark Beers, with a hope to win many more!

Jennings in the community

The company had a long history of supporting the local community, sponsoring sports, community events and charities. Jennings Dreys were a highlight of Cockermouth Carnival, going right back the highly decorated horse-drawn dreys in the early 1900s. In 1953 the company gave one of their lorries to the newly formed Cockermouth Mountain Rescue team to use for transport.

In 1999, Rylston Women’s Institute met in their local Jenning’s pub, the Devonshire Arms in Cracoe, to come up with ways to raise funds in memory of one of their husbands who had passed away from blood cancer. Their idea was the Alternative WI Calendar, featuring traditional WI activities, but in the nude. It was a huge success and Jennings helped distribute the calendar, taking on 3 extra members of staff to meet demand. The group raised over £6 million for charity and were made famous in the Calendar Girls film.

Still to this day community lies at the heart of Jennings, and we take pride in supporting local events, clubs, festivals, charities and so much more. Alongside creating a warm and welcoming taproom for our community and beyond.

Takeovers, floods and a pandemic

In 2005, members of the Jennings board agreed to a takeover offer by Wolverhampton & Dudley Brewery against strong opposition lead by West Cumbria CAMRA. The brewery was flooded three times in short succession in devastating floods in 2005, 2009 and 2015, having a huge impact on the site and operations.

Wolverhampton & Dudley became Marston’s in 2007 and in 2020 Marston’s merged with Carlsberg. The Covid pandemic hit, the tap room closed, and brewery tours stopped. Brewing was moved to Burton on Trent, and the Cockermouth brewery closed its doors in November 2022 and moved brewing down south.

Which takes us to back to the start of this page, where we are today, revived in 2025. Back to local independent ownership and a passionate team, eager to get Jennings well and truly back on its feet and at the heart of Cockermouth once again!