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The Old Breweries of Berkshire, 1741-19841

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The Old Breweries of Berkshire, 1741-19841 -j- -^» , W"*L,- 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 unpublished.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'.
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