The Gray and Dacre Brewery was located in West Ham Lane,

West Ham West Ham is a district in East London, England and is in the London Borough of Newham. It is an inner-city suburb located east of Charing Cross. The area was originally an ancient parish formed to serve parts of the older Manor of Ham, a ...

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

, in the first half of the nineteenth century.

Founding and early history

The brewery was founded by John Gray (1791-1826) and the Dacre family, which resided in West Ham for several generations until the 1860s (Francis Dacre was described on the 1841

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

as a "brewer"). Gray received financial help from his father, Owen Gray, a brewer in

March, Cambridgeshire March is a The Fens, Fenland market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Isle of Ely area of Cambridgeshire, England. It was the county town of the Isle of Ely which was a separate administrative county from 1889 to 1965. Th ...

, in order to set up the business in West Ham. In 1822, following successful experiments to improve

fermentation Fermentation is a type of anaerobic metabolism which harnesses the redox potential of the reactants to make adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and organic end products. Organic molecules, such as glucose or other sugars, are catabolized and reduce ...

, it was reported that the Gray and Dacre Brewery would be adopting a new fermentation system, using equipment provided by the copper merchants

James Shears and Sons James Shears and Sons was a firm of London coppersmiths and braziers who were active from c1785 to 1891. The firm was founded by James Shears (c1750-1820) and continued by his two sons Daniel Towers Shears (1782–1860) and James Henry Shears (17 ...

. Gray subsequently visited France to observe fermentation techniques there.

Later history

Gray died in 1826 and was buried under the floor of the nave of

All Saints Church, West Ham All Saints Church is a parish church in West Ham, an area in east London. It has been a Grade I listed building since 1984. History Medieval and Tudor In the medieval era the church's parish included all of West Ham, with the one exception of th ...

. His widow Lydia (1794-1855) continued to manage the business with the Dacre family. Lydia was the youngest daughter of the coppersmith James Shears. John and Lydia's children included Ann Thomson Gray, author of ''The Twin Pupils: Or, An Education at Home'', and Frances Gray, who married her cousin the Rev.

Frederick Spurrell Frederick Spurrell (2 August 1824 – 23 February 1902) was an Anglican priest and archaeologist. Early life and education Frederick Spurrell was born at 23, Park Street in Southwark at a time when his father, Charles Spurrell (1783–1866), was ...

. They were also related, through marriage, to the Watney family of brewers. The Gray and Dacre Brewery was auctioned in 1846 and acquired by Charrington and Co.''The Times'', 6 June 1846

References

Defunct breweries of the United Kingdom 1846 disestablishments in England Breweries in London Brewing in London West Ham Watney family {{coord missing, London