Beechmount 1942

The Grubb family have a long association with county Tipperary and agriculture. Earliest records state that they were farmers and linen manufacturers in England in the 16th Century. They moved to Ireland, first farming and manufacturing linen in county Wexford for about sixty years before moving to county Tipperary in 1719 where they continued to farm, not very successfully this time. Ironically the new farm, Woodhouse, adjoins Beechmount Farm, the current home of the Grubb family and their business J&L Grubb Ltd.

In 1727 John Grubb emigrated from Tipperary to New Jersey having borrowed £15 from the Irish Quaker community, his wife Anne remaining in Ireland, almost destitute. America was not kind to John and he quickly returned to Ireland, where he died, shortly afterwards, in 1731. John and Anne had a large family and their descendants developed many agri-related businesses in county Tipperary in the latter half of the 18th century, including dealings in wool, flour milling, general trading, butter production and organising transport on the river Suir.
An early reference to the families connection with the dairy industry is referenced in “Quaker Homespuns,” first published in 1932 by Isabel Grubb, which recounts that a certain Benjamin Grubb who traded as a butter merchant was robbed of his wealth by a highwayman on his return from the butter market in Cork. The interesting twist to this story is that no charges were pressed and Ben Grubb was repaid this “loan” in the form of a long string of carts all containing butter some time afterwards.

The economic contribution of the family in county Tipperary peaked in the 19th Century with the repeal of the corn laws and the beginning of cheap importation of grain from America gradually ended their commercial fortunes. By the mid-20th Century only two families remained: one played a significant role in the establishment of the Limousin cattle breed in Ireland, while the other eventually bought Beechmount Farm, the home of Cashel Blue.

When Samuel, and his wife Phyllis, bought the 80 acre Beechmount Farm in the 1930s they continued in the farming tradition of the Grubb family. At this time, and for almost the next 50 years, Beechmount Farm was managed along the more traditional mixed farming lines, until, in 1978, following Samuel’s death a few short years previously, Louis Grubb, Samuel and Phyllis’ third child, took the conscious decision to return home to focus on ensuring that the Grubb farming tradition lived on in a vibrant manner in Co. Tipperary.

To read about how Cashel Blue came to be click here

Louis Grubb in his modern milking parlour 1979

1982 the early days of cheesemaking on Beechmount Farm