Our History
Timothy Taylor established the brewery in the centre of Keighley in 1858, moving to the Knowle Spring, our present site, in 1863. The principle of never accepting second best was laid down from day one and remains with us still.
Our Timeline
1826
Timothy Taylor was born in Bingley, West Riding of Yorkshire. The brewery remains in the Taylor family and is now the last independent brewer of its type left in West Yorkshire. This independence enables Taylors to survive as one of the few brewers still brewing true cask ales in the same way it has always been done.
1858
Timothy Taylor opens his brewery in Cook Lane, Keighley. Timothy Taylor starts brewing in partnership with James Shackleton and John Naylor. He buys his first pub, ‘The Volunteers Arms’ one year later.
1863
Timothy Taylor starts brewing and malting at the Knowle Spring Brewery, Keighley. Taylor buys out his previous partners and builds the new brewery and malting with financial assistance from his father-in-law, Robert Aked.
1894
Philip Taylor, son of Robert Taylor, is born. The deep well is sunk at the Knowle Spring Brewery. The water from the aquifer is still used today. After the well is sunk the brewery is extended with a new brewhouse, cellars and finally in 1911 a new fermentation building to meet growth in sales.
1928
Timothy Taylor’s wins its first brewing championship awards. The brewery is put up for sale. Fortunately, Allsopp’s bid to buy the business is withdrawn. Malting ceases at the Knowle Spring.
1952
Philip Taylor creates Landlord. Sydney Taylor, Robert’s younger son, joins the board.
1953
Death duties threaten the future of the brewery due to the passing of Percy and Philip Taylor. Gladys (Percy’s widow) marries Sir John Horsfall. With his financial help, on her son John’s determination, the business continues.
1982
Landlord wins CAMRA’s 'Beer of the Year’ for the first time. Timothy Taylor’s starts regular exports of Landlord to London.
1991
A brewhouse, bought from Oldham Brewery after its closure, is installed. This begins a 20 year investment programme to cater for Landlord’s growing popularity.
2000
Landlord wins the first ever ‘double’ for beer. CAMRA’s ‘Beer of the Year’ and the Brewers’ Championship ‘Draught Beer Cup’. The brewery expands its fermentation capacity to bring more beer to our customers.
2012
Havercake, Ram Tam and Landlord win Taylor’s latest awards. Timothy Taylor's is still privileged to reward exceptional taste.
2014
Timothy Taylor’s Boltmaker was crowned Supreme Champion Beer of Britain at the CAMRA Great British Beer Festival held in London’s Olympia. Charles Dent retires as Managing Director and becomes Timothy Taylor's President.
2014
Tim Dewey is appointed Timothy Taylor's Chief Executive - having previously worked for Unilever, Smirnoff, Tanqueray, Hendrick’s, Pilsner Urquell, many of the big names in whisky, and finally Drambuie, which is where he was working when the headhunters made their move.
2016
Boltmaker earns its second major award when it's crowned Champion Beer of Britain in the Bitter Category at the CAMRA Great British Beer Festival.
2017
After a long period of extensive testing, Knowle Spring is released and added to the core range of beers. Combining pure water from our spring with Golden Promise barley and whole-leaf Cascade, Chinook, Minstrel and Strisselspalt hops. Creating a light, refreshing and aromatic blonde beer with floral and grapefruit aromas.
2019
Our well-loved but mainly regional dark beer Ram Tam is rebranded under the name Landlord Dark. Ram Tam was brewed to the multi-award-winning Landlord Pale Ale recipe but with the addition of caramelised sugars to give a rich yet light and drinkable dark ale. Therefore, the new Landlord Dark name is selected to reflect the beer’s true pedigree and so more fans are able to try this rich yet light and drinkable dark ale.
2020
Timothy Taylor's launch our first keg ale - Hopical Storm is a 4% ABV aromatic, dry-hopped, modern pale that, while initially launched as a well-liked cask product in Summer 2019, also performed exceptionally well when we trialled it in keg at high-profile festivals and selected pubs.
2022
Timothy Taylor’s close the Lord Rodney to redevelop it. On reopening, the outlet is called "Taylor’s on the Green" to reflect its position in the town and its close relationship to us and our 164-year history in Keighley (we were founded on Cook Lane in Keighley in 1858 before moving to our current Knowle Spring site in 1863).
The £300,000 investment sees new signage alongside a repainting of the outside of the pub with a total refresh inside, including a new bar, toilets, branding, and decoration, with a revamped heated outside seating area.
Why our yeast needs to be locked up.
You might well wonder why we lock away our yeast. Until you learn how important it is to the flavour of our beer. We use our own unique strain called, appropriately, Taylor’s Taste. The properties of this particular yeast are vital to giving Landlord its deep and complex yet crisp and clean flavour. It’s so valuable to us that every year two samples of Taylor’s Taste are carefully transported to separate secret locations and stored carefully under lock and key, just in case the precious yeast here at the brewery is ever compromised or damaged. It might seem over cautious, but it’s all for that taste of Taylor’s.
