When it's gone it's gone

On a recent visit to Thorne I was delighted to spot what looked suspiciously like an old brewery in the distance. 

The remaining letters on the worn and weathered gate backed up my suspicions:

And the Brewery History Wiki confirmed them. 

Darley's Brewery closed before I'd started drinking, which perhaps explains why I'd never heard of it, though I couldn't help but feel saddened to see such a lovely building boarded up. And it got me thinking of the other tragic losses we have only recently suffered in Britain: the closure of Jennings and Caledonian Breweries. I have been round both of them, Jennings is a wonderful tower brewery and Caledonian had one of the most amazing things you can see in a brewery: open copper coppers! Nowadays pumps are much cheaper than building breweries in a tower and no one is going to build their boiling vessels out of copper, let alone leave them unenclosed. When such things are gone they are never going to return so I mourn every loss. 

Mind you, looking at the amount of pigeons on the roof of Darley's where the cooling tray would have been I was reminded that old fashioned brewing was not without its drawbacks!