Below are some short snippets of information relating to Groves & Whitnall & the Groves family & their history, these are gathered from various sources, Many thanks to Keith & Paul for all their help in gathering this information.


The London Gazette December 18 1891.

Notice is hereby given that the Partnership lately subsisting between William Grimble Groves, Arthur William Whitnall and James Grimble Groves, carrying on business as Brewers at Regent Road Brewery, Regent Road Salford, under the style or firm of Groves and Whitnall was dissolved by the death of the said Arthur William Whitnall, as from 20th day of February 1890. All debts due to or owing by the said late firm will be received and paid by the said William Grimble Groves and James Grimble Groves, who will continue the said business in co partnership under the style or firm of Groves and Whitnall -- dated this 11th day of December 1891.

Eliza Frances Hodgkinson,
John A. Porritt,
Isaac Prockter.
Executors of Arthur Wm. Whitnall, deceased.

William Grimble Groves,
Jas. Grimble Groves.

The London Gazette 29 December 1914.

Re James Grimble Groves, Deceased.
Pursuant to the Act of Parliament of the 22nd and 23rd Vic c 35.

Notice is hereby given that all creditors and other persons having any debts, claims or demands against the estate of James Grimble Groves, J.P., A Directors of Groves and Whitnall Limited, late of 4 Sandy Lane, Pendleton, in the county of Lancaster, and of Thie Varry Manghold, in the Isle Of Man, deceased (who died on the 23rd day of June 1914, and whose will was proved in the Manchester District Registry of Probate Division of His Majesty's High Court of Justice, on the 7th day of September 1914, by Annie Eva Groves, William Peer Groves, and Keith Grimble Groves, the executors therein named., are hereby required to send in particulars of their debts, claims or demands to us the undersigned, the Solicitors for the said executors, on or before the 25th day of March 1915. :-- Dated this 24th day of December 1914.

Bullock, Worthington and Jackson 85 Mosley Street Manchester, Solicitors for the said Executors

The Manchester Comedy Theatre Company Limited.

Notice is hereby given, that a petition for the winding up of the above named Company by the Court, was on the 21st day of March 1887 presented to the Chancellor of the Duchy and County Palatine of Lancaster by Edwin Richardson Gledhill, of 60 Oldham Street, in the city of Manchester, Wholesale and Fancy Stationer, and William Grimble Groves, James Grimble Groves, Arthur William Whitnall, and Charles Henry Leigh, carrying on business as Leigh & Co at Oldfield Road Salford, in the county of Lancaster, Mineral Water Manufacturers, creditors of the said Company ; and that the said petition is directed to be heard before the Vice Chancellor Henry Fox Bristowe, Esq, at the Assizes Courts Strangeways Manchester in the county of Lancaster, on Monday 4th day of April 1887

James Grimble Groves

In 1892 he was appointed a borough magistrate and in 1900 was elected Conservative MP for south Salford. He called for the establishment of children's police courts in Salford and with his brother was one of the founders of the Salford Lads Club. He was chairman and managing director of Groves and Whitnall Ltd, He died in 1914.

£12,000 For Charity, The Times 29th August 1927

Mr William Grimble Groves of Holhird, Windermere, a former chairman of Messrs, Groves & Whitnall Limited of Regent road brewery, Salford who died on June 24 aged 79, left unsettled property of the gross value of £514,746, with net personality £453,238, He made the following charitable bequests of four percent. Perpetual First Mortgage Debenture stock in Groves & Whitnall Limited :-

£1000 to Y.M.C.A Manchester, £1000 to the Manchester & Salford boys & girls refuges,  & homes & children's aid society, £2000 each to the church army, the salvation army & Dr Barnardos homes, national incorporated association, £1000 each to the royal lifeboat institution, to royal national mission to deep sea fisherman, the church of England incorporated society for providing homes for waifs & strays, & the Hamilton memorial fund of Windermere.

A Brewers Estate, The Times 22nd September 1927

Mr William Grimble Groves of Holhird, Windermere, a former chairman of Messrs, Groves & Whitnall Limited of Regent road brewery, Salford who died on June 24 aged 79, left unsettled property of the gross value of £514,746, with net personality £453,238, He Left -

£1000 each to his nurse, Norah Haigh & her sister, £5 for each complete year to each in or out door servant in his service at his decease & not under notice, if of 5 years service, or £10 to each servant secularly qualified with less than 5 years service.

£2000 four percent perpetual first mortgage debentures in Groves & Whitnall Limited, each to Salvation Army, the church army & Dr Barnardos homes, £1000 each debentures each to the Y.M.C.A Manchester & the Salford boys & girls refuges & homes & children aid society, the royal national lifeboat institution, the royal national mission to deep sea fishermen, the church of England incorporated society for providing homes for waifs & strays, & the Hamilton memorial fund Windermere, requesting (but creating no trust in the matter) that the committee of this fund should enlarge their district so as to include Troutbeck, he directed that the above charitable agencies should not be paid if he had given these sums in his lifetime or to the extent to which he had given these sums.

He gave the trustees power in their discretion (but without any obligation in the matter) to continue any annuities or charitable or any other allowances or donations or subscriptions that he had paid in his lifetime or had promised to pay within one year of his decease.

Mr. Grimble Groves died a very rich man, looking on the measuring worth- purchasing power website that £514,746 he left in his will would now equate to over £22,000,000

Mrs Ann Eva Groves, The Times 30th September 1939

Mrs Ann Eva Groves Of Maughold Isle Of Man, dies on July 2oth aged 82 widow of James Grimble Groves leaving personal estate in England valued at £1,998 (it is stated that Mrs Groves left personal estate on the isle of man valued at £160,000) She left -

£100 to the superannuation fund of Messrs Groves & Whitnall Limited, £1000 to the Ramsey & District Cottage Hospital, £1000 to the Salford Royal Hospital to endow a bed, £1500 to the Salford Lads Club founded by her late husband & her brother in law William Grimble Groves, £1000 to the home of rest Ramsey, £200 to the vicar & wardens of Maughold for the poor there.

Below - From An Interview With Paul Dermody, chief executive, De Vere hotels

Dermody was born and bred in Salford and has never strayed far from home. Until just a couple of years ago he and Eileen, who works in a local hospice, lived in the same semi, despite his rise up the corporate ladder. Now home is a Lancashire cottage. "We have had great fun doing it up. It suits us, because Eileen's small and so am I, and the ceilings are low."

His career started as an accounting trainee at the Groves & Whitnall brewery in Salford, part of Greenall Whitley and the inspiration for Newton & Ridley, the beer in Coronation Street's Rovers Return. Needless to say, Dermody is a big Corrie fan - to the extent that his family arranged for Helen Worth, who plays Gail Tilsley, to turn up at his 50th birthday party. With no prompting he is off down memory lane: "When Len Fairclough and Jerry Booth used to go off to work on the brewery, it was actually the Groves & Whitnall brewery they used.

"I am a great fan and a great critic", he says. "But frankly, it's gone down the pan recently. It's just become silly. There are too many daft things going on. Eileen orders me not to speak when it's on, because I am constantly making comments; but I just can't keep quiet".

From Groves & Whitnall he moved up the ladder, first running the finances of the Greenalls pubs division and then moving in as financial director when Greenalls bought De Vere in 1984.