Roger Seabrooke, a farmer of the hamlet of Seabrooke, near Cheddington near Buckinghamshire, settled in Grays as the Duke of Newcastle's representative. In 1770 he was appointed to public office in the manor of Grays Thurrock. Roger died in 1791..

    Roger's son Thomas and his son James had established themselves as corn, salt and coal merchants, Thomas also began to brew beer for himself.

    Exactly when Thomas began to brew beer commercially is not known but it seems it was around 1800 that he began to brew for public consumption (this assumption was due to the discovery of a declaration to the excise officers of King George III dated January 10th 1800, the year he was also appointed one of the three constables of Grays).

    In this declaration he stated that that his brew house and utensils were adjoining his house in the High St. Grays. It was in 1819 that the premises at the corner of Bridge Road and Argent St. were acquired, formally a soap works, for the purpose of brewing alcohol (the buildings have now been demolished and housing has been built as can be seen in the top photograph). In a publication dated 1927 it is stated that the brewery site covered an area of six and a half acres and employed more than 160 workers and owned 118 hotels, public houses and inns.

        The casks were made of Baltic oak which was imported, English oak was said to give the beer an acid taste, in 1927 it was reported that every 36 gallon cask cost £3 to manufacture, a fortune! especially when there were "hundreds and hundreds of them"

        Seabrooke produced draught and bottled beers. The draught range included "XXX" known as Burton, "XX"mild, "PA" bitter and "DS" stout. Bottled beers included "Green Label", "Empire Stout" and "Brown Ale". Wines and spirits included Cognac brandy, 18 years old and sold for 18 shillings and sixpence a bottle(82.5 pence) and "Ben Craig" whisky at 12 shillings and sixpence(62.5 pence) a bottle in 1927.

"The general belief is that the analytical chemist rules supreme, and that the brewer of old fashioned beer is on the dole"- extract from "The man who made a fresh start and won", published 1927.