Joules Brewery is converting the old Stag pub and building a new event space, but is also giving over half the building to the Market Drayton Civic Society who will create a new bigger and better town museum which will be able to tell the story of the town from a much more prominent spot.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00So we're here with Jools Brewery, the red lion in Market Drayton, flagship pub and brewery.
00:04Exciting project going on. Introduce yourselves, we've got Anna.
00:08Yes, I'm Anna Brackle and I'm the Development Director for Jools Brewery.
00:12Yep, and I'm Carol Higgins, I'm Chairman of Drayton Civic Society that
00:18owns and runs the museum in the town.
00:21And of course the Mayor.
00:23Yeah, I'm Royal Croftown, the Mayor of the town.
00:26An exciting new project. Just tell us about this link, Anna, between yourselves and the Civic Society.
00:32Yeah, so a really exciting partnership between Drayton Civic Society and Jools Brewery,
00:37which Roy kindly introduced us together.
00:41And it's been a whirlwind partnership, hasn't it, over the past 12 months.
00:47What started as an idea and a concept has now led us to be here today showcasing the
00:53Drayton Civic Society's potential new space across the way for their Heritage Centre,
00:59which is going to be part of the Stag at the Brewery development, with the ground floor
01:04being for the Drayton Civic Society, their museum space, and then the stag and the top
01:10floor will be an event space. So a really exciting partnership and it was such a great
01:16opportunity today to showcase the space to Carol and all the volunteers and also Roy
01:22and members of the Council. So a lovely festive day.
01:25You've got some fantastic stuff in your archives, haven't you, Carol?
01:28We have.
01:29But it's a small space you've got, isn't it, there?
01:31It's a very small space, but it's full of such interesting stuff about Market Drayton Town.
01:38And that's the whole point of the museum, is to showcase Market Drayton,
01:44its history and its heritage. And now we've got the opportunity to have this
01:50wonderful space here, thanks to Jules.
01:53And what do you think of what you've seen today? It's a big space, isn't it? It's nice.
01:56It's so smart, yes.
01:58Yeah, yeah, yeah.
02:00And it's also bigger than what we've got and it will be designed especially for us
02:08to have in all the things that we need that we don't have at the moment.
02:13And Roy, there's so much history, so many stories to be told with this town, Market Drayton.
02:19And not only are we going to have a great space, but a great location as well now.
02:23Absolutely fantastic. It'll make a really good square of interesting things,
02:31what with the brewery, the pub itself, the dining area, function area and the museum all in one spot.
02:41We will actually end up renaming the street, I think, as Jules Cormann.
02:50We should do that. Yeah, that would be lovely, actually. That would be nice, yeah.
02:54So, and it's part of a large project, isn't it? It's the old stag pub,
02:58that's going to be incorporated into the upstairs space on the new build at the back here,
03:03known as the Stag at the Brewery.
03:06That's the one, which will be an event space,
03:09which looks great upstairs as well, doesn't it? Yeah, it's really exciting. It's coming together well.
03:13So, when are you, if you had a magic wand, when are we going to see this museum open?
03:18If I had a magic wand, next week. Next week. It's not that magic.
03:24No, it is going to be a long-term project for a small society like our Civic Society,
03:34and that's why we're asking for all the local community to come together, the local people that
03:41live here, the people that learn here, the people that work here, all the businesses to come together
03:47to support us and help us achieve this, make this dream come, become a reality, really.
03:55We're only a small registered charity, we're run by volunteers, it's all going to be grant funding
04:03and donations that bring us about, and come on, Mark it, Drayton. Come on, Mark it, Drayton. Pull your finger out, mate.
04:09Well, well done to everyone involved and well done to Jules for this fantastic opportunity
04:14you're giving the museum and the Civic Society. Thank you. It's up to the town now to support us.
04:20Come on, come on town, do your bit. Cheers guys, thank you.
04:25So, Anna, what's this space going to be used up for here, above the kind of the Civic Society's museum?
04:30Yeah, great question. So the Stag at the Brewery is essentially going to be a brewery visitor
04:36facility, an event space, and it's essentially you can have your own pub experience here at the
04:42brewery. So we've got the Red Lion pub across the way, and the Stag at the Brewery is essentially
04:47if you're having a do, or an event, or a party, you can hire out Stag at the Brewery. It's got
04:54its own bar, the front of the Stag has been all refurbed, there's pub games, there's a kitchen,
05:00there's full dining, we can literally cater for whatever your event is. So everything that we
05:06currently do in the mouse room of the Red Lion, we're creating a space here at the Stag. Fantastic.
05:12So I understand, I mean it's all go for you here at Jules, the Red Lion just over the way there,
05:16that's due for a big refurb as well? Yeah, so light touch compared to what we're doing over
05:21here at the Stag, but essentially once we finish the work over here, which will be early next year,
05:27we're going to be moving over to the Red Lion to do a refurbishment to meet the demand of the
05:33food offer has increased tenfold, so we're creating a bigger kitchen, we're going to be
05:38going upstairs at the Red Lion and creating a bigger bar area, so a really exciting final element
05:45of investment here at the brewery and the brewery quad. So we've got the brewery tower in the middle,
05:49the Red Lion refurbished pub, which is our flagship brewery tap, and the Stag at the Brewery
05:54as an event space with the Drayton Civic Society down below, so really exciting. People will still
06:00be able to get the pints while the refurb's going on next year at the Red Lion because you're going
06:04to kind of, you're going to move just over the road to here aren't you, just briefly? Yeah, there's
06:08always a Jules nearby, so once we close the doors at the Red Lion, we'll do a move over to the Stag
06:13so that customers can still get their pint of Jules and it's also a great opportunity for them
06:18to experience the Stag, see the space and then once the Red Lion's finished, we'll move back
06:24over and then hopefully people can then book their events at the Stag.