Forged from good ground

Our name comes from the land

Ironstone Brew Co. brews in Eaton, in the Vale of Belvoir, on the ironstone ground that gave us our name. Different industry, different generation, same place.

Ironstone country

For nearly a century, ironstone was dug from the fields around Eaton, Eastwell, Branston and Woolsthorpe and carried away to the ironworks. Quarrying began at Woolsthorpe in 1879 and at Eastwell in 1881, and the Waltham Iron Ore Company worked the fields around Eaton from 1884 until 1958. Harston became the last place in Leicestershire where iron ore was quarried, and the final trainload left on 14 February 1974.

The land still shows it

Look closely and the quarrying is still there:

• Many fields around Eaton, Eastwell and Branston lie several feet below the roads beside them, because the ironstone was taken from beneath the topsoil.
• Long, narrow quarry trenches called gullets survive in places, including near Branston.
• Eaton has a surviving railway embankment and the final quarry face near Eaton Grange, worked until 1948.
• One old quarry is now woodland.

Where the line ended, the brewing began

The ore from these fields was taken to a tipping dock near Eaton, at the end of the old Eaton branch railway, and loaded into main-line wagons. Our farm sits close to where that line ran out.

The names on our beer

Our beers carry names that were worked into this ground: the machines and moments people here still remember. We use them as a quiet salute to the people and graft that moved the stone, not as a costume for the beer. Our first four are Cambrai, Lord Granby, The Underbank and Nancy.

Small batches, good company

The result is a modern brewery rooted in the farm beneath our feet: small-batch beer, brewed in the Vale of Belvoir, for proper pints and good company. We deliver free within five miles of the brewery.