The brewery in lovely country surroundings

Have you noticed something? More Mild posts during the month of May. Seems somehow appropriate.

Trawling through the newspaper archives looking for "Mild Ale" I came upon this intriguing advert. It took me a while to work out which brewery it was for. But "A Century of British Brewers plus plus" came to my aid. It's King's of Syresham, a village in Northamptonshire.

The brewery was founded in 1854 by the Linnell family, later being in the hands of  the Kirby family before being bought by Herbert King in 1900. It closed sometime around 1940. They didn't own any pubs and only sold to the domestic trade, i.e. directly to the public*.

The wording of the advert is rather flowery:

"The brewery in lovely country surroundings

Drinks worth drinking
Prices worth studying

In addition to the above well-known Brands, we are brewing a much Stronger Ale, known as "Special Dinner Ale.”

As with all our beverages, we guarantee to use only the very best and purest materials obtainable, this and the fact that we brew in the Lovely Country account for the enormous success of all our ventures.

POST—Syresham, Brackley
PHONE- „ No. 2.
GRAMS—King, Syresham.

Our Travellers cover a very wide area and are only too pleased to take your orders."
Buckingham Advertiser and Free Press - Saturday 26 February 1927, page 4.

Here's the advert:

Buckingham Advertiser and Free Press - Saturday 26 February 1927, page 4.

The prices really are pretty cheap. 5d a pint for Bitter is cheaper than draught beer in a pub, unless it was really low gravity. The same with the Mild. Down the pub, 3% ABV MIld cost 4d, 3.5% ABV Mild 5d and 4.2% ABV Mild 6d. In the quart flagons, Bitter and Mild were even cheaper, just 3.75d per pint.
Not sure I believe the stuff about the finest materials. Everyone and his dog claimed that. No matter what muck they actually threw in.

One last thing. I love the phone numbe: 2. I wonder who had number 1?



* "A Century of British Brewers plus plus" bt Norman Barber, 2012, page 107.