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"Norwich" Brewers

Watney's

Old Brewery : King Street1 - 6
2. New For Old : 3. Takeovers   5. The End Game : 6. Acknowledgements etc.

1. : The Arrival

Morgan's brewery was taken over - in a joint venture -
by Messrs. Bullards and S. & P. in 1961; the two firms
then sharing some 400 to 450 pubs between them.

The brewery itself passed to Watney Mann of
London in August 1961. It was a close copy of the
Greene King brewery in Bury St. Edmunds, having
the same architect : Mr. Jennings.

There was a Trading Agreement also written, by
which Watney's undertook to supply the tied houses,
of both breweries, with certain proprietory products
such as (keg) Red Barrel and bottled Brown Ale.

These products were heavily advertised nationally,
with the result that they diminished sales of the
local brews.
As Watney Mann (Morgan's)  they brewed from
April 1962. As early as July 1962, Bullard's
reported that Watney's keg beers accounted for
51% of all their sales of bitter.

This outcome had done rather more than intended,
in relieving the strain on the Anchor brewery, in
supplying their 'new' ex-Morgan's houses !
(and Pockthorpe brewery likewise).

By 1963 (see Takeovers) the name
Watney Mann (East Anglia) was adopted.

2. : New For Old

In 1961, far from being an old set of buildings,
the Old Brewery was the newest facility in the City.
Nevertheless Watney's invested some 2.7 million
pounds in converting the premises, to produce
(largely) keg products, between 1968 and 1973.

This included a new half-million pound building
(March 1968) for a 'continuous fermenting plant'
on the old brewhouse site.
The other 2.2 million was spent on a new
packaging-warehouse-distribution block
and offices, completed in 1973.

Closures of Bullards and S. & P. breweries,
by 1970, directly relate.

3. : Takeovers

November 1963 had seen the aquisition of both those
breweries; with worthless assurances of the retention
of their brewing functions.
Their tied-houses were legally transferred somewhat
later : February 1967 in the case of S. & P.

The takeovers were greeted locally
with a sarcastic couplet :-

    There came Three Wise Men from the South -
    Watney, Combe and Reid.
In between times, the death had occurred in
April 1965 of the long-serving Chairman of Watney's,
Simon Combe.
It was Combe's assurances that were not respected;
either in the matter of brewing, or regarding the
culling of tied houses which had come into
Watney's posession.

On the other hand, Bullard's themselves
had fickle drinkers to contend with.

A report to their Board in the 1960s stated
that the public had preference for bottled
Watney Brown Ale (1035 s.g.), because of
its sweet palate, over Bullard's Brown Ale
(1039 s.g.), even though - at a shilling a bottle -
the Bullard's product was 3 old pence cheaper
(for a stronger brew) viz. 80% of the Watney price.

Continued . . .

 

4. : After The Takeovers

Both subsidiary Norwich breweries had closed by
January 1970; therefore, from July, King Street were
producing keg Norwich Bitter and Norwich Mild;
alongside the notorious Red Barrel, and the pathetic
Starlight and Special Mild.

In 1976 Watney's re-named their brewery
"Norwich Brewery", under the mantle of
the Norwich Brewery Co. Ltd.
At this stage, the firm was already subordinate
to Grand Metropolitan Hotels
- who had taken them over in June 1972
(along with Truman's Brewery).

The programme of the Great Britain Beer Festival
of 1977 revealed Fined Bitter was already on sale
in 150 London pubs - heralding a change of heart.
The programme pointed out that : the East Anglian
beer desert is still a blot on the Watney escutcheon
and it seems absurd that Fined Bitter - which is
brewed in Norwich [1]  - should be available in
London, but not in E. A. where real ale is needed.

