The Bowsing Ken

 Elgood & Sons North Brink Brewery:
Elgood Coolship Sour Mango Ale

   Although much of its early history is rather vague, that there was a brewery on what was called the North Brink, of the River Nene, in the village of Wisbech, in the County of Cambridgeshire, for several hundred years is pretty certain. 
  The origin of the name “Wisbech,” like many names from back in the olden days is not so certain, and there are many theories of how it came to be. One theory has it that the ancient name of the River Nene was the River “Ouse,” or alternately the River “Wys,” and like many towns, Wisbech took its name from the river upon which it was situated. “Ouse/Wys” is believed to be an old Celtic word applied to almost any flowing body of water, and, of course, today there is a River Ouse, as well as the River Nene. The ancient extent of the river is subject to discussion. Anyway, the “bech” portion of the name is conjectured to mean “beach,” but perhaps a more accurate surmise is that it is based on the old Saxon word “bec,” which also means water. Over the years, Ouse+Bech = Ousebech, morphed into Wisbech. Well, maybe. In the Domesday Book of 1086, the town is listed as Wisbece, while in other ancient records it is listed as Wisebeche or Wysbeche. Wisbech is located some 40 miles north of Cambridge.
  The village of Wisbech is located in an area that since bygone times has been called the Fens, the Fen District, or the Fenlands. In ancient days, this area was a huge - 15,000 square mile - tract of coastal marshland, much of which was often underwater. Flooding from the North Sea, along with drainage from many inland rivers, meant this area was mostly uninhabitable. In the book “The History of Wisbech, and an Historical Sketch of the Fens,” written in 1834, an unrecorded author posited that the fenlands had the: “indescribably lonesome and still character of the American Prairie, but without its stern sublimity and majestic grandeur of its rugged surface; perhaps Holland bore a more striking resemblance to it, for black stagnant waters and a continued lifelessness of aspect.” He noted that both Holland and this area of England were subject to: “rapid and violent deluges, that rooted up the soil and laid vegetation prostrate.” 
  In the olden days there were only a few hardy inhabitants living on scattered, low level islands the dotted the Fens. Legend has it that many a nefarious individual - smugglers, highwaymen, sneak thieves - hid out from the law in these swamps. In 1086, William the Conqueror built a castle at Wisbech to: “keep in awe the outlawed rebels, who made their incursions from these fenny places.” In 1236, this castle, as well as the town that had grown up around it, was wiped out by an inundation of the sea. Everything was underwater. The castle and the town were both rebuilt. The castle later became an infamous prison.

In the mid-17th century, the 4th Earl of Bedford hired a Dutch engineer (go figure) to ditch, dike and drain the marsh, converting portions of it into productive farmland, now generally being called the Fens. In the early days, windmills (again, go figure) provided much of the power to pump away the water. This water control, although now powered by diesel-engined pumps, still goes on today. Being somewhat centrally located with the Fens, Wisbech was long ago known as “The Capital of the Fens.”
  Through the village of Wisbech runs the River Nene (or Neen, Nen), which was navigable by smaller ocean going freighters, making the village not only a market town, but also an inland international sea port. The origin of the name “Nene” is not certain, but is believed to be ancient Celtic. Also not certain was when the river actually assumed the name. In Wisbech, for a considerable distance, the Nene is paralleled on either bank by two thoroughfares, namely the North Brink and the South Brink. The word “brink” is of Dutch, or perhaps old German origin, and means a slope, or in the case of along a river, a bank. It is upon the North Brink that a brewery was built, and indeed, where a brewery still exists today.

