As part of the forthcoming Stone Food & Drink Festival celebrations, there will be the chance to sign up for an exclusive tour of the town’s historic Crown Wharf site, where lead sponsor Joule’s Brewery is breathing life back into its founding home.
Derelict since the Brewery closed in 1974 the site was acquired by Joule’s in 2017, some 7 years after entrepreneur Steve Nuttall resurrected the famous brand back in 2010, with the establishment of a new independent brewery behind an original Joule’s pub, the Red Lion, in Market Drayton. The firm has gone from strength to strength; now boasting 45 pubs across Staffordshire, Shropshire and Cheshire, and its return to Stone – where the original brewery was founded in 1779 – has long been in the planning.
Work started on the ambitious transformation of the Crown Wharf site in February 2019, with a new Joule’s taphouse set to open its doors in 2020 alongside a community heritage centre and theatre.
The tours, which will take place over festival weekend on Saturday 5th and Sunday 6th October, will offer an exclusive chance to see behind the scenes as the project brings vision to reality. Vicky Shirley, Brand & Communications Manager at Joule’s, says:
“We’re hugely excited to open the gates at Crown Wharf for these exclusive tours. The local support for the project has been phenomenal, so we wanted to offer people the chance to see the progress to date. The project has been a true labour of love for us and we want to share the fascinating journey we have had – including artefacts and stories donated by local people with links to the brewery and details such as the casting of new finials for the roof, modelled on an original finial we found by chance during site clearance.”
Richard Stevens, Chairman of the Stone Food & Drink Festival, says:
“This is a fantastic addition to the festival programme; celebrating a project that is hugely important for our town. Unsurprisingly, we’ve already had a significant amount of interest in the tours already and, with spaces limited, we’d advise booking tickets online as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.”
Tour places will be priced at £5pp and, in addition to the tour, will include a voucher for ½ a pint of Joule’s in any Joule’s taphouse in Staffordshire, Shropshire and Cheshire. Proceeds from ticket sales will go direct to the Stone Food & Drink Festival CIC.
The tours will take place on festival Saturday (6th October) and Sunday (7th October) at 11am, 12 noon and 1pm. To book your space head to
https://stonefooddrink.digitickets.co.uk/event-tickets/24199?catID=23640&
