Langley Distillery (Alcohols Limited), Langley Green, Warley (Nr Birmingham), West Midlands, England, U.K.

The distillery was founded in 1836, but the Langley site was built in 1796 and started out as Showells (or Crosswells Road) brewery, that fell into decline before being purchased by a group of local licensed publicans. They started using it for Gin distillation in 1902 and renamed it the Oldbury Gin Distillery. This distillery went into decline following the Second World War and the WH Palmer Group took over the dormant distillery in 1955. William Henry Palmer established the WH Palmer Group in 1805. Its main activity is chemical compounding and wholesaling. Adam Wallis-Palmer, the Great Great Grandson of the founder, is the current Managing Director.

Now referred to as Langley Distillery (it sits close to Langley Green railway station, just west of Birmingham), it is run as a subsidiary company of the WH Palmer Group under the incorporated name of Alcohols Ltd. The distillery has a staff of only 4 people: Distillery Manager Peter McKay, Master Distiller Rob Dorsett, plus Andrew Bartlam and Trevor Fletcher. The main headquarters is based at Bishop’s Stortford in Hertfordshire.

With over a century of Gin distillation history, it is like having a living museum, supported by a range of seven different production stills:

• Still No.1 Used for rectification of base spirits.
• Still No. 2 “Angela” Named after the mother of Adam Wallis-Palmer, the current Managing Director. This is a 3,000-liter still made in 1903 by John Dore & Co. and is said to be the oldest working copper pot still in the UK.
• Still No. 3 This is a 3,000-liter unused still, made in 1917. It was taken out of service during the 1940’s because of its inaccessibility, due to other stills having been installed in front of it.
• Still No. 5 This is an unused Carter Head still.
• Still No. 6 "Constance" Named after the mother of Rob Dorsett, the Master Distiller. This is a 3,000-liter copper still, made in 1917 by John Dore & Co., and is more affectionately called “Connie”.
• Still No. 7 “Jenny” This is a 10,000-liter still, installed in 1994 (it is their newest) and is believed to be the largest working still in England, if not Europe. This heavy and voluminous still had to be lowered by crane through a hole in the roof to be installed. Unfortunately there were initial teething problems requiring the roof to be reopened again, and a 6-month delay whilst repairs and tinkering occurred, before it successfully begun service.

There are three underground spring fed rivers that converge at the distillery’s site. However, the water is not quite pure enough to be used in the production of Gin, and instead is only used to cool the distillate. Langley has no bottling facilities on site and the resultant distillate is transported in bulk to customers, according to their needs. Today the distillery produces in excess of 20 million bottles of Gin per year, for over 100 different brands of Gin, and ships to all different parts of the world.

Alcohols Ltd.

Bankes

Boxer

Broker’s

Edinburgh

Edinburgh Elderflower

Edinburgh Raspberry

Finsbury

Finsbury 47 Platinum

Geranium

Jack Cain's

Jack Cain's Damson

Jack Cain's Sloe

Jodhpur

Jodhpur Reserve

Langley’s No.8

Martin Miller’s

Martin Miller's 10th Anniversary

Martin Miller’s Westbourne Strength

Palmers

The Botanical's