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Breweries in Rutland The 1884 OS maps show three breweries in Rutland. Apart from Ruddles at Langham there's the 'Rutland Brewery' at Ketton and another at Whissendine. Ruddles, Langham 'Ruddles Brewery (G. Ruddle & Co) was a brewery in Rutland, England. The brand is now owned by Greene King who still brew beers under the Ruddles name in Suffolk, although the current recipes are not those used at the original brewery. The brewery, established in 1858 in Langham, Rutland, was bought by George Ruddle in 1912. Langham remained the home of the brewery until its closure in 1999. The company lost its independence in 1986 and passed into the ownership of Watneys, and then Grolsch in 1992. The value of the brewery and brands had dropped to £4.8m when it was sold to Morland & Co in 1997. Morlands moved production to Abingdon only for that site to be closed by Greene King which took over Morlands in 2000. The local Langham well water was said to give the beer a unique character and quality which enhanced the brewery's reputation. The difficulty in reproducing elsewhere the taste of the beers has led to the premier beer being jocularly referred to as "Ruddles Counterfeit". […] A television commercial for Ruddles in 1993 featured the last appearance of Vivian Stanshall narrating as Hubert, brother of Sir Henry Rawlinson of Rawlinson End played by Mel Smith and a cross-dressing Dawn French. source Many beer aficionados are not aware that the brewery and its beers were named after its one-time owner. Instead they put about the false legend that it was a moment of marketing inspiration that led to a Rutland brewery referencing 'ruddle' or 'raddle'. Raddled ewes. And what seems to be a raddled tup. Since at least the 1620s residents of Rutland have been known as 'Raddlemen' or 'Ruddlemen'. This is a reference to red pigment, 'raddle', tied to the chests of tups (male sheep) at breeding season to identify which ewes have been 'served'. Clearly by the seventeenth century there were a lot of sheep in Rutland. That much is true. And it's presumably why George Ruddle acquired his surname. He was, in other words, 'George (from) Rutland'. Rutland Brewery, Ketton Thomas Molesworth started brewing in Ketton around 1860. By 1877 this had become the 'Rutland Brewery' and in the late 1890s William Bean was taken into partnership. There is no mention of the brewery after 1908 and in 1926 the buildings were demolished. Ketton Brewery Company The Ketton Brewery Company operated from the mid-1870s until about 1900, first by the Whincup family and then the Frederick and Henry Wilde who were brothers. Around the turn of the twentieth century it amalgamated with the King's Cliffe Brewery. Geeston Ale The quarry workers at Ketton must have been prodigious drinkers as there's a third brewery at Geeston, on the edge of Ketton, producing 'Geeston Ale' which was well-regarded and transported as far as London. The brewery was located at the Geeston Tap Public House building, which itself closed in 1970. Brewing in Geeston began in the early 1860s with Francis Whincup as brewer. Around the turn of the twentieth century, the Geeston brewery appears to have been run by Percy Crowhurst until 1908. The last recorded brewer on the premises was Claude Walker, who joined the army in 1914, after which brewing ceased by 1916. N.B. Not to be confused with the active Beeston Brewery in Norfolk. Whissendine Brewery A property known as 'The Red House' was built in 1809 as a brewery selling 'Cottesmore Hunt Ales'. In 1891 it was trading as Green & Hacker. The plant was dismantled in 1892 and the partnership dissolved February 1893. More information here. The Grainstore Brewery near to Oakham railway station seems to be the only brewery currently operating in Rutland. It was founded in 1995. Back to top of this page     Back to home page   This website does not gather or store any visitor information. Copyright Bob Trubshaw 2026 No unauthorised copying or reproduction except if all following conditions apply a: Copy is complete (including this copyright statement). b: No changes are made. c: No charge is made. www.hoap.co.uk/rutland

Rutland's history home page what's new? glossary bibliography Rutland's geology Rutland's boundaries Rutland's rivers long, long ago prehistoric Rutland Roman Rutland long ago Anglo-Saxon Rutland Rutland's place-names waterborne transport around the sixth century Rutland's early churches Anglo-Saxon sculpture in Rutland The Matter of Rutland what the Normans did for Rutland Romanesque sculpture in Rutland Rutland's royal forests Rutland in medieval times Rutland's scratch dials Rutland's medieval carvings Rutland's sepulchral effigies Rutland's saltways Rutland in Tudor times Dissolution in Rutland not that long ago Rutland in the 17th century pinfolds and pounds in Rutland dovecotes in Rutland Rutland in the 18th century turnpiking Rutland Rutland's springs and wells changes in Rutland's agriculture since 1800 seems like yesterday Rutland's dialect Rutland's folk customs travellers in Rutland watermills and windmills in Rutland breweries in Rutland gasworks in Rutland ironstone quarrying in Rutland Zeppelins over Rutland redundant telephone exchanges in Rutland Second World War in Rutland WWII airfields and pillboxes in Rutland the making of Rutland Water Rutland Weekend Television free online history resources Victoria County History: Rutland volume one Victoria County History: Rutland volume two free PDFs of Rutland Record issues 1 to 50 old OS maps Historic England Listed buildings database Sepulchral Effigies of Leicestershire and Rutland Open Domesday English Place-Name Society database Wikipedia list of places in Rutland (with links to village entries) Wikipedia list of people from Rutland researching and writing local history getting started free advice from 2005 asking curious questions (YouTube video) local history groups in and around Rutland Belton-in-Rutland History Society Cottesmore History and Archaeology Group Langham Village History Group Lyddington Manor History Society Rutland Local History and Record Society with free PDFs of over forty issues of the Rutland Record Uppingham Local History Study Group you may also be interested in free PDFs written by Bob Trubshaw Earliest Churches in Nottinghamshire How Anglo-Saxons Found Their Way Anglo-Saxon Leicestershire Conversations in Churchyards Little-known Leicestershire and Rutland Bob Trubshaw's YouTube channel Introduction to medieval carvings Anglo-Saxon and Romanesque carvings How Anglo-Saxons found their way Anglo-Saxon shrines at fords Meetings at triangles Rota's Land and Franni's Land Reading Romanesque fonts Church and manor The significances of square headdresses Early churches and waterborne trade Charnwood slate gravestones and C18th trade routes Ironstone quarries of Leicestershire Roman roads in north-east Leicestershire Salt ways in Leicestershire Why Melton Mowbray needed to called 'middle town' Evolving Anglo-Saxon agriculture Nottinghamshire's earliest churches Ploughs not piety? Economic regeneration in the C7th Were Anglo-Saxon weaving huts women-only places? Vale of Belvoir Chronicle Barrowby Until Now website