3 minute read
Crown Wharf
Joules Brewery has recently unveiled their flagship projectat Crown Wharf in Stone.
The project is the result of a collaboration with Stone Town Council, Crown Wharf Theatre Trust and Joules Brewery.
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Crown Wharf sits on the canal adjacent to Stone High Street.The town had long wanted to connect the town centre to the canal which runs very close to the Hight Street.
The canal was used by the original Joules Brewery and Crown Wharf sits next door to the old Joules warehousesa landmark listed building in the town, in the shadow of the old brewhouse.
The project has taken five years to come to fruition, and building works have been ongoing for thelast twoand half years.
The pub opened to the public on July 20, adelayed opening due to the pandemic, the original date had been October 2020.
Joules has waitedpatiently for the restrictions to be lifted and now felt the time was right to open.
Steve Nuttall Managing Director at Joules said: We have beenplanning this for so long we wanted to let people see the pub andenjoy anormal pint, so we have waited for that. Its ahugelysignificant day for us to be tradinginStone once again after agap of nearly 50 years. This is the biggest project we have ever done, it is apub that represents us, we felt it was important to return to Stone the original home of the brewery. We have launched Stone Ale, one of our ancient trademarks with the opening of the pub, we feel we can do that now we are back in the town.
Pip Machin Marketing Manager added: The public have beenreally engagedall the way throughour journey from planning to thebuildingphase, we have had so much support and we are very grateful for the good wishes of everyone in Stone. The last three weeks have been intense as we have trained awhole new team and we are delighted to have now opened our doors and are looking forward to finding out what people think. Its anew chapter, anew start, with restrictions easing, we can look forward, Ihope we can all putavery testing 18 months behind us.
Joules has invested over £3.5 million in the project creating the tap house and also ashell building fora community theatre and ashell building for aheritagecentre, both free to their respective users.
Thanks to £50,000 of funding from the Stone Town Hall Charities, work kicked off recently on the Crown Wharf Theatres backstage areas.
Aspokesman for the project said: Its been incredibly exciting to seecontractors on site. They are building asinglestorey link extension to ensure our performers have adry route to stage. They have knocked through to connect Wharfingers Cottage to the side store building, and they have extended the floor in one of the two chorus dressing rooms. Its afantastic start. The rest of the backstage area will be arealcommunity effort. So we needhelp to get this first phase of the project completed.
The spokesman went onto explain how people can help: We are looking for local contractors, tradespeople and suppliers who can offer their expertise, labour or materials as adonation in kind. Businesses like plasterers, flooring specialists, plumbers and electricians. So if you know someone, please do send them ourway. They can email us at info@crownwharftheatre.org.u k.
We willneedvolunteers to get the back of house finished later in the summer. From painting and cleaning to lots of other jobs, and we will need lots of people to roll their sleeves up and get involved. Our incredible auditorium has been given aboost by some generous offers in kind but theres still away to go. The world of grant funding has started to open up again and we have some promising bids in the pipeline, so fingers crossed it wont be too long until we can openour doors.
They added: The Joules Taphouse in Stone -our nextdoor neighbour has now opened its doors to thepublic; andCrown Wharf Theatre and friends will be taking over the taphouse on Saturday, August 28 for some bank holiday weekend music, theatre and comedy.
To find out more about the Crown Wharf Theatre project, go online to: https://www.crownwharftheatr e.org.uk
