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Berkshire Archaeological Journal 71, 1981-2

THE OLD BREWERIES OF BERKSHIRE, 1741-19841

T.A.B. CORLEY

INTRODUCTION region of the upper Thames basin. That barley was transported to Reading, Abing- In the years since the classic article of 1906 don or Wallingford and converted into in the Victoria County History,2 surprising- malt. While much was used locally, large ly little seems to have been written on past quantities were shipped down the Thames brewing and malting activities in Berkshire. to the large London brewers. In the early Although the abbeys, mills and other 1760s less than a third of this malt ended up historic buildings have received some atten- in beer brewed for sale within the county; tion in the Berkshire Archaeological Jour- the remainder went for private brewing or nal, virtually nothing on its breweries has for use in the London breweries. yet appeared, apart from one or two Private brewing was then a very thriving individual studies, by the present writer, on activity, as Berkshire had a fair number of the Simonds and Dymore Brown breweries largish country houses 'whither many of Reading.3 A check-list of Berkshire builders of London fortunes migrated to breweries, from local directories and other enjoy landed leisure',6 as well as many original sources, by an industrial archaeolo- prosperous farmers. Both these groups gist, Derek Herbert, regrettably remains normally went in for home brewing. unpublished. No study comparable with Itinerant brewers used to go from house to M. F. Tighe's well documented and illus- house in order to brew whatever was trated 'A Gazetteer of Hampshire Brewer- required; one mansion in Beenham owned ies' has yet appeared for Berkshire.4 Yet a copper that held as much as 80 gallons.7 the brewing and malting trades were of For the London breweries, Berkshire was signal importance in a county that, up to by no means the sole supplier of malt, since 1939 at least, relied heavily on agriculture for most of the eighteenth century Hert- and ancillary trades such as the processing fordshire seems to have been the principal of agricultural products. The following source. However, Berkshire's share in- account attempts to go some way towards creased as its costs of malt production and filling this gap in our knowledge. transport fell during the latter part of the century. The Thames navigation was improved after 1772 and coal for the I. MALTING malting process became much cheaper in the county once the Oxford canal was As the account in the Victoria County opened in 1790 and provided direct access History of Berkshire made clear, 'Brewing to the coalfields of the midlands and and malting have been for many years the northern England. Berkshire maltsters also staple industries of the county', the extent sought to economise in transport costs by of its eighteenth-century malting trade using barges of considerable size. Whereas being described as 'considerable'.5 The in the 1720s barges could carry only 130 reason was the accessibility of the main quarters (of 8 bushels) at a time, by the Berkshire towns to the rich barley-growing 1760s ones of 100-120 tons dead weight for

