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Thwaites brewery invaded by 100 travellers
Thwaites Brewery in Blackburn, Lancashire, has evicted a group of 100 travellers, 21 caravans and 25 vehicles that pitched up illegally inside the historic brewery over the bank holiday weekend and prevented staff from entering the premise, leading to a tense stand-off with police.
Photo credit: @ThwaitesBrewery
The travellers forced their way in to the family-run business around 8pm on Saturday, as reported by The Daily Mail. At the height of the disturbance, a spokesperson for Thwaites told the local press that staff had effectively been evicted from its head office and brewery, who were denying them access in what was described as an “aggressive stand-off”.
The brewery was told it would have to wait for the courts to open today, after the bank holiday, in order to get an eviction notice to evict the intruders. However Lancashire Police confirmed today that after several verbal warnings the group left the site early in the evening on Monday without incident.
The brewer is now assessing the damage caused to the site in just one day, which was described as a “disgusting mess” by one member of staff.
A spokesman for Thwaites said: “We could not have achieved this without the help of Lancashire Police and the support of our local MPs.
“We would like to thank them for all of their assistance over a bank holiday weekend, which we appreciate is a busy time for them.
“It’s been an incredibly difficult and frustrating weekend for us all and we are now assessing the criminal damage that has been caused both inside and outside the building, which is considerable and what theft has occurred from the site.
“But despite it being a horrendous situation, we have also seen some fantastic work from our staff who have dropped everything to help or got on with their jobs in far from ideal circumstances.
“Thank you to everyone who has supported us, either in person or through messages. We really appreciate it and we are glad to have our site back.
“Our next task is to start a massive clean-up and get our business up and running once again.”
We have our Brewery back, but it’s going to be some time before we get it back to normal. Luckily, we can count on our fantastic team who’ve all come to help clean up the mess. Thanks again for everyone’s support over the weekend! pic.twitter.com/0cYNJmIq52
— Thwaites Brewery (@ThwaitesBrewery) May 29, 2018