INDUSTRY

Aston's industry requires detailed research and treatment: herein only its effect on landscape can be considered. The manor's water having been found particularly suitable for brewing, this was to become a major activity in Victorian times. Holt, Aston Model Brewery (of which Frederick Smith's Mailings 1892 survive on Lichfield Road), and Ansell were only the largest producers.

The Ansell family had been maltsters and hop merchants at Aston Cross who went into brewing in 1881: to ensure retail outlets for their wares they acquired ale-house licences (as did the Holt Company), and began to provide new and ever more splendid taverns in Aston and elsewhere.

The great development of the brewery east from Aston Cross, and the large delivery truck depot on Lower Grounds, are the result. Vinegar brewing had been equally successful: today a vinegar main crosses Aston Expressway from one part of H.P. Sauce Works to another. The diversity of Aston's products used to reflect the nature of its industrial growth, which had been the result of many individual enterprises, often beginning in backyard workshops, spread-ing into nearby houses, demolishing them and erecting factories as they prospered.

Whole streets in south and east Aston were converted thus. Steam-power required canal-borne coal, so that canalside sites were favoured, particularly by the larger concerns like Yates's (edge-tools, electro-plate). Because chains and tubes were Aston products, the manor was equipped to supply the demand for bicycles when the boom began in the 1890s. When Aston Brook had been confined its meadows were overbuilt, almost exclusively by larger factories.

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