Brewhouse Tower
Beer making was a key ability of a “good domestic housewife” in the Tudor era when Burton Constable was built. Little is known about the Hall’s brewing facilities before William commissioned Capability Brown to design service facilities and a brewhouse in the South Courtyard in 1772. As the fact that beer was a safer drink than water, due to the way that water was boiled in large coppers while hops and malt were added, it would certainly have been a key part of everyday life here!
Country house brewing methods in the 18th and 19th Centuries remained very basic, but by the mid-18th century the status of a wealthy household demanded a male brewer. Local brewer John Walkinton was often employed in Burton Constable’s new brewhouse. The rapidly growing number of servants employed in households from the start of the 1700s would have made this vital drink more important than ever.
Access to the vast casks of beer stored in the cellar were strictly controlled by the Butler, where the surviving casks can still be seen by visitors on our 'Below Stairs' tours.