New blue plaque will honour founder of Arkell's Brewery in Swindon

In 1843, John Arkell bought a farm in Stratton St Margaret to grow malting barley and then built a new brewery on the Kingsdown site in 1861.

The entrepreneur founded a family-run firm that has been passed down through the generations and is still going strong today, 180 years later.

Born into a farming family in 1802 in Kempsford, John emigrated to Canada in his late twenties and took with him a group of locals who sought refuge from tough conditions they endured in agriculture at that time.

After arriving in Canada, they set up farms, established a strong community, and founded a village that is still named Arkell now.

Three years later, John returned to the UK because his fiancée preferred to live in England, so he came home to marry before buying the farm.

John converted the old Kingsdown Inn into offices and built a new pub across the road, then went on to buy up another 20 pubs in the next decade.

Acquisitions reached a peak with the addition of three pubs in one year – 1877 - and then a further seven by 1881.

John Arkell died on 21st October 1881, mourned by a community who always knew him as 'Honest John'.

At the time, the Swindon Advertiser noted that shops were closed and blinds were drawn as the funeral cortege passed to Stratton Church and added: "He was open and above board and Radical in all he said and did. The poor had lost a good friend, a plain and simple friend."

John Arkell (Image: Arkell's Brewery)

Head brewer Alex Arkell said: “John, our great, great, great, grandfather built his brewery at exactly the most important moment in Swindon’s history.

“Three miles across the fields from his farm, Isambard Kingdom Brunel opened his great Swindon Railway Works in 1843, that same year.

“Our history is inextricably linked to the growth of the Railway Works and then the subsequent growth of Swindon in the surrounding area. John saw the potential of this little town and 180 years later we’re still here and very thankful he chose this spot.

“We are all very excited at the prospect of a blue plaque for John that may coincide with our 180th anniversary year."

Stratton St Margaret Parish Council members resolved to install the Blue Plaque on the outside wall of the brewery near the traffic lights.