79 THE OLD BREWERIES OF BERKSHIRE, 1741-1984

1000-1200 quarters of malt were being and 'rides' that made it up. All these regularly used: the largest that could be divisions were within 25 miles of Reading physically handled on the Thames.8 and therefore allowed excise officers to Curiously enough, malt was more ex- keep in easy touch with area headquarters. pensive to transport to London than the As Berkshire was somewhat in the shape barley would have been, since its bulk of a boot, certain parts of the old county exceeded the equivalent weight of the had to be assigned to neighbouring col- unprocessed barley. The coal for malting, lections; these included Wantage (25 miles too, cost more in Berkshire than in Lon- from Reading), Hungerford (25) and don, even after 1790. However, the metro- Lambourn (29). At the same time Henley politan brewers lacked the room to produce (8), Great Marlow (14), Kingsclere (17), on the spot the substantial quantities of Watlington (17) and High Wycombe (18) malt they needed and therefore relied on were administered from Reading. A further provincial sources of supply. How long difficulty is that some time between 1796 Berkshire maintained this very profitable and 1832 Maidenhead (12) and Colnbrook trade with the capital is not known exactly, (22) were added to the Reading collection, but the pattern of malting outlets may have and Windsor (18) also.10 Since the col- changed even before 1800. lection therefore included some important At any rate, in 1741 the Reading col- breweries outside Berkshire such as lection, or revenue area of the Excise Wethereds of Marlow and Brakspears of Department (now part of the Customs and Henley, while omitting areas of the county Excise), was the third highest source of that had low population density, the figures revenue from the malt duty in England and quoted above probably overstate the Wales, contributing £25,302 compared with county's brewing and malting activities of the £31,058 of Suffolk and £29,288 of the day. The discrepancies between the Bedford; Hertford was £20,288. By 1760-2 various boundaries thus need to be borne it had become the highest, its revenue up to in mind. £36,676 whereas Suffolk, Bedford and In 1801/2 the quantity of malt charged to Hertford remained almost constant at duty in the Reading collection was 112,000 £31,351, £29,808 and £21,556 respectively. quarters. By then other areas of the Put in terms of population sizes, Bedford- country, notably Surrey as well as Bedford- shire's malt duty revenue in 1741 was by far shire and East Anglia, had overtaken it, in the highest, at nearly 53p per head, com- Suffolk and Bedford by well over 50 per pared with Berkshire's 29p, Hertfordshire's cent.11 A larger proportion of Berkshire 26*2p and Suffolk's 19p. By the early 1760s malt was going to the local brewers than Berkshire's 43p per head was catching up had gone forty years before; even so, on Bedfordshire's 54p, with Hertfordshire substantial amounts were still being sent and Suffolk well behind at 28p and 20p out of the county. During the year 1809, respectively.9 To translate these figures into for instance, 10,000 quarters of malt were actual quantities of malt, it seems that in despatched from Reading to the London the 1760s at least 110,000 quarters of malt market. Then by the 1830s the malt trade, were dutiable in Berkshire. in Reading at least, was reported to have A further complication is that the excise been in decline for some time, even though boundaries did not coincide with that of the nearly 20,000 quarters a year were being old (pre-1974) county of Berkshire, nor is it demanded from Wallingford.12 A further known exactly how they were altered over change by the end of the eighteenth the years. In the absence of any maps, the century was that some maltsters, such as area can only be defined from the divisions William Simonds of Reading, had started

80 T.A.B. CORLEY

brewing for themselves, while others were lowed the national trend in falling gradually becoming specialist suppliers to the large until the early 1820s and then enjoying a breweries that were growing up in Berk- moderate boom later in the decade. How- shire, such as the Windsor Brewery. ever, we also have reliable evidence that many beer drinkers in Berkshire were then being deliberately prevented from obtain- II. BREWING ing reasonably priced and good quality beer by the concerted action of the big brewers, Turning now to commercial brewing in the who had secured a hold over the majority county, in 1759/60-1760/1 a yearly average of the main towns' tied houses. of 58,049 barrels of stong beer and 30,394 Berkshire was by no means the only of small beer were taxed for sale in the county to suffer, although in counties to the Reading collection.13 Assuming that the west, from Wiltshire onwards, most taverns population in that collection area was continued to brew their own beer. In comparable with that of the county, 5 pints London nearly half the public houses were per week of beer on an average were being controlled by brewers, and those in the consumed by every man, woman and child principal towns and along the highways of in Berkshire. No wonder that some brewers Hampshire had been similarly 'organised'. were making large fortunes. Elizabeth As to Berkshire, out of 68 public houses in Burd of the Castle Brewery, Reading, died Reading only two — the main posting inns in 1748 worth £24,000 and William May of — were free houses, the remainder being in the Mill Lane Brewery, Reading, in 1763 the hands of brewers, distillers or wine worth £50,000, while Henry Isherwood of merchants. In Wallingford, 12 or 13 out of the Windsor Brewery in 1773 left his son 18 were controlled by the large Wells £8-9000 a year, the brewery being later brewery, while throughout the Newbury sold for £70,000. Even larger fortunes were area the brewers' monopoly was said to be amassed in the nineteenth century. William complete. Stephens of the Aldermaston and Mill In 1822 some citizens of Maidenhead Lane, Reading, breweries left £180,000 in petitioned the House of Commons to 1829 and Thomas Wethered of Great complain that, apart from two inns, there Marlow £100,000 in 1849, although some of was no free house within some miles of the their wealth came from non-brewing town; their hardship was greater because of activities.14 'very few houses in the town having The citizens of Berkshire on the whole conveniences for brewing'. The strict licen- saw their living standards rise between 1790 sing laws then in force made it virtually and 1815, due partly to the agricultural impossible for the authorities to allow any boom during the long drawn-out war with new public houses to be opened. Those France and partly to the growth in trade existing ones that came on the market were that followed the construction of the therefore snapped up, generally at inflated Oxfordshire and Kennet & Avon canals. prices, by prosperous brewers who took full The extra purchasing power no doubt advantage of their power over the market contributed to the annual output of strong by joint fixing of beer prices and conditions beer in the Reading collection doubling of sale. Brewers in the east of the country, from 58,000 barrels in 1759-61 to 125,000 including Windsor, used to meet regularly barrels in 1814/5, while the population once or twice a month. To the west they increased by no more than one-third.15 were less well organised but met whenever Home brewing was also on the decline. they judged price changes to be necessary. Local demand for strong beer then fol- Most of the above information comes

