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The Phoenix Brewery, c.1890.
The Phoenix Brewery, in Dolphin Lane,
off Castle Street,
is first recorded in 1740, when it was owned by a
Mr Clements. In 1859 it was purchased by Mr Alfred
Leney from the executors of Thomas Walker. Originally
he ran it in conjunction with his uncle, James Evenden,
trading as Leney and Evenden until his uncle’s death
in 1868. Alfred married into another Kentish brewing
family when he married Catherine, the eldest daughter
of James Fremlin, of Wateringbury, near Maidstone.
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In time Alfred was joined in the business by his three sons, Alfred
Charles, Hugh and Frank. When Alfred (senior) died
in 1900, 400 people filled St
Andrew’s Church, Buckland and an estimated 1,000
thronged the churchyard for the burial. Among the
150 wreaths was one from the tenants of the brewery
pubs in the form of a phoenix, which was used by the
firm as a trade mark.
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The business continued to flourish and in 1904 took over the rival firm
of Flint & Co. of St Dunstan’s Brewery, Canterbury. It is thought that
Leney & Co., after their absorption of Flint & Co., owned about 160 tied
premises, mainly in East Kent and the Rye and Hastings area of East Sussex.
In 1926 the firm of Alfred Leney & Co. amalgamated with Fremlin Brothers
of Maidstone to form the public company known as Fremlins Ltd. The remaining
brothers Fremlin retired and Alfred Charles Leney became the first Chairman
of the new company.
Brewing at Dover ceased in 1927 but bottling of beer
continued until 1950 at the Phoenix Brewery, the beer being transported
from the Fremlins brewery at Maidstone. The only break in production came
towards the end of World War Two,
when a shell hit the water storage tank at the top of the building. Fortunately
there were no casualties as the incident took place at night. It was claimed
that the bottling plant was the nearest factory to enemy occupied Europe.
After bottling ceased the old brewery was used as a distribution
depot by Fremlins until its demolition in 1963. The distribution depot
moved to buildings that had once been part of the old Diamond
Brewery on the Folkestone Road, which had been purchased by Leney
& Co. in 1908. In the late 1960s Fremlins was itself taken over by the
brewing giant Whitbread.
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