Inside new gin distillery and cafe on track to open at Wordsley museum site

Plans to open a new gin distillery and cafe at Stourbridge Glass Museum in Wordsley are still brewing, with renovation work gathering pace ahead of an anticipated pre-Christmas opening.

A planning application had been submitted to Dudley Council to open the new CrownWorks Distillery on the site in Camp Hill but it was later withdrawn after it was discovered planning permission for a change of use was not needed.

With the fit out now taking shape to convert Suite 2 on the museum site, the team behind the plan gave the Express & Star a sneak preview of what’s in store.

Jake Harley-Arliss and Tom White, directors of Birmingham-based DaceCrown which manufactures parts needed in the bottling, brewing, beverage, food, confectionery sectors, have taken on the unit, located directly next to the museum, to bring their distillery ambition to life.

Jake, who lives in Wordsley, said: “A big part of what we do is within the drinks industry, working with distilleries and bottling companies across the UK.

“We design and manufacture the engineering that helps get liquid into bottles – from filling and bottling change parts through to bespoke components, tooling and engineering solutions used on production lines.

“So although making our own drinks is a new direction for us, the drinks industry and the engineering behind bottling is something we already know really well.”

The new CrownWorks Distillery has been named after one of DaceCrown’s early bases at Crown Works on Bertha Road in Birmingham.

Jake said: “When we started developing the distillery idea, we wanted it to have its own identity while keeping a connection to where we’d come from, which is where the CrownWorks Distillery name came from.

The new venture, located opposite the historic Red House Glass Cone, will include a tasting room and coffee shop, where visitors will be able to overlook the small craft gin distillery area with its copper stills, while tasting CrownWorks’ own gins and coffees.

Over the road, on the cone site, there will also be a gin school, located in Studio 8, where people can have a go at making their very own small batch gins to take home with them.

Giving us a glimpse inside the unit that was formerly part of the Stuart Crystal glassmaking factory, Jake said he liked the idea of having “beautiful” copper stills that people could overlook and see the distilling process in action while having a drink or light refreshments.

He said: “It’ll be a cafe with a view, something a bit different.

“Then through the windows is where the small scale production will happen with the brewhouse with the stills, we’ll also have bottling equipment in there.”

He added: “It’s a bit of a passion project, we both live very local, both can see the cone from our houses, it’s quite nice to be coming back and having something local that we can use on a daily basis ourselves.

“Over the road, the Red House Glass Cone space will be focused more around the hands-on gin-making experience.”

The distillery plan was met with a flurry of objections initially when a request for a change of use was published on Dudley Council’s planning portal - sparking reports of competition and rivalry between the two museum neighbouring sites with both publicising plans for gin making operations around the same time.

However, Jake said it’s hoped relations can be restored after conversations with residents and businesses and representatives at the council-run cone attraction to explain how the two operations will run.

He said: “We had always intended to have a presence at the cone as part of the wider CrownWorks plans and, following further conversations and a clearer understanding of what we are looking to create, we have been able to continue moving forward positively with both locations.

“We don’t see the two sites as competing with one another. We think they can complement each other really well, with different parts of the CrownWorks experience across each location, and hopefully bring additional visitors and interest to the wider area.”

He confirmed: “The previous change-of-use application was withdrawn following professional planning advice, rather than because the project was no longer proceeding.”

An application for a Lawful Development Certificate on the basis that the proposed operation falls within the existing Class E use for the site is still pending, Jake said: “We could do it without but because there’s been so much noise about the project it’s better for us to get it.”

Jake, who used to own Courtyard Escapes attraction in Stourbridge High Street, said the distillery site has a licence to open until 10pm on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays but this would be for tickets events only such as gin and whiskey tasting evenings and special occasions.

He said the cafe is on track to open at the start of December with the distillery set to be fully operational sometime between then and the new year - and he added: “We’re in the final stages of getting the premises and the keys over the road and that will follow.”

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As well as creating small batch gins, the business is also developing its own ready-to-drink gin range.

The CrownWorks team have been busy developing specially designed 200ml glass bottles rather than the usual canned ready to drink format.

Jake said: “We’ll initially be launching four flavours, all bottled in-house at CrownWorks, with each bottle containing one unit of alcohol. We’re currently working through the final recipes and branding ahead of launch.”

The team at the adjoining glass museum welcomed the development of the new distillery and cafe, saying they’d always hoped to have an onsite cafe at the museum since it opened in 2022.

Lynn Boleyn, secretary to the trustees at the British Glass Foundation which manages the museum, said: “It’s wonderful that we’ve got a new attraction for visitors to the museum - they’ve got something else to see and do and it can only be a good thing for the whole of the Glass Quarter.

“It will be perfect if it can open before Christmas. We do gin tasting events here already so we’re looking forward to working with Jake and his team to make it really successful.”

Graham Knowles MBE, chairman of the British Glass Foundation, who has been a driving force behind the museum since its inception, also welcomed the addition to the museum site.

The new gin distillery venture is one of eight independent businesses based on the site - with the rent helping to keep Stourbridge Glass Museum, a registered charity, up and running.