81 THE OLD BREWERIES OF BERKSHIRE, 1741-1984 from the testimony of John Adams, a spirit the resources to resist his powerful rivals dealer and hop merchant of Reading, to and by 1814 was so disillusioned that he two parliamentary committees of 1817-8 on intended to sell the brewery and give all his the Police of the Metropolis and Public attention to his banking activities. Instead, Breweries respectively.16 He claimed that his son Blackall Simonds took over the in Reading the quality of the beer had been brewery and kept it going until a change in getting steadily worse for several decades. legislation at last allowed it to compete There were then four common (wholesale) fairly with rival firms.17 brewers in the town, compared with six Some parts of the county must still have some twenty years earlier; all but two put had good beer that was much in demand. private profit before the common good. In The Windsor Brewery, for instance, had in 1795 the publicans tied to the Reading the mid-1780s been producing about 10,000 brewery formerly owned by Adam Smith barrels a year, but after its Boulton & Watt (d. 1772) and later by Sir James Patey had engine was installed in 1797, it succeeded in gone in a body to see the proprietor. He trebling its output. Most of the extra promised to see that they were supplied production may have been exported from with better beer, but did nothing about it. the county, for in 1805, together with some When they went a second time, he refused smaller breweries in the town, it was said to to see them and gave them all notice to be sending over 15,000 barrels of porter quit. Before they could be evicted, a annually to London.18 Even so, public relative of the Smith family and a former pressure was building up for the stringent partner in the Castle Brewery, Thomas licensing laws to be eased. In 1822 some Sowdon, took over the brewery and wor- Reading inhabitants in their turn petitioned sened the tenants' plight by forcing them to the House of Commons and suggested that pay a premium of 2s. 6d. to 3s. (1212-15p) this should be done by transferring beer a barrel on all the beer sold in their houses, licences from premises to individuals ,19 and also to buy all their wines and spirits Not until 1830 did the government of the from his own business. That brewery in fact day pass into law the Beer Act, which in soon afterwards ceased production. the event took a far more drastic form than The last obstacle to the brewers' domina- had earlier been anticipated. tion in Reading vanished when Stephen Flory, the only one to stand out against the cartel, died in about 1801. That was III. THE BEER ACT OF 1830 AND according to Adams, who said that even so, ITS CONSEQUENCES one brewer's beer was in 1818 better than that of the others. The exception was What the Beer Act did was to abolish clearly William Blackall Simonds, son of altogether the beer duty and allow beer the William Simonds the maltster who had houses to be opened at will, subject only to taken up brewing in about 1760. The son the payment of a small licence fee. Accord- had moved to an extensive riverside loca- ing to some contemporary observers, an tion at Seven Bridges, Reading, and in the outbreak of drunkenness and disorderly course of the 1790s had an up-to-date behaviour ensued throughout much of brewery designed by Sir John Soane, with a Britain. Although people in Berkshire Boulton & Watt engine that was one of the seem to have complained less than else- two earliest to be installed in a Berkshire where about the effects of the Act on local brewery, the other being at the Windsor health and morals, the statistics show the Brewery. Simonds, as a relative newcomer enormous increase in outlets. Before the with only a few public house outlets, lacked Act the number of 'victuallers' (mainly