  At the start of the 19th century, a Mr. William Watson, who was a solicitor by profession, lately practicing in the village of Boston, in Lincolnshire, came to Wisbech in his early years. This exact year is not recorded. However, in 1801, Watson bought out an existing brewery located on the North Brink, in Wisbech. So, it can be reasonably assumed that Watson’s arrival in Wisbech must have been near, or shortly after the turn of the century. This brewery apparently can trace its history back to 1786, when two men - John Cooch and Denis Herbert bought the property, complete with an old mill house that they converted into a brewery. Later, the partnership of Cooch and Herbert also built a dedicated brewery, a classical Georgian building that still exists today. In December 1795, a man by the name of Thomas Fawsett bought the brewery, who in turn sold it six years later to Watson.
  Once established in Wisbech, Watson soon gave up his law practice and turned to, among other pursuits, the brewing of ale. As noted, he purchased what was then known as the North Brink Brewery in 1801. Unfortunately, many of his “other pursuits” - he had entered a speculative banking scheme with some other men - did not do well - and Watson was facing financial failure. He managed to keep his brewery, and gradually discharged all of his debts, and as such was held in high esteem within the community. In 1804 Watson was elected as a member of the town corporation, and was assigned the duties of the town bailiff. Then, in 1807, he was appointed by the Earl of Hardwicke as a lieutenant colonel, and commandant of the local Wisbech Volunteer Regiment of Infantry. In 1836, LtCol Watson, who later died on 1 March 1844,  sold his brewery to a partnership of Richard Tibbitts and George Phillips. This partnership later fell apart, and in 1853, the  brewery was up for sale.
  Records indicate that the North Brink Brewery was sold and bought at least four times, the last time by a man named Phillips, of which not much is known. Whether this is the same person as the aforementioned Phillips, or perhaps a member of his family, is not certain. Another theory is that George Phillips simply bought out George Tibbitts. Actually, the correct name of the brewery is somewhat lost to time, and although it is usually referred to simply as the “North Brink Brewery,” it may have been called by other titles. Anyway, Mr Phillips, while somewhat obscure, was remembered as a fairly prominent man in the town, and had, in addition to the brewery - it was called Mr Phillips’ Brewery -  a nice residence on the North Brink. He was recorded as having hosted a flower show on his lawn, complete with entertainment from the band of the Coldstream Guards, straight from London.
In 1877, Phillips sold the brewery to a partnership of John Elgood and George Harrison, and for a time the brewery was called Elgood and Harrison’s Brewery. Harrison fell on hard times, and by 1886, was all but destitute, and the ownership of the brewery was taken over fully by John Elgood. Suffering a period of hard times himself, John Elgood nevertheless persevered and the Elgood Brewery has remained with generations of the Elgood family, both sons and daughters, to this day.

 The Coolship … A word about a cool word - coolship. A coolship, also known as a wort tank, is really nothing but a big, rather shallow open tray used to rapidly cool the boiled wort. The larger the surface area of the liquid, the faster it will cool. A coolship can be made of wood, stone or metal. The word itself is supposedly derived from the Flemish word koelschip, although the exact etymology of the word is still under discussion. Because of the size of a coolship and the expense of the materials involved, coolships tended to be used primarily by the larger commercial breweries, rather than smaller operations. 
  In the past a coolship tended to be open to the outside air, perhaps in an airy shed, thus exposing the wort to natural yeast and bacteria that is floating around in the atmosphere, the result being a spontaneously fermented, lambic type of sour beer. This exposure to naturally occurring yeast could have been intended or not, and depending on the brewing process, regular pitching of yeast may occurred following the cooling of the wort. Of course, in the old, old days most all beers were naturally fermented. As the understanding of yeasts became more predominant, coolships were still used to rapidly cool the wort, preparatory to pitching the yeast. And, as the chemistry of beer became more understood, brewers began to house their coolships in more sanitary rooms. This also came from a desire to brew consistent tasting beer batch after batch. Allowing free floating yeasts, which cannot really be controlled or even predicted, to influence a batch of beer meant a variable final product. With the advent of industrial fluid coolers, the use of the coolship began to wane, until they were rarely used. Today, with the desire to create new beers, as well as recreate some of the old methods, several breweries have started using coolships again. Cool!

Elgoods brews a nice variety of beers and ales, using tradition techniques. In 2013, the brewery has revived the use a couple of large copper coolships that are believed to be over 100 years old.