Burton’s National Brewery Centre raises last glass before closing

The National Brewery Centre in Burton, Staffordshire, has closed down to make way for office space for the beer giant Molson Coors, which owns the attraction.

The centre, which is adjacent to the Bass Brewery and operated as a museum of the town’s brewing history and events venue, held a party on 30 October to say farewell to its visitors.

Molson Coors chose to close the venue in order to use the building as its UK headquarters. The attraction, which was reliant on income from hospitality and events, had struggled to recover following the Covid pandemic.

The company’s plan to close the museum led to a public outcry in the town, with 400 people joining a march in protest last month. A petition against the closure attracted more than 8,400 signatures.

Molson Coor, the National Brewery Heritage Trust and East Staffordshire Borough Council say they are working together to develop another venue to house and display the collection. The council is intending to purchase Bass House on Burton’s High Street to create a multi-purpose heritage attraction that it hopes will eventually become self-sustainable.

The authority has been awarded £1.1m funding through the UK Government’s Towns Fund towards the heritage centre, but plans to refurbish Bass House are dependent on using £4.3m from a current £20m application to the Levelling Up Fund.

The plans have been heavily criticised by opponents of the closure, who fear the proposal is vague and unfunded, and the new heritage centre may not materialise. They argue that the best place to show the collection is in the historic brewery buildings.

Molson Coors did not respond to a request for comment but in a statement issued to Staffordshire Live last week, the company confirmed that a collections officer would be employed to care for the museum’s extensive collection of brewing artefacts until the proposed new venue is ready.

Most of the collection will continue to be stored at the current site, while larger objects will be moved to a safe environment elsewhere. The venue’s two shire horses will be temporarily rehomed.   

Adam Firby, HR and facilities director at Molson Coors, said: "While we continue to work with members of the National Brewery Heritage Trust, the council and others, to help establish a new permanent home for the collection, we also want to ensure that the groups who have volunteered at the brewery centre can continue to access the collection while that process is ongoing.

“That’s why we are today sharing an overview of how we will use areas of the brewery centre site, which are not part of our immediate redevelopment plans, to store the collection and looking at how we make these spaces available and workable for volunteer groups to continue to meet and work together. We are also supporting the appointment of a collections officer to ensure continuity of care and management of the collection until the new museum can be established.

“We appreciate that there is still detail to work through, but we wanted to provide this update so that people are aware of the work underway. We have also committed to be part of a public meeting when we, and others, are in a position to share more information on these plans and the council’s plans for the new museum.”

In a recent interview with the Beertonian, the chairman of the National Brewery Heritage Trust, Harry White, said that although he understood the public outcry against the closure, “a lot of it has been an instant gut reaction rather than serious thought as to the underlying reasons why”.

“We’re all sad to see the National Brewery Centre site close and feel extremely sorry for employees and volunteers who are losing their jobs, but the decision to close the site has to be viewed within the broader context of the current economic climate, and in particular the difficulties facing the hospitality industry,” he added.  

White said the proposed High Street site “far exceeds” the current centre in terms of size. “How the site will operate, who will be responsible and how it will be funded are issues currently under discussion,” he added.

The Bass Museum had been at the site since 1977. It was closed by Molson Coors in 2008 before reopening as the National Brewery Centre in 2010.