The Beacon Hotel(Sarah Hughes Brewery)

The Beacon Hotel has stood on Bilston Street since around 1850, its Victorian tower brewery attached to the rear of the building. Sarah Hughes bought the pub and brewery at auction in 1920, using an insurance payout after her husband died in a mining accident, and created the recipe for Dark Ruby Mild the following year. Brewing stopped in 1957 and the tower stood idle for three decades until her grandson John Hughes reopened it in 1987, recreating his grandmother's 6% mild to the original recipe. The pub's interior survives largely as she would have known it: a warren of small rooms around a central hatch bar, with a leaded-glass counter so low that drinkers stoop to be served. CAMRA rates the interior nationally important, and the building carries a heritage listing.