During the 1840s Hunt's Albion Brewery was set up on Ecclesall Road very close to the site now occupied by Ward's recently closed brewery.
One of the pubs supplied was the Cricket Inn at Totley.
The company was bought out by Wards in the late 1880s, but the brewery was sold off and continued in production. The name was changed to Old Albion Brewery. A tied estate of over 50 pubs had been accumulated by the time the brewery closed in 1940 after being taken over by Worksop & Retford Brewery