82 T.A.B. CORLEY public houses) in the Reading collection indicates how the number and average size had been below 700, but by the mid-1830s of these changed during the rest of the had risen to over 800 and had topped the century. thousand mark by the early 1860s. In The numbers thus tended to increase until addition, after 1830 there were almost the the mid-1870s, with no fewer than 62 in same numbers of 'persons licensed to sell 1875/6, after which there was a gradual beer' either on or off the premises. Yet in decline. The new breweries being set up terms of output the most important cate- must have been very modest in size until gory remained the breweries. Table I the 1850s, judging by the marked reduction in the average amount of malt used, but later on that figure increased once some of Table I Reading Collection: Numbers and the top breweries grew to considerable size Sizes of Breweries (see Table III). How, more precisely, did the Beer Act affect the principal breweries in the Read- No. of Average Malt Breweries Consumption ing collection? Fortunately, a contem- per Brewery porary return for 1830/1 to 1842/3 has (quarters) survived. To permit comparison with Table 1821/2 30 1644 I, figures in Table II are given for 1835/6 20 1831/2 34 1848 and 1841/2. In the former year, seven out 1835/6 46 1342 of the 46 breweries appear to have accoun- 1841/2 43 1062 ted for 46 per cent of the total malt used 1850/1 48 1014 locally. Wethereds of Marlow and Brak- 1860/1 39 1300 spears of Henley were outside the county, 1870/1 53 1618 but of the others two were in Windsor, two 1880/1 59 1617 1890/1 57 1960 in Reading and one in Wallingford. By 1899/ 54 2118 1841/2, seven out of 43 (only one being 1900 different) consumed 57 per cent of the malt.

Table II Reading Collection — Largest Breweries 1835/6 and 1841/2 (quarters of malt)

1835/6 184112 (46 breweries) (43 breweries) Wethered, Marlow 7470 6222 Windsor Brewery 5492 6675 Simonds, Reading 4142 2943 Jennings, Windsor 3700 3389 Wells, Wallingford 3250 3250 Brakspear, Henley 2165 1967 Mill Lane, Reading (a) 2009 Strange, Aldermaston (b) 1405

28228 25851 = 46% of 61727 = 57% of 45680

Notes: (a) 1390 in 1841/2 (b) 1413 in 1835/6

83 THE OLD BREWERIES OF BERKSHIRE, 1741-1984

How this process of industrial concen- offices being opened in different parts of tration developed during the remainder of England; later on other branches were the century is not known exactly. Table III established overseas in Malta and Gibral- gives the only figures so far obtained, from tar. A further type of outlet was the railway internal archive sources. refreshment room, the firm securing the contract for several lines on what is now Table III Reading Collection — Large the Southern Region of British Rail. Breweries 187011-189911900 (quarters of By contrast, the growth of other brew- malt) eries in the county tended to be far more modest in scale. Unlike Simonds, which grew by internal expansion, some of them 18JOI1 1899/1900 sought growth be merger. As Table II (53 breweries) % (54 breweries) % showed, the most substantial in the county Simonds, Reading 14850 17 38348 34 during the early 1840s was the Windsor Wethered, Marlow 5924) 9425) 11 Brakspear, Henley 3284 \ 3442) Brewery, which had been bought in 1837 Wells, Wallingford 3781 4 4201 4 by Nevile Reid, a member of a disting- uished brewing family later to become co- founders of Watney Combe & Reid. He Simonds must have established itself as the had acquired Abraham Darby's brewery in largest brewery in the Reading collection Cookham during 1837 and then Jennings' during the 1880s; by 1900 it accounted for at Windsor in 1852, the former being put to over a third of total production. It was in use as mailings and the latter closed down. every way a model enterprise. The Simond- Unfortunately, data on its output no longer ses were a very extensive family, and only survive, so that we cannot chart when it the ablest were chosen to enter the brew- was overtaken by Simonds. On a smaller ery. They conserved funds, for instance by scale altogether was the absorption of the paying pensions to retired partners, rather Mill Lane Brewery, Reading, by the Castle than allow them to withdraw large sums of Brewery there in 1857. capital. On the production side, they A noteworthy series of mergers occurred pioneered a number of new products to also at Abingdon, where in 1809 Child's meet changing tastes in beer, such as pale Abbey Brewery had been the only large ale (for home sales and export) from the brewery for beer and porter. The Morland 1830s onwards and a lighter type of ale family had been brewing at West Ilsley ever known as SB in the 1870s. They sought to since 1711, and from the 1790s onwards remain in the forefront of brewing tech- successive members had also been solicitors nology, their laboratory being one of the at Abingdon. Apparently through this earliest to be set up in the industry. In the important legal contact, during the 1860s 1880s they introduced a new system of some of the Morlands acquired both the fermentation, known as the Burton union Abbey Brewery following a bankruptcy and method, and by then had improved storage the Eagle Brewery after the controlling by erecting a concrete beer and wine store family had died out. They then concen- of novel design. trated production on the former site and On the marketing side, from the 1850s during the 1880s moved the West Ilsley onwards Simonds was building up its operations to Abingdon. reputation as a supplier of beer to the The succession of firms that entered the British army, partly as a result of Alder- industry after the 1830 Beer Act was passed shot's establishment as the home of the can be seen from Table IV, derived from army. This trade led to a number of branch the check-list of Berkshire breweries. As

