author

Walter Showell

1835–1901

Best remembered as the brewer behind Showell's Ales and the businessman linked with Oldbury's Crosswell springs, he helped build one of the Midlands' notable Victorian brewing enterprises. His name also survives in local publishing through Showell's Birmingham directories and reference works.

1 Audiobook

Showell's Dictionary of Birmingham

Showell's Dictionary of Birmingham

by Thomas T. Harman, Walter Showell

About the author

Born in 1835 and dying in 1901, Walter Showell is chiefly associated with Oldbury and the growth of a successful Victorian brewery business. Reliable local and reference sources connect him with Crosswell's Brewery and with the wider Showell family firm, which became well known in the Midlands.

Accounts of the business say he worked in a chemist's shop in Oldbury before establishing a brewery at Crosswells around 1870, drawing on the spring water there. The company expanded into a major regional concern, and the Showell name became familiar through brewing and related enterprises.

Showell is also remembered through the long-running "Showell's" local reference books and directories connected with Birmingham, which helped keep the family name in print well beyond his lifetime. I couldn't confirm a suitable portrait image from reliable pages I checked, so no profile image is included.