Thomas Salt and Co. was a brewery that operated in Burton upon Trent, England, between 1774 and 1927; over 150 years.
Thomas Salt and Co. was a brewery that operated in Burton upon Trent, England, between 1774 and 1927; over 150 years.
The brewery was founded in 1751 as Clay's Brewery by Joseph Clay I (1726-1800), [1] who came originally from Merrybower, near Derby. Some time before Joseph Clay I died in 1800, his son Joseph II (1756-1824) took over the business, and was described in The "British Directory" of 1791 as one of the famous "nine common brewers of Burton-on-Trent." Joseph II also acquired the Leeson brewery, and later opened one of the first banks in Burton, and delegated the brewery management to his maltster, Thomas Salt. He sold out to Salt just before the Napoleonic Blockade, which led to a dramatic decline in beer exports. [2] Burton brewers had exported large quantities of beer to the Baltic, importing in exchange timber and iron to make the barrels.
In “The Curiosities of Ale and Beer”, John Bickerdyke records that Thomas Salt is included in the list of brewers in the town records in 1789. [3] According to Bickerdyke, Salt's Maltings were adjacent to Clay's brewery in 1774 and by 1789 Salt had started his own brewery. Thomas Salt later worked Clay's brewery as part of his own brewery at 119 High Street, Burton.
Prior to 1802 Thomas Salt, Francis Pitt, Edward Marston and John Allen were in partnership as common brewers under the firm of Thomas Salt & Co. In 1802 Edward Marston left the partnership, leaving the other three to continue. [4] In 1804 Thomas Salt passed his share in the company to his son, Thomas Salt the Younger. [5] When Thomas Salt the Younger died in 1813 his son, Thomas Fosbrooke Salt, was only 5 years old. In 1818 the brewery was running in High Street and Susan Salt (widow of Thomas Salt) was also living in High Street. [6] At some point after this the brewery was managed chiefly by Thomas Fosbrooke Salt, under the name Salt and Co.
In 1853 Henry Wardle (Thomas Fosbrooke Salt's son-in-law) joined Salt in the business and in due course Salt's sons Edmund and William also became directors. Henry George Tomlinson, who had joined the company as its chemist also joined the board.[ citation needed ] When pale ale became popular, Salts like other Burton firms responded to the public's changed tastes and Salt's IPA became particularly well-known. The company’s workforce grew from 194 in 1861 to 400 in 1888 making it one of the major breweries in Burton behind Bass, Worthington, and Samuel Allsopp & Sons. [2]
In 1889 Alfred Barnard visited the brewery and included an extensive account in his The noted breweries of Great Britain and Ireland. [7]
After Henry Wardle died in 1892, the company became a public limited company. In an era of expansion in the 1890s, the company took over John Bell and the Anchor Brewery. By the end of the century the company had tied houses as far away as Cheltenham and Gloucester.
In the difficult trading conditions in the first decade of the 20th century, Salts were by 1906 unable to pay interest on shares [8] and tried to effect a merger with Allsopps and the Burton Brewery Company. [9] This was opposed by some of the debenture holders, and the company went into receivership in 1907. [10] The company was restructured financially by depriving the Directors of almost all the value of their holdings, but survived until 1927, when it was taken over by Bass for £1,177,773. [11]
Ringwood Brewery is a brand of beer owned by Carlsberg Marston's Brewing Company, and was formerly a small brewery on the edge of the New Forest in Hampshire, England, near the Dorset border. It produced mainly cask ales and some bottled beers.
Marston's plc is a British pub and hotel operator. Founded by John Marston in 1834, it is listed on the London Stock Exchange. Marston's disposed of its brewing operations in 2020, selling the assets to a newly formed joint venture with the Carlsberg Group to create the Carlsberg Marston's Brewing Company (CMBC), in which Marston's plc holds a 40% share.
India pale ale (IPA) is a hoppy beer style within the broader category of pale ale.
Bass Brewery is a British brewer founded in 1777 by William Bass in Burton-upon-Trent, Staffordshire, England. The main brand was Bass Pale Ale, once the highest-selling beer in the UK. By 1877, Bass had become the largest brewery in the world, with an annual output of one million barrels. Its pale ale was exported throughout the British Empire, and the company's iconic red triangle became the UK's first registered trade mark.