84 T.A.B. CORLEY this was drawn up from directories, which breweries would mechanise in order to until the 1840s were not published ann- meet the increasing competition from new ually, the exact timing of the earlier producers and outlets: Tables I and IV foundations is approximate. Even so, the show how the number of breweries foun- chronology may be of interest. ded had increased between the 1840s and the 1870s. In fact, there seems not to have Table IV Berkshire 'Breweries' Founded been any concerted move towards mech- and Closed anisation. Firms setting up for the first time or transferring to new sites tended to install steam engines, but others, faced with a Founded Closed cycle of low profits, an absence of invest- 1830 and earlier 48 15 ment funds, and therefore low or zero 1831/40 19 8 investment, appear to have managed with- 1841/50 25 20 out them. Those situated by a river could 1851/60 18 17 use water power, as the Mill Lane Brewery 1861/70 19 16 at Reading had and Strange (formerly 1871/80 5 5 1881/90 9 6 Stephens) at Aldermaston did, while the 1891/1900 1 10 Castle Brewery, Reading, apparently con- 1901/10 1 13 tinued to use a horse-wheel up to the time 1911/20 — 17 when it was damaged by fire in 1888, or 1921/30 — 2 possibly even later. Such breweries with a 1931/40 — 12 purely local market that were not much After 1940 — 2 troubled by competition could continue to produce by outdated methods and still Total 145 143 make what their owners considered a reasonable living. Note: Not entirely comparable with Table I. (a) Table This lack of progressiveness among many I covers Reading collection, while Table IV covers brewers meant that there was for many pre-1974 Berkshire, (b) Some 'breweries' listed in years little incentive to form limited com- directories may have been merely outlets for their panies. The first in the county was the breweries. Berkshire Brewery Ltd. of Reading, originally founded in 1847 and incorporated Some came in during the 1830s because go- in 1865. It went into voluntary liquidation ahead publicans took advantage of the in 1881. The Wantage Brewery Co. Ltd, Beer Act to become retail brewers and founded in the early 1870s, survived until then common (wholesale) brewers. An 1920, when it was taken over by Morlands example was James Dymore Brown at of Abingdon. The giants did not follow suit Reading in 1831. Charles Butler of Read- until the general move among breweries ing, who started up at the same time, soon towards incorporation began to get under abandoned brewing and remained — as the way in the 1880s. H. & G. Simonds Ltd. successor outlet does today — a beer was founded in 1885 and Morland & Co. retailer. The Cannon Brewery also started Ltd. in 1887. In both cases control re- in the 1830s, with one public house, but in mained with members of the family con- 1872 it was acquired and closed down by cerned. Thereafter they were able to raise the temperance-minded Huntley & Pal- debentures and thus join in the general mers, which in any case needed the site for drive to acquire public houses and other expanding its biscuit-making activities.21 outlets that went on until the end of the It might have been expected that all century.23 THE OLD BREWERIES OF BERKSHIRE, 1741-1984

