Brewers and Brewsters at Todmorden Mills

In 1821, English immigrant Thomas Helliwell purchased a lot of land at this site and established one of Toronto’s first breweries. When Thomas died in 1823, his widow Sarah Lord Helliwell became brewster (female brewer) and ran the business with three of her sons, Thomas Jr., Joseph and William. Beermaking was a respectable occupation for women in 19^th century Upper Canada, and brewsters were not uncommon in the trade, often taking over a beermaking operation when a brewmaster husband died. 

Sarah's daughters, Mary and Elizabeth, married paper mill owners, Colin Skinner and John Eastwood, connecting Todmorden's businesses through family ties.

Sarah Lord Helliwell, 1775 - 1842

 

The Helliwell brewery was built into the hillside.

The Don Brewery operated for nearly thirty years, until it was destroyed by fire in 1847.

The Don Valley provided an excellent environment for a brewery: the Don River powered the brewery’s water wheel, driving its pumps and machinery, natural springs in the hillside provided pure water for beermaking, and the steep ravine supported a stepped foundation for the brewery’s gravity-fed processes and deep cellars.

A water wheel drove the rollers in the Don Brewery's malt mill.

Beer requires only three ingredients: grain, water, and yeast. Hops is often added as a flavouring and a mild preservative. To make beer, the brewer cooks a mixture of water and sprouted grain (called malt) in a large vat called a mashtun. He drains off the liquid, now called wort, and adds hops, and then boils the wort in a special kettle called a copper. The wort is then allowed to cool, and yeast is added, which ferments the brew into an alcoholic and bubbly beverage.

Todmorden, 1835, showing an extensive brewery.

By 1830, the expanding Don Brewery dwarfed the nearby paper mill, and included a multi-story brewhouse, a distillery, a malthouse, and a grist mill. Todmorden’s malthouse stretched along the length of the hillside, measuring nearly 25 metres.  A two- or three story stone house was also part of the complex.  Several mills, farm buildings and stables stood nearby, and the brewery was surrounded by vegetable gardens, meadows, orchards and hops fields. 

Beer is a perishable product and before the days of year-round refrigeration, beermaking was a winter time occupation, providing seasonal employment for farm hands after the fall harvest. When in full operation, the Don Brewery employed 20 men as maltsters, brewers and labourers. A typical working day in the brewery would be 12 – 14 hours long, and some workers were required to live on site. Children also worked here seasonally, in the autumn, as hops pickers.

The Helliwells shipped beer from their wharf at Market Street, Toronto

William and Joseph Helliwell, brewers.

The Don Brewery transported kegs of beer by horse-drawn wagon to the city centre. Thomas Helliwell Jr. operated a wharf near St. Lawrence Market, and shipped beer around the north shore of Lake Ontario. Todmorden also supplied the garrison at Fort York, an active military site during the period, as well as many local taverns and inns. Montgomery’s Tavern, made famous as a gathering point for the 1837 rebellion, was one of the Don Brewery’s customers.

The Helliwells also operated a distillery at Todmorden. Rye whiskey was its primary product.

Todmorden's brewery building served as a stables in the 1900s.

After the fire in 1847, the Taylor family acquired the brewery property and adjoined it to their Brickworks operation, using the surviving structure as a stables and storage building. Eventually the Don Brewery’s first story and cellars were landfilled with debris from Brickworks kilns. Today’s brewery building represents only the top story of the original structure.