Pickering Phipps is the name of three related men – father, grandson and great grandson – who were residents of
Northampton
Northampton () is a market town and civil parish in the East Midlands of England, on the River Nene, north-west of London and south-east of Birmingham. The county town of Northamptonshire, Northampton is one of the largest towns in England; ...
, England in the 19th and 20th centuries. The first began the Phipps Brewery in Towcester in 1801. The company survives today as
Phipps NBC.

Pickering Phipps I
Pickering Phipps (1772–1830)
[Phipps Northampton Brewery Company official site - history](_blank)
founded a
brewery
A brewery or brewing company is a business that makes and sells beer. The place at which beer is commercially made is either called a brewery or a beerhouse, where distinct sets of brewing equipment are called plant. The commercial brewing of bee ...
in
Towcester
Towcester ( ) is an affluent market town in Northamptonshire, England. It currently lies in West Northamptonshire but was the former administrative headquarters of the South Northamptonshire district council.
Towcester is one of the olde ...
,
Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire (; abbreviated Northants.) is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015, it had a population of 723,000. The county is administered by
two unitary authorities: North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire. It is ...
in 1801. In 1817, he opened a brewery in Bridge Street, Northampton, near to the
River Nene
The River Nene ( or : see below) is a river in the east of England that rises from three sources in Northamptonshire.OS Explorer Map sheet 223, Northampton & Market Harborough, Brixworth & Pitsford Water. The river is about long, about of w ...
and since 1973, the site of a large
Carlsberg brewery by Danish architect
Knud Munk.
He became
mayor of Northampton in 1821. He had five sons, two of whom, Richard and Thomas, inherited the business, as later did a grandson and great grandson, both named Pickering Phipps.
Pickering Phipps II
Pickering Phipps II (1827–1890),
[Northampton Evening Telegraph, 1890, County Collection Reference -Central Public Library, Abington Street, Northampton, accessed 3 March 2010] son of Pickering Phipps I's third son Edward, also held tenure as mayor of Northampton between 1860 and 1866,
a
JP as well as most notably serving as the
Conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...
Member of Parliament
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house ...
for
Northampton
Northampton () is a market town and civil parish in the East Midlands of England, on the River Nene, north-west of London and south-east of Birmingham. The county town of Northamptonshire, Northampton is one of the largest towns in England; ...
from 1874 to 1880 and for
South Northamptonshire
South Northamptonshire was, from 1974 to 2021, a district in Northamptonshire, England. Its council was based in the town of Towcester, first established as a settlement in Roman Britain. The population of the Local Authority District Council in ...
from 1881 to 1885. He built
Collingtree Grange in 1875, which was since demolished, though the entrance lodges and gateway on the
A45 road still survive.
Pickering Phipps III
Pickering Phipps III (1861–1937) became a director of the company in 1886.
In 1888, the company built new offices at 8 Gold Street, Northampton. In 1891, the
Church of St Matthew in Kettering Road, Northampton was built and paid for by the family in memory of Phipps II. This area of the town southeast of Kettering Road, known as "Phippsville"
was built in the 1880s as a spacious, well-to-do suburb of the town. The large houses are now mostly converted into individual flats. Pickering IIIrd's Northampton home on Cliftonville Road is now the head offices and showroom of the
Jeffery-West shoe company. He was
High Sheriff of Northamptonshire in 1897. He sold the Collingtree Grange Estate to the Sears family in 1913.
Northampton pubs
Both Pickering Phipps II and his great local rival, the Liberal MP for Northampton
Charles Bradlaugh
Charles Bradlaugh (; 26 September 1833 – 30 January 1891) was an English political activist and atheist. He founded the National Secular Society in 1866, 15 years after George Holyoake had coined the term "secularism" in 1851.
In 1880, Br ...
,
Charles Bradlaugh pub
/ref> have pubs named after them in Northampton. Included amongst these is the 'Sir Pickering Phipps' on Wellingborough Road named after Pickering Phipps II, who, despite the name, holds no known evidence of having ever been knighted.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Phipps, Pickering
Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies
English brewers
UK MPs 1874–1880
People from Northampton
High Sheriffs of Northamptonshire