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Wolverhampton's Springfield Brewery to make beer again

Beer making could return to the former Springfield Brewery site next year, bosses at the University of Wolverhampton have revealed.

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The site on Grimstone Street, which closed in the early 1990s as a brewery for Mitchells & Butlers, is undergoing a £60 million redevelopment and will be home to the university's school of architecture and the West Midlands Construction University Technical College from next autumn.

But university chiefs say they are keen to maintain the traditional aspects of the site, and are planning talks for a micro-brewery to move in once building work is complete.

Broughs Brewery ran a one-room micro-brewery from the Grimstone Street site from 2011 until earlier this year, when they were forced to leave in advance of redevelopment work getting underway.

The university has already committed to keeping the brewery's iconic entrance archway, which will serve as a walk-through to the main campus.

Neil Howells, the university's project manager for the Springfield development, said: "The ambition is to get a micro-brewery back here once all the work is complete.

"Broughs were here before and they would be ideal. We helped them move from here to their current premises in Bushbury and it would be great to have them back.

"Maintaining the traditional features of the site is very important to us. To see beer being produced at Springfield again would be fantastic for the local community and the city as a whole."

Springfield opened up as a brewery in 1873 under William Butler and Company, who picked the site due to its abundance of water and close proximity to canal and railway lines.

It was ravaged by fire in August 2004 and the bulk of the site remained dormant until university construction workers moved onto the land at the end of August.

Mr Howells added that he hopes to bring some of the five underground springs that remain present at the 12-acre site back to working order, including one at the original pump house.

Councillor Milkinder Jaspal, who represents Heath Town on Wolverhampton council, said: "It's an excellent idea to bring a brewery back to Springfield, and something that I know the community will be really pleased about should it come to fruition.

"A lot of our past history is disappearing from the city, but the university has made a real effort to maintain traditions at this site.

"The brewery was derelict for too long, and now we can look forward to seeing the past linked in with the future in this very exciting project."

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