Arnold, Nottinghamshire - Home Brewery

Home Brewery

The town's most notable landmark is probably the Home Ales building in Daybrook. Founded in 1875, the brewery was famous for its Robin Hood logo on beermats. The brewery remained independent until 1986 when it (along with its 450 owned public houses) was purchased by Scottish & Newcastle for £123million. Scottish & Newcastle gradually ran down production, for example subcontracting Mild brewing to the rival Mansfield brewery, resulting in the eventual closure of the Daybrook building in 1996. Home Bitter is still brewed under contract at Everards in Leicester, although many of the public houses that used to serve it now sell Theakston's beers instead. The Home Ales building now houses county council offices. The illuminated 'Home of the Best Ales' sign was altered to remove the word 'Ales' and include the Nottinghamshire County Council logo. The building has an unusual ‘putti frieze’ by sculptor Charles Doman along the front wall which depicts groups of cherubs involved in the brewing of beer. Three designs are repeated in an ABCABC / CBACBA pattern. The reliefs are in a 2:3 proportion and are white casts. They depict A: a drinking table; B: barrel making ; C: stirring the brew - all allegories of the brewing process. The decorative ironwork gates are contemporaneous..

In 1950 the Home Brewery Company Ltd gave the land for Arnold's King George's Field, a permanent memorial to King George V and guaranteed for free public access in perpetuity for recreation. The Charity Commission held an enquiry that closed in December 2005 into restricted public access. Due to this ruling Arnold Town F.C. have relocated away from the town centre.

• grid reference SK590450