1. : Small Beginnings
The history of brewing is a fascinating and highly
relevant matter, which constitutes a whole field of
study in itself.
Such organisations as the Brewery History Society
publish scholarly volumes, often down to the most
local and detailed level.
Here, we have to skate over the subject in a few paragraphs !
It seems generally agreed that - if you go back far
enough - all inns and taverns brewed the beer(s)
on their own premises.
"Specialisation" followed and, certainly by the
mid-18th Century, common brewers - as such -
were in a healthy way of business :
supplying their products to retail outlets.
No doubt many other brewing operations were
continuing in the old pub-based tradition; but
these will have gone largely unrecorded.
Early, but established, brewers were celebrated
in the following ditty (Rawcliffe etc.) :-
May Weston's name shine, in Numbers divine
And his malt and hops never cog;
May Tompson's have store,
with Morse and some more,
And live long to brew Norwich Nog.
Norwich Nog was described as
a "humming brown beer".
Nine breweries were listed in 1783 in Norwich,
for a population of under 40,000. Six individuals or
firms were listed, in the 1805 Trades Directory, as brewers.
By 1827 the number had ballooned to 26.
(See population growth).
2. : Early Mergers
Eventually (but when?) nearly all "in-house" brewing
had died-out. Nevertheless, there is obviously a limit to
the number of breweries needed - even to supply the
many hundreds of pubs in a City like Norwich.
By 1845 the list of full-time brewers had only 18
entries, albeit three times those of 1805. In 1859 the
number was back down to 12, and in 1868 eleven.
This list included St. Margaret's - see para. 3. below.
Detailed scrunity reveals that no further significant
mergers took place within the City [1] The presumption
must be that competition was too fierce - e.g. for
John Phillips at the
Eagle & Child Brewery, who
went bankrupt in 1869.
In 1875 the number of breweries was only seven.
It was during the 19th C., while more and more pubs
concentrated on retailing, and breweries expanded their
activities accordingly, that the hugely important
parallel trend became a firmly established regime.
This was the all-conquering concept of the Tied House,
dealt with separately.
So it should be remembered, in all that follows, that
mergers between breweries were not just a matter of
brewing facilities or capacity.
The acquisition of the so-called Tied Estate
(i. e. obtaining more outlets) was often a
more decisive factor in a takeover.
[1] The subsequent domination of the "Big Four" had
everything to do with massive takeovers in the
Norfolk county area; and even ventures
into neighbouring counties !.
For details, see the notes for each brewery
(as listed below).
3. : The Big Four
During most of the era of the Big Four breweries in
Norwich, it was possible for supplies to reach the City
from other towns - via the improved transport links of the late-19th/early-20th C.
In practice, bar a small quantity from Tolly Cobbold
in Ipswich, nearly all the "imports" of draught beer
came from Lacon's brewery at Great Yarmouth.
Significantly, Lacon's had earlier obtained a foothold
in Norwich : St. Margaret's Brewery in Westwick Street,
not very much further out than Messrs. Bullard's premises.
They took over (from Arnold's etc.) in April 1902.
Related tied pubs which they acquired totalled 32.
The brewery "tap" was closed by 1939, but
probably the brewing ceased a good deal earlier.
The Classic Tie is shown on many entries
in the pub-pages. Apart from Lacon's,
it has these four major possibilities :-
- For the mid-19th C. rankings of the 'big' brewers,
see the
1845 List.
- For the 1914 situation, (the "Classic" benchmark),
see the 1914 List.
The Big 5 (including Lacon's) in fact provided an
excellent level of competition; and made enormous
efforts to out-do each other.
As late as October 1922 Y. C. & Y. were opening
a new self-styled pub, the "Crawshay Arms"; while,
not far away, Lacon's retaliated with the "Lacon Arms"
(also in 1922).
Bullards had already managed to acquire at least a
couple of premises hard by the walls of the Pockthorpe
Brewery; and much the same situation, in reverse, was
to be found near St. Miles' Bridge.
The large breweries also operated as merchants,
sometimes from adjacent brewery "taps".
Further details of brewery histories (large and small)
can be found elsewhere on this site.