IV. THE TWENTIETH CENTURY veloped a new method of preparing a malt extract that was to be of great importance Since 1900 the brewing scene in Berkshire in Morlands' subsequent growth. This has been dominated by the progressive emphasis on technical progress helped to reduction in the number of its breweries raise production from 23,000 barrels in from 54, or so, to two. The pattern of 1923 (the earliest available figure) to 75,000 amalgamations and closures that occurred barrels in 1945. It had come very late to the is therefore of some interest. The com- brewery, although it had been vital to panies that took the main initiatives were Simonds' development throughout the later naturally the two survivors of today: Mor- part of the nineteenth century. lands of Abingdon and Simonds of Read- The Reading Brewery in its turn had a ing, now Courage (Central) Ltd. remarkable entrepreneur, Frederick For Morlands, the various mergers in the Adolphus (Eric) Simonds (1881-1953).25 1860s and the setting up of the limited Although not elected chairman until 1938, company in 1887 have been mentioned he had already been for many years the above. Then in 1889 it resumed its policy of driving force behind the company, which amalgamation by acquiring Saxby & Co. of he had joined in 1902. Until 1919 Simonds' Abingdon and Field & Sons of Shillingford. growth had been entirely from within, as Soon afterwards one of the most note- already related. After that date, on his worthy twentieth-century brewing entre- initiative, it began to expand rapidly by preneurs in Berkshire, Thomas Skurray merger. (1868-1938), joined the company, of which Its acquisitions between the wars were he became a director in 1899 and managing mainly in the west country, as far afield as director in 1906.24 Devonport and Bristol, but did in 1936 Skurray was kept busy not only with a include the South Berks Brewery Co. Ltd. number of brewery directorships outside of Newbury, which had itself taken over a Berkshire, but also with efforts to ration- number of Berkshire breweries, including alise the operations of some small and the Castle Brewery at Reading in 1913. As ailing breweries in the locality. In 1899 an authoritative work on the industry at Morlands acquired control of Ferguson & that time has put it, 'under the impulse of Sons' Angel Brewery at Reading, and in efficient management and brewing, with 1911 Skurray amalgamated the interests of the use of road transport, Simonds became Dymore Brown of Reading and H. Hewett a leading brewer in the South and West & Co Ltd of Waltham St. Lawrence. As his . . . These "regional" brewing companies board colleagues did not support the latter became more and more typical of the amalgamation, he personally took a con- industry during this period'. In 1938 it trolling interest in the two firms, which did produced just over one per cent of the total not become subsidiaries of Morlands until beer brewed in England and Wales, namely 1927. By then the company had also 279,000 barrels; Morlands' figure at that acquired the Wantage Brewery Co. Ltd. It time was 58,000 barrels. completed its mergers in 1928 by taking Apart from these two, by 1945 there over Belcher & Habgood of Abingdon. were virtually no breweries of any conse- By training a chemist, Skurray set up the quence left in Berkshire. Some had already first laboratory at Abingdon. Originally he gone to competitors outside the county, owned it jointly with Morlands (since his which themselves were becoming regional fellow directors were more cautious than he or national in importance. Nevile Reid & was) and only later was it taken over Co.'s Windsor Brewery had in 1918 been entirely by the brewery. There he de- acquired by Noakes & Co. of Bermondsey,

