Whitehouse model brewery - Park Lane Tipton

This tradecard was handed down by descendants of John's son George. It is of the brewery at Park Lane, Tipton that was run by Esther's two youngest brothers George and Elisha Whitehouse. George died unmarried. Elisha married and had at least two sons, George (aka "Fred") and Ernest. Son George Frederick Whitehouse married Annie Loft Trease but died young in 1904 with no children. Son Ernest was living with George and Annie in Acocks Green in 1901 but nothing more is known of him. The identity of "John Whitehouse, beer retailer, Park Lane West" shown in an 1872 directory is unknown, but he is not a brewer. John Whitehouse, the oldest brother, is thought to have owned the brewery prior to his death around 1840 and son John (b. abt 1840) appears to have become a butcher at Horsley Heath.

In 1892 Charles Palethorpe purchased the disused Whitehouse Brothers` brewery in Park Lane West in order to expand his sausage and pork pie manufacture then based in Dudley. By 1896 he could boast that his "model sausage factory" was the largest sausage producer in the world. Palethorpes became a Tipton institution but the factory closed in 1968 when the firm relocated to Market Drayton, Shropshire. (Per Tipton Civic Society Website)

There appears to have been some doubt as to the true legal ownership of the property during the days it was the Whitehouse brewery, as a subsequent newspaper clipping (both the date and name of the newspaper are unknown) states "There seems to be a fortune waiting for some of the extremely numerous Whitehouses of Tipton. Our advertisement columns last week contained a request from Messrs Slater and Camm for descendants of certain Whitehouses, two of whom then carried on the Park Lane Brewery now developed into Palethorpes' great concern."