Jennings Brewery was established as a family concern in 1828 in the village of Lorton, between Buttermere and Cockermouth in the Lake District, England. The brewery was started by John Jennings Snr, son of William Jennings. Jennings brewed exclusively in Lorton until 1874 when its present home, the Castle Brewery in Cockermouth, was purchased. The Lorton brewery closed some five years later.
Worthington Brewery, also known as Worthington & Co. and Worthington's, is a British brewer founded by William Worthington in Burton upon Trent in 1761. It is the second oldest continuously brewed British beer brand, after Whitbread. The best known Worthington beers are its Creamflow nitrokeg bitter and White Shield India Pale Ale.
Charrington Brewery was founded in Bethnal Green, London, in the early 18th century by Robert Westfield. In 1766, John Charrington joined the company, which then traded as Westfield, Moss & Charrington from the Anchor Brewery in Stepney. It merged with United Breweries of London in 1964, and with Bass Brewery in 1967 to become the largest UK brewing company, Bass Charrington. The brewing operations of the company were bought by Interbrew in 2000, while the retail side were renamed Six Continents. In 2003, Six Continents split into a pubs business, now known as Mitchells & Butlers, and a hotels and soft drinks business, now known as InterContinental Hotels Group.
Michael Thomas Bass, DL was an English brewer and a Member of Parliament. Under his leadership, the Bass Brewery became the largest brewery in the world, and Bass the best known brand of beer in England. Bass represented Derby in the House of Commons as a member of the Liberal Party between 1848 and 1883 where he was an effective advocate for the brewing industry. He was a generous benefactor both in Derby, and in Burton-on-Trent where his company was based.
Henry Wardle was a British brewer and Liberal politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1885 to 1892.
Samuel Allsopp & Sons was one of the largest breweries operating in Burton upon Trent, England.
Burton upon Trent has a long history of brewing, at one time exporting beer throughout the world and accounting for a quarter of UK beer production; emulation of Burton water in brewing is called Burtonisation. Much of the town was given over to the industry throughout the 19th century and brewers dominated it politically and socially.
George Hayne was a merchant and entrepreneur who was responsible for the creation of the Trent Navigation in England and hence the development of Burton upon Trent as the pre-eminent beer brewing and exporting town.
The Burton Brewery Company was one of the largest brewers in Burton upon Trent, England in the 19th century.
Combe Delafield and Co. was among the major brewers in London during the nineteenth century, before being acquired by Watney in 1898, thus forming Watney Combe & Reid.
Stones Brewery was a brewery founded in 1868 by William Stones in Sheffield, West Riding of Yorkshire, England, and purchased by Bass Brewery in 1968. After its closure in 1999, its major brand, Stones Bitter, has continued to be produced by the Molson Coors Brewing Company.
Benskins was the pre-eminent brewery in Watford, and Hertfordshire's biggest brewer until its acquisition by Ind Coope in 1957.
Truman's Brewery was a large East London brewery and one of the largest brewers in the world at the end of the 19th century. Founded around 1666, the Black Eagle Brewery was established on a plot of land next to what is now Brick Lane in London, E1. It grew steadily until the 18th century when, under the management of Benjamin Truman, and driven by the demand for porter, it expanded rapidly and became one of the largest brewers in London. Its growth continued into and through the 19th century with the expansion of its brewery and pub estate. In 1873, it purchased Philips Brewery in Burton and became the largest brewery in the world.
Beer is produced through steeping a sugar source in water and then fermenting with yeast. Brewing has taken place since around the 6th millennium BC, and archeological evidence suggests that this technique was used in ancient Egypt. Descriptions of various beer recipes can be found in Sumerian writings, some of the oldest known writing of any sort. Brewing is done in a brewery by a brewer, and the brewing industry is part of most western economies. In 19th century Britain, technological discoveries and improvements such as Burtonisation and the Burton Union system significantly changed beer brewing.
Beer in Scotland is mostly produced by breweries in the central Lowlands, which also contain the main centres of population. Edinburgh and Alloa in particular became noted for the export of beer around the world in the 19th century.
Burton ale is a type of strong ale which is dark and sweet. It is named after the brewing town of Burton-on-Trent.