• Swindon & Wiltshire News
• Thursday April 27 2023
• Author Name: Peter Davison

Arkell’s Brewery unveils blue plaque to commemorate founder

The family behind Arkell’s Brewery – Swindon’s oldest business – have unveiled a blue plaque to commemorate its founder, John Arkell.

The plaque was unveiled at Arkell’s Brewery in Stratton St Margaret, where John started brewing beer 180 years ago, by councillor Barrie Jennings of Stratton St Margaret Parish Council and members of the Arkell family.

John Arkell was born into a farming family in 1802 in Kempsford, on the Wiltshire / Gloucestershire border. He emigrated to the New World in his late twenties and took with him a group of local people who sought refuge from the tough conditions endured in agriculture at that time.

They arrived in Canada and set about farming, and John established a strong community and a village around his farm which is still named ‘Arkell’ to this day. However, three years later he returned for love. His fiancée preferred to live in England and he came home to marry.

In 1843 he bought his farm in Stratton St Margaret, Swindon, where he grew among other things his malting barley, and turned his hand to brewing beer.

His foresight realised the potential market for supplying beer to a string of other pubs as well as his own Kingsdown Inn, which he had just bought.

The beer production began to outgrow the farm and in 1861 a new steam brewery was built behind the original Kingsdown Inn at Upper Stratton.

By 1867 the business had even outgrown the new brewery and John was forced to convert the old Kingsdown Inn into offices and build a new pub across the road, which is still there today.

John Arkell died on October 21, 1881 and was much mourned by a local community who always knew him as ‘Honest John’. The Swindon Advertiser noted that shops were closed and blinds drawn as the funeral cortege passed to Stratton Church and added: “He was open and above board and Radical in all he said and did. The poor had lost a good friend, a plain and simple friend.”

At the plaque unveiling, Alex Arkell – sixth-generation of the Arkell family – said “John, our great, great, great, grandfather built his brewery at exactly the most important moment in Swindon’s history.

“Three miles across the fields from his farm, Isambard Kingdom Brunel opened his great Swindon Railway Works that same year.

“Our history is inextricably linked to the growth of the Railway Works and then the subsequent growth of Swindon in the surrounding area. John saw the potential of this little town and 180 years later we’re still here and very thankful he chose this spot.”

The decision to mount a commemorative plaque for John Arkell was proposed by Stratton St Margaret Parish Council.

Councillor Robert Jandy said: “As one of my final duties as Parish Chair, I am proud that John Arkell has finally been recognised by being awarded a blue plaque, a man and family so important to Stratton St Margaret.

“Arkell’s is one of less than thirty family breweries remaining in the UK. As Swindon’s oldest business, Arkell’s has kept its founding values alive and continues to produce local beer for local customers.”