Humphrey Smith, owner of Samuel Smith's brewery, dies aged 81

Humphrey Smith, the owner of the Samuel Smith's brewing and pub business, has died aged 81, it has been confirmed.

Established by his family in 1758, Smith had run the Samuel Smith Old Brewery since the 1980s. The firm also has about 200 pubs around the UK.

The business, based in Tadcaster, North Yorkshire, was known by many pubgoers for its eccentric rules including banning mobile phones, music, televisions and swearing at their sites.

Tadcaster's mayor Richard Sweeting described the notoriously publicity-shy businessman as a "true gentleman" and a "man of principle".

The mayor said: "He hadn't been well for a little while but Mr Smith was a private man and it was kept quiet.

"But it always is a shock when something actually happens and Tadcaster is in mourning."

Sweeting said that the flag on the town centre brewery was being flown at half-mast in tribute to Smith.

"The one thing people are saying is that it is the end of an era and it's true because you often saw him walking through the town," he added.

"I've known him all my life and he's a respected person. He's a true gentleman and he had Tadcaster at heart.

"He's done many things in Tadcaster unseen that people don't know about.

"There's a lot of amenities in Tadcaster that, if it wasn't for Mr Smith and the brewery, we wouldn't have. We've got a lot to thank him for."

The smallest of the three breweries based in Tadcaster, it is also an unlimited company which allows it to maintain financial privacy.

Smith introduced many changes when he took control as chairman including turning tenants into managers, directly employed by the brewery.

It enabled the business to dictate the policies it is known for and, as its website states, its pubs are "havens from the digital world".

Sweeting said: "Mr Smith had his standards, Mr Smith had his reasons and a lot of people understood.

"Mr Smith was also a man of principle and there would have been a reason for regulations in the pubs.

"A lot of people were quite happy for those regulations because we respected him."

There have also been several reports over the years of managers being suddenly dismissed, often for alleged breaches of the rules the brewery imposed.

A number of the firm's pubs have also been closed, often at short notice, and, in some cases, left standing empty for many years.

Last year, The Abbey, a Samuel Smith pub in Derby, abruptly closed with a handwritten note placed on the door saying the brewery owner was unhappy about photos of it being shared online.

Multiple sources told the BBC the landlords were informed by the brewery that they had broken policies and were dismissed with immediate effect.

In 2024, The Shoulder of Mutton in the centre of Bradford also shut unexpectedly, with the brewery refusing to share the reason why.

At the time, Bradford's CAMRA branch secretary Kate Ahern said that the closure was part of a "pattern" of unexplained losses of Samuel Smith's licensed premises.

Samuel Smith Old Brewery caused a stir once again, when bikers were barred from The Royal Oak at Ulley, near Rotherham.

Punters were greeted by a member of staff in the car park and told, 'I can't serve you, we've barred bikes'.

A major landowner, especially in Tadcaster, the brewery refused to permit the construction of a temporary footbridge over the River Wharfe in Tadcaster on land it owned in 2016.

The town's 18th Century bridge was badly damaged by floods in 2015 and, while it was repaired, the town was effectively split in half with a long diversion.

However, Samuel Smith's branded the £300,000 cost a "waste of public money", though it later said it would consider allowing the bridge to be built if it was consulted about repairs to the bridge.

In the end the plans were changed and the temporary bridge was built on council-owned land.

Smith also frequently lodged objections to a wide range of planning applications in North Yorkshire.

A spokesperson for York CAMRA said: "The newspaper headlines may well say that Humphrey was a controversial and divisive figure with many quirks - but we'd do well not to forget that he presided over a family brewery that produces exceptional real ale and craft keg beers at very affordable prices and an estate of pubs that provide a huge social impact within their communities.

"He leaves his son Samuel both a legacy on which to build but also a huge challenge in reopening many of their pubs that are currently closed and bringing some of their more arcane operational rules back into into the 21st Century!"

The brewery has yet to comment on Smith's death directly.