About
Constructed in the 1790s, the Riverside Tavern (which is Grade II Listed) was not always a pub. It was originally the manager’s house of a woollen mill (known then as Cae’r Felin or Mill Field). In 1790, The Glamorgan Agricultural Society decided to build a mill within Bridgend. The Society also purchased the most up to date technology – a Spinning Jenny. This automated weaving machine, with its multi-spindle spinning frame, was invented in 1764 and was one of the key developments in industrialising textile manufacturing in the Early Industrial Revolution. The Spinning Jenny was likely to have been set up at the mill, although there are no further records of this after 1791. The mill was designed to take the raw wool from local Glamorganshire farms through various processes and cut down the amount of travel, trade and time it took to produce yarn and textiles. The mill was also intended to inspire others across the region to develop similar facilities. Ultimately, it was hoped that the new mill would enable Glamorganshire farmers to sell more of their wool and finished cloth at a higher price. Frequent adverts were placed in the local press for children aged between 10 and 14 years old to become apprentices.
The mill complex lasted for 30 years after which the buildings were sold to a tanning business and converted into a tanyard (where skins and hides of animals were turned into leather) and then in 1829 converted into a brewery.
Cae’r Felin itself remained as a family home; occupants included the brewery owner, Thomas Lewis (the Lewis family were very influential in Bridgend in the 1840s) followed by the brewer and wine merchant Robert Henry Stiles in 1871. The 1881 Census notes that Stiles had a wife and one daughter at the time of the census as well as two servants – Ann Davis (a domestic cook) and L. Roberts (a domestic housemaid).
By the late nineteenth century, the property was known as Brewery House. By 1914 Brewery House itself had expanded, together with new outbuildings. It is thought that, sometime around 1920, the house was converted into a pub. In the 1970’s the pub was renamed as the Jolly Brewer and today it is known as the Riverside Tavern. The road, and rugby pitch (previously the athletics field) behind the property, have both taken the name from the house and pub.
