Two giant brewery vessels that brought traffic to a standstill as they made their way through Burton and Swadlincote will take four days to get to their destination.

The two empty metal "600 barrel bright" beer tanks will be used to store finished beer before it is put into barrels and draft kegs.

They were built at Able Engineering, in Cadley Hill Road, Swadlincote, and are making their way to the Molson Coors brewery in Tadcaster, North Yorkshire.

Pictured: The vehicles on the one way system in the town, that passes around the Queen's Hotel
The vehicles on the one way system in Burton that passes around the Three Queen's Hotel

They left Swadlincote yesterday morning and will continue on their journey today. But they are not expected to arrive in Tadcaster until lunchtime on Friday, January 26.

Daniel Cudworth, the project engineer at Able Engineering, said it will take four days for them to arrive as they have to pass through several boroughs and districts, changing hands with different police forces along the way.

The convoy is also so large it has to avoid low bridges and road signs, which means there are many detours along the route to complete what would normally be a 100-mile trip to North Yorkshire.

The brewery vessels at Able Engineering

As it made its way, drivers and pedestrians alike stopped to get a good look as the giant brewery vessels as they travelled through Burton and Swadlincote with a police escort on Tuesday.

The brewery vessels leaving Able Engineering, in Swadlincote

It has taken 14 weeks to build both of the giant metal brewing tanks with six or seven people working full time on the project, which Able Engineering said has been a big job.

To get the vessels to North Yorkshire has been a huge operation with months of planning involving the police and councils. Each of the two vessels were taken on a heavy duty low-loader truck for the journey.

The extra wide and long convoy also needed a police escort for its entire journey.

Wide load passes through the town, as two brewery tanks coming from Swadlincote, head along Burton Bridge and down Wetmore road and then down to the A38 The wide load coming onto the old Burton bridge
The vessels heading over the old Burton bridge

Derbyshire police provided six police officers to escort the vessels for the first part of its journey, with officers in a police car and others as part of a police motorbike escort.

Officers stayed with the tanks until Junction 28 of the M1 as they could continue traveling up this road without a police escort.

The brewery in Tadcaster is part of the Burton-based brewing giant Molson Coors.

The brewery vessels at Able Engineering