We are pleased that Briggs of Burton is a corporate member of the Trust. With over 290 years’ experience, Briggs of Burton is one of the pioneers of brewery process engineering. The company can trace its history back to 1732 when Thomas Thornewill set up as a metal hardware and industrial metalwork manufacturer.
In 1865 Samuel Briggs set up an ironmonger and coppersmith business supplying to the local brewing industry. He started to work for Thomas Bindley in 1865 and the business name changed to Bindley & Briggs when he married Thomas’s daughter Elizabeth in 1872. In 1875 Bindley & Briggs opened the Burton Copper Works in Station Street, Burton. The business name changed again, to S Briggs & Co. after Thomas Bindley died in 1880.
Briggs expands
In the late 1920s the business expanded, buying Thornewill and several other local companies. It continued to trade successfully in the UK. In 1982, S. Briggs & Co. bought the brewing interests of Henry Balfour in Fife and Pfaudler in Rochester, New York, allowing the business to cover the American market.
The group was renamed Briggs of Burton PLC in 1990. It continued to expand, acquiring its main rival Robert Morton and moving into the former Robert Morton offices and factory at Trent Works on Derby Street in Burton upon Trent. Today Briggs of Burton is a thriving global operation, with a Global Technical Centre in Burton upon Trent and offices throughout the world in Prestonpans, Rochester, NY, Louisville, KY, Guadalajara, Mexico and Forres, Moray.
Find out more about the history of Briggs of Burton on their website
Artefact loan
We have recently loaned two brewing artefacts manufactured by Robert Morton back to Briggs of Burton. The copper Steel’s Masher and a gunmetal circular man door were donated to what was then The Bass Museum in 1990 and remained on display until the closure of the National Brewery Centre in October 2022. 
A Steel’s Masher is a piece of brewing equipment that gently mixes the malt grist and brewing liquor to give a well-mixed mash. It allows the brewer to control both the malt flow and the mash water flow into the grain to maintain consistent temperature throughout the mash.
Early in 2024, Briggs enquired about loaning the items to display in their Burton Global Technical Centre, and both have now returned to the place they were made.