86 T.A.B. CORLEY bringing with it 140 public houses; two NOTES years later Noakes also secured Canning's Royal Brewery at Windsor. It was itself 1 My thanks are due to Derek N. Herbert, the Customs and Excise Library, Reading Public taken over by Courage & Co. of London in Libraries, Reference Section, the directors of 1930. Ushers Brewery Ltd. of Trowbridge Courage (Central) Ltd. and Mr J. Dymore Brown in 1928 took over Wells' Brewery at and Mr B. G. Harrington of Morland & Co. Ltd., Wallingford. After the second world war for help over the years. 2 The Victoria County History of Berkshire (ed. Simonds made no further acquisitions of P. H. Ditchfield & W. Page, 1906) i,404ff. breweries in the county. It was Strong & 3 T.A.B. Corley, 'Simonds' Brewery at Reading Co. of Romsey Ltd. which in 1949 acquired 1760-1960', B.A.J., 68 (1975-6) pp. 77-88, and 'A Wethereds, which itself had taken over Small Berkshire Enterprise: J. Dymore Brown & Birds of Reading in 1913, and a year later Son 1831-1944', ibid. 69 (1977-8) pp. 73-80 4 Proc. Hampshire Fid. Club Archceol. Soc., (for acquired Strange of Aldermaston. In 1953 1970) XXVII (1972) pp. 87-106 it added Higgs' Lion Brewery at Reading; 5 Victoria County History of Berkshire i, 404,407 the three Berkshire breweries could muster 6 L.S. Pressnell, Country Banking in the Industrial between them only some 67 public houses. Revolution (1956) p. 84 7 Victoria County History of Berkshire i,407 It was in company with Courages that 8 ibid, i,407, Doran, The History and Antiquities of Simonds embarked on the next stage of its the Town and Borough of Reading (1835) p.239 development. In 1959 it concluded a 9 P. Mathias, The Brewing Industry in England trading agreement with Courage & Barclay 1700-1830 (1959) Table 22, p. 394, and discussion Ltd., a recently created combine of Cour- pp. 393 ff. The proportion used for brewing in the collection has been deduced from the data in BM ages and the other London 'giant' Barclay Add MSS 38382 f.5 for 1759/60 and 1760/1. Those Perkins & Co. Ltd. The following year a for 1754/5 are given in Mathias op. cit. p. 540. full-scale merger of interests took place, County population estimates from P. Deane & and the new company was registered as W. A. Cole, British Economic Growth 1688-1959 (1967) p. 103 Courage Barclay & Simonds Ltd. 10 The earlier data of 'rides' (in 1789) are taken from Out of all the breweries in the county, Customs & Excise Library, Customs 47/363, and then, it was this one which gradually for 1832 and 1849, ibid. Surrey Collection (Brent- emerged from local to regional and then to ford Division) General Letter Book, various dates national status. At the time of the merger 11 Mathias p.539 12 Victoria County History of Berkshire i,410,409 Simonds had net operating assets of £9.8 13 See n. 9 above millions and controlled some 1200 licensed 14 Burd: local collection in Reading Public Libraries; houses: four times the number it had May: Gentleman's Magazine 1763 p.518; Isher- owned before embarking on its merger wood: Mathias p. 255 and n. The probate grants of 1829 and 1849 are from the wills in the Public policy in 1918. Of these outlets 320 were Record Office. situated in Berkshire itself. The brewery is 15 Data for 1814/5 to 1899/1900 are taken from the now (1984) the headquarters of Courage periodical returns in British Parliamentary Papers. (Central) Ltd., itself a subsidiary of the Berkshire population estimates based on Deane & Imperial Group, with brewing operations Cole (see n. 9) p. 103 and for 1815 on B. R. Mitchell & P. Deane, Abstract of British Historical on a new site south of Reading. By Statistics (1962) p. 20 contrast, Morlands was somewhat smaller, 16 B.P.P. 1817 VII, Evidence from Select Committee having in 1960 net operating assets of £1.4 on Police of the Metropolis, and 1819 V, Minutes millions and about 240 houses, mostly in of Evidence Taken before the Select Committee on Public Breweries. The Maidenhead petition is in Berkshire. About a third of its equity Journal of the House of Commons Vol.77, 1822/3 capital was owned by Whitbread Invest- p. 263 ment Co. Ltd. 17 For Simonds see T.A.B. Corley's article cited in n. 3 above 18 Mathias p. 150

87 THE OLD BREWERIES OF BERKSHIRE, 1741-1984

19 Journal of the House of Commons Vol. 77, 1822/3 Huntley & Palmers of Reading 1822-1972 (1972) p. 224 p. 79 20 Wells' output, not available from the same source, 22 Victoria County History of Berkshire i, 410 was estimated from the brewery book for 1861-96 23 J. Vaizey, The Brewing Industry 1886-1951 (1960) (in private hands). This indicates that Mavor's p. 17 figure, in General View of the Agriculture of 24 For Skurray, see T.A.B. Corley, 'A Small Berk- Berkshire (1809) p. 467, is probably double what it shire Enterprise', referred to in n. 3 above should have been. Similarly, his figure for the 25 For F.A. Simonds see the entry, by the present production of Stephens' brewery in Reading (ibid. author, in Dictionary of Business Biography IV p. 465) is wildly exaggerated, perhaps as much as O-S (London, Butterworth, 1985, forthcoming) three or four-fold 26 J. Vaizey p. 30 21 T.A.B. Corley, Quaker Enterprise in Biscuits: