There’s No Place Like Home

In our line of work, we see buildings of all shapes and sizes, old and new and in varying states of repair. There is one particular building though which is very close to our hearts, our HQ, Brewery House.
It turns out there is some interesting history attached to the place and the area it sits to the top left of, Walkers Yard. This is what I discovered in a book by Pamela Priestland about the history of Radcliffe on Trent.
Unsurprisingly this little part of the village had, from Victorian times, been involved in brewing and the building housed a large deep well pump and an engine room. Outbuildings provided space for a boiler room and stables. The owners of the brewery lived across the way in what is now the Scout Hall whose huge cellar was used for beer storage. Interestingly, the large room which now sees Beavers, Cubs and Scouts marauding on a weekly basis was once a genteel ballroom!
The area that is now known as Walkers Yard gained its name from Ernest Walker, a grower of flowers and produce in nine greenhouses on the site. He had diversified from the building trade during the Great Depression and became a prize-winning horticulturalist. Ernie Walker retired in 1964, his greenhouses making way for houses. Brewery House itself became a family home until the late 1990s when it was turned into offices and where SER has been based ever since.
As a business with roots firmly established in Radcliffe on Trent we are proud to have our home here, in the historical heart of the village.