Robert Meiklejohn established his first brewery in Alloa in 1774. In 1787 the company - Robert Meiklejohn and Co. - moved to new premises in Candleriggs, Alloa and the Candleriggs Brewery was established.
Around 1800, Robert Meiklejohn took on a partner, a Mr Connel, and the firm became known as Connel, Meiklejohn and Co. When Robert Meiklejohn's son James joined the company, the name changed once more to Robert Meiklejohn and Son.
Robert Meiklejohn died in 1829 and was succeeded in the business by his son James. After James Meiklejohn died in 1837 the company passed to Hugh Kennedy, who moved the firm to a new brewery - The Grange Brewery - on the site of the former Grange Distillery on the western outskirts of Alloa, which was eventually acquired by Meiklejohn's in 1852.
OS map - 1865
The Grange Brewery is mentioned in the Clackmannanshire name book vol. 2 - "A large and extensive ale brewery, with malt stores attached, former two stories, latter one, all in good repair. there is also a large and commodious dwelling house attached, two stories, slated and in good repair property of Robert Meiklejohn & Son."
In the same year the old Candleriggs Brewery was leased out to George Younger & Son. The Candleriggs brewery was sold in 1871 to George Younger & Son, another Alloa based brewing concern. After Hugh Kennedy's retirement the company, while still trading under the name of Robert Meiklejohn and Son, came under the ownership of Morrison and Co, then Kidd and Blair and finally, in 1856, Maitland, Gorrie and Moyes.
Charles Maitland was the senior partner and managing director of the company and took into partnership William Gorrie of Leith, and Robert Moyes of Edinburgh, who was soon replaced by James Peebles of Alloa. Under the new ownership the company prospered greatly, and agencies were established in all the leading towns in Scotland as well as in London, Newcastle, Middlesborough and Hull, England; Dublin and Cork, Ireland; and Belfast and Derry, Northern Ireland.
Charles Maitland was a master distiller and previously manager at Bald's Carsebridge Distillery in Alloa. He had adopted for the brewery his family crest of the Bass Rock and the motto "Non Fluctuo, Fluctu". The use of the name Bass Crest Brewery and the bass label was objected to by Bass, Ratcliff and Gretton, brewers of Burton-on-Trent, England, as it was similar to their own label. However, in 1876 Maitland was able to register the trademark of the Bass Rock and a label design incorporating the Bass Rock with the inscription "Bass Crest Brewery". Nevertheless, the objections continued.
By 1889, both William Gorrie and James Peebles had died, and Charles Maitland became the sole surviving partner. In 1890, the company was purchased for GBP 35,000 and on 12th March 1890 was registered as a limited liability company under the title Meiklejohn's Brewery Ltd. The subscribers to the new firm were Charles Maitland, brewer, William Gorrie Maitland, brewer; Chas. Pearson, cooper; James McDonald, cooper; Archibald Carmichael, hotel keeper; Angus Maule, commercial traveller; and Robert Paterson, brewer.
In 1898 Charles Maitland died aged 80 and in June 1899 the Bass Crest Brewery was sold to a consortium of Newcastle-based hotel owners and publicans. The firm of Meiklejohn's Brewery Ltd was voluntarily would up in April 1900. However, a new company was formed that continued to trade under the name of the Bass Crest Brewery Co, which never became a registered limited company. In 1918 Bass, Ratcliff and Gretton Ltd purchased the Bass Crest Brewery Co with its trademarks and the brewery building was sold in 1919 to Alloa brewer George Younger & Sons Ltd. The Grange Brewery was closed in 1941. The buildings were later purchased by R.G. Abercrombie.
References:
Archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk
Breweryhistory.com
Clackmannanshire Name Book Vol. 2