Colin Cowell

Wine and Spirit Department staff take their morning tea break.

Colin Cowell was born in Allerton Bywater. He moved to Woodlesford with his mum and dad when he was one year old and has lived in the same terraced house ever since. He went to Oulton School and managed to get a job in the Wine and Spirit Department at Bentley’s Yorkshire Breweries when he was 15.

He worked there for 32 happy years before retiring in 1984 when the brewery site was closed down by Whitbread which had taken over in 1968. Here he describes his early life in the village and his working routine at the brewery.

Colin Cowell Part One

Colin Cowell Part Two

Wine and Spirit Department. Photo by Colin Cowell.
Rum bottle label.
A view of the Wine and Spirit Department taken in 1976 shortly before the brewery was refurbished by Whitbread.