One of the most widely available Cask Ales on Tyneside is the Caledonian Brewery’s Deuchars IPA. Brewed in Edinburgh at the former Lorimer & Clarke site, a traditional Victorian brewery with direct-fired copper, it is in fact one of the many brands of the global Heineken Group, formed in part by the acquisition of the old Scottish & Newcastle concern. Itself, with obvious links to Newcastle’, but as we shall also see synonymous with the name Deuchar - pronounced as in: “You’re due a Deuchars”.
Image & Trademark: © 2011 Caledonian Brewing Co. Ltd
Robert Deuchar, who was born of humble stock in Forfarshire, Scotland arrived on Tyneside in the 1860’s, where in his early thirties we find him as a Farmer at Boldon, having already acquired some 130 acres and employing 2 labours. However, within 10 years he’d moved to Newcastle’ and into the Licensed Trade, in 1871 being resident at the old 'Chester Hotel' in Shieldfield, having previously started as an Innkeeper in Newgate Street at the 'Chancellor's Head'.
Over the next 30 years he built-up a vast estate, converted the old brewery at Sandyford, Jesmond into extensive storage, and established the famous Duddingston Ales, back in his native Scotland - although always a Tyneside favourite.
A walk around Jesmond today still offers hints of that legacy; the Sandyford Brewery buildings, Deuchar Street were the old Cradlewell pub sits empty, and Robert’s final resting place, Jesmond Old Cemetery. For, when he died in 1904 his effects were valued at over £300,000.00 - millions by today’s standards and quite an achievement for a once humble Farm Servant; in a reverse of the old adage, drink had certainly not become the better of him.
Yet his death was not the end of this Tyneside connection, for under his son Farquhar the name of Robert Deuchar lived on for a further 50 years, the Pub Estate continuing to expand, and with it our taste for Scottish brewed ales - its purchase by Newcastle Breweries in the early 1950’s being the foundation of the combined Scottish & Newcastle group. And so to today, a pint of Deuchars IPA - brewed in Scotland, appreciated on Tyneside, the legacy of a Scotsman who lived in our midst, and proof that in life we’re forever ’Going around in Circles’!
Photo 'The Chester' 1966: © Newcastle Libraries'
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