4. : The Monopoly
With Lacon's still in business, and with a handful of
"free houses", it was - strictly speaking - not possible
for the dreaded Watney's of London
(Watney, Combe, Reid - latterly Watney Mann)
to establish a technical, Norwich-wide monopoly
in the early 1960's. But it sure felt like it !.
Preliminary mergers, within Norwich,
paved the way for the "ultimate solution" :
- Firstly (1958) - takeover and closure by Bullard's
of Young's & Crawshay.
- Secondly (1961) - a combined venture by
Bullard's and S. & P. to carve-up the
tied-estate of Morgan's pubs between them.
So, it was relatively easy for Watney's
to move in for the kill.
They snapped up the two remaining Norwich breweries
in November 1963. The two seemed, anyway, to have
formed a de facto cartel; and Watney's already had
their foot in the door, as explained next.
Paradoxically, it was the brewery of the defunct
Morgan's which attracted Watney's; who became its
owners, as part of the infamous 4-way deal, in 1961.
It was by far the newest City brewing-complex
(built in 1947 following extensive WWII damage) :
with a gravity-fed design, based on an unusually tall
main building.
Before long, both Bullard's (1968) and Steward's
(Jan. 1970) premises had been closed down.
The old "Morgan's" brewery was later re-named
"Norwich Brewery"; although this did not preclude
Watney's from transporting some of their products
(esp. bottled) all the way from London.
Meanwhile, Lacon's succumbed to Whitbread's
in late-1965, and the Yarmouth brewery was
subsequently closed in 1968.
Whitbread's had acquired 20% of the shares
as early as 1957.
Although Watney Mann (E. Anglia) re-branded
themselves as Norwich Brewery Co. Ltd. in 1976,
the final chapter (April 1985) of the story is too
obvious to need mentioning;
Watney's having taken over brewing plant
in other parts of East Anglia etc.
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5. : The Desert
In the earlier stages of the above consolidation process,
the drinker might worry a little about dwindling
competition; but only marginally, in relation to price
and quality, provided that the brewing plants were
(nearly) all kept functioning.
However, it was never the ethos of rationalisation
to keep many working for long. So part of the
inevitable(?) "price", for de-commissioning plant,
was to cut the overall number of different product
"lines" for customers.
First to go was Young's brewery and, as far as I can
recall, Bullards made no attempt to brew the former
types of beer at their St. Miles' base; if this was ever a
feasible idea - in view of unique brewing traditions.
The worst results of all were found at the minority
and specialist ends of the market : the discontinuance
of bottled strong-ales, such as S. & P. "Nips" and
Bullards Strong Ale.
Not to mention various draught "old" ales,
formerly supplied in the Winter.
By 1970 (closure of S&P) all the familiar brews
of the past had been eradicated. New, but inferior,
products - such as "StarLight" (a.b.v. only 2.5%) -
were foisted on an unwilling public; supplemented,
as thought fit, by London-brewed offerings of
even less appeal and dire reputation.
6. : The Interim
Lacon's beer had never been very popular in Norwich,
but the arrival of Whitbread's in 1966 - generally
considered a superior London brewer (takeover date
19.11.65) - was some relief to drinkers in the
darkest days of the Watney Era.
More useful was Government action, taken to mitigate
the monopoly effects becoming evident in many areas.
Nationally, of course, there was still a (small) number
of different (large) brewery groups.
They were ordered to swap numbers of tied houses,
so that any one area of the country could benefit from
the competition between 'nationals'. Well, between
a couple of 'nationals', anyway.
This pub-swapping exercise saw the arrival, in 1971, of
yet another London brewer : Courage (although pubs
did not transfer until February 1972).
Sadly, their offerings (Directors' Bitter apart) were
viewed as being almost on the same abysmal level
as Watney's.
From 1976 Watney's (under their new name) had
tried to appease the drinking public (somewhat)
by re-introducing handpumps in several pubs,
along with imitation brews called "Bullard's Mild" and
"S. & P. Bitter"; plus Webster's Yorkshire Bitter.
Clearly, Courage had had to supply their 47 new outlets
from a distance; so it was no surprise when Watney's
closed the "Norwich Brewery" in 1985, and began to do likewise.
They still, however, had the nerve to call their
principal product "Norwich Bitter".
7. : The Renaissance
Onlookers, in this bizarre and unfolding situation,
included smaller, "regional"brewers in neighbouring Suffolk.
Happily, it was Adnam's of Southwold
who first broke
out of their strongholds in 1977 (thanks to Courage
concessions) and began to supply Norwich drinkers;
who had hitherto often made longish journeys to
sample those (then) excellent brews.
At a subsequent point (post-1990 ?) they invented a
marketing brand which they called "Lacon Inns"
(for their ex-Lacon's/Whitbread's pubs).
Later (c. 1984) and to less acclaim, Greene King
of Bury St. Edmunds also saw a niche market for themselves.
These two were the "big guns" of the (smaller) forces
ranged against the 'nationals'. Smaller still were the
new pub-based "micro-brewers", trying to resurrect
the old traditions, on a David v. Goliath basis.
The earliest Norwich micro-brewery experiment was
short-lived, after two attempts. This was adjacent to
the Golden Star, Colegate, and was begun by
Pete Turner in March 1981 - as the Star Brewery.
After an hiatus [1] (from October 1982) it re-opened as
the Tap Brewery in January 1983 under Hashmat Jalil.
Sadly, it finally closed in March 1984 - even earlier
than Watney's.
A much more successful venture was by Wolfe Witham,
at the Reindeer, starting in May 1987. It was taken over
by the Firkin brewery-chain, in working order, several
years later; but - like the Firkin chain itself - has now
ceased operation.
Another highly-successful Norwich brewery, founded
in late-1993, is still operating at the Coach & Horses,
Thorpe Road; and goes by the name of Chalk Hill Brewery.
The guiding spirit in this case was the other
(possibly main) brewer previously at the Reindeer,
namely Bill Thomas.
[1] In the interim : the 'S' fell off the sign,
along with the foot of the 'R' !!!
8. : Freedom of Choice
In the County of Norfolk, the brewing revolution of
the late-20th Century was not unmarked. In 1981, at
Drayton (near Norwich) the Woodforde's Brewery
was founded.
They subsequently moved (twice), latterly into old farm
buildings at Woodbastwick, now the prize-winning
Broadland Brewery.
The said Wolfe Witham also found that the countryside
gave him much more room to expand his post-Reindeer
brewery business : at Gaymer's old cyder works,
near Attleborough.
Inevitably ? it was called the Wolf Brewery.
It is now the WBC brewery; moved in 2006 to
Rookery Farm, Besthorpe.
Other breweries have been set-up at Lowestoft,
Ditchingham, Reepham etc. etc. (See 9. below).
The obvious requirement for all the
above-mentioned breweries,
* whether in the City or as far away as Suffolk,
* whether new or long-established,
is available retail outlets in this particular City.
While the national brewers (principally Watney's)
had all the tied-houses in their portfolios, finding any
breakthrough into the City market was nigh-on impossible.
Fortunately, the "tied" system has - since the 1980's -
been breaking-down very rapidly - for reasons which
have everything to do with customer-demand and,
in particular, the provision of
"Real Ale" - as opposed to the bland, sterile,
mass-produced keg-beers of the 'nationals'.
Free Houses are flourishing once more,
in great numbers. !!
N. B. Useful snapshots of the situation existing in
1984
and in 1991 are available elsewhere on this site.
9. : Contemporary Scene
It is therefore sensible to continue the investigation of
all the smaller breweries, which are relatively new
(i.e. from 1981) in the Norwich context, under the
Real Ale heading.
We should note, however, in passing,
that firms like Woodforde's are:-
- Too large to be described as "micro" breweries;
- Not physically attached to existing pubs
(though there is a Woodbastwick "tap" !);
- Financially sound enough to purchase\lease
at least one City premises,
as their own tied-house.
In the case of Woodfordes, the tied pub was the
Billy Bluelight, but only until early-2005.
In the case of Adnam's or Greene King, they each have
a small collection of tied outlets. However, the latter's
portfolio seems to be growing; while Adnam's is
currently in retreat.
Which, when you come to consider it,
is just History Repeating Itself.
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