Friday 10 June 2016

The first beer festival - the participants

I didn't realise that Boak & Bailey had already written about this event. It was a few years back, so I've a good excuse for forgetting. I can't remember everything I wrote last month, let alone what someone else wrote a few years ago.

They'd found other references to the event. Including one that gave a full list of the participating breweries. It's an odd list. Of the 30 breweries, only two still exist: Donnington and Dreher (now called Schwechat). And there's an oddity straight off. I can't think of many lists that would include the largest brewery in Continental Europe and a tiny rural brewery in the West Country.

You know how much time I spend with my head stuffed up the past's arse. But I only recognised six names in the list. Meaning most couldn't have made it into the 20th century. It also  implies that they weren't very big. Dreher aside, none of the participants was particularly well-known.

There are none of the big names in British brewing: Bass, Allsopp, Whitbread, Truman, Barclay Perkins, William Younger, Charrington, Mann, Watney, Beamish & Crawford, Guinness and Tetley.

Brewery Town County/Country
Anton Dreher Vienna Austria  
Franz Erich Bavaria 
W. J. Green, Phoenix Brewery Luton Bedfordshire 
Wm. Potts, Anchor Brewery Cambridgeshire 
Magor, Davey, and Co., Redruth Brewery Redruth Cornwall  
Nicholl and Co. Colchester Essex 
R. J. Arkell, Donnnington Brewery Stow-on-the-Wold Gloucestershire 
E. Bowley and Son, Cotswold Brewery Cirencester Gloucestershire 
J. Richings, London Brewery Guernsey  
Biden and Co.  Gosport Hampshire 
J. Lush, St, George's Brewery Portsea Hampshire 
John Steal, Pale Ale Brewery Baldock Hertfordshire 
Henry and Co. Newry Ireland 
Hills and Son Deal Kent
Beer and Co., Original Brewery Canterbury Kent 
Gillow and Wareham, East Kent Brewery Sandwich Kent 
Jude and Co., Kent Brewery Wateringbury Kent 
Stacey, Isherwood, and Foster Maidstone Kent 
J. W.Crosby, Crown Brewery West Derby, Liverpool Lancashire
Hornby And Co. Liverpool Lancashire 
Monro and Co. Warrington Lancashire 
Sidgwick and Mottram, Sun Brewery Salford, Manchester  Lancashire 
Boddington and Co., Strangeways Brewery Manchester Lancashire, and Burton-on-Trent 
Nunnelly and Eady, The Brewery Market Harboro' Leicestershire 
Horton and Co., Dalston Brewery Haggerstone Middlesex 
Byles and Co., Grey's Brewery Henley-on-Thames Oxfordshire 
T. P. Adcock and I. J. Fast Melton Mowbray Rutland 
E. A. Green, Western Brewery Bath Somerset
Phillips Bros. Burton-on-Trent Staffordshire, and Northampton 
G. S. and H Sainsbury Devizes Wiltshire  

The geographical spread is very uneven, too. No breweries from Scotland, nor from anywhere in North other than Lancashire. Unsurprisingly given the event's location, a majority are from the South - 17 of 30. Though none are from London.

Region No. breweries
South 2
Southeast 10
Southwest 5
Midlands 4
North 5
Channel Islands 1
Ireland 1
Foreign 2
Total 30


2 comments:

Adrian Tierney-Jones said...

so where was this and when Ron? 19th century? 20th?

Ron Pattinson said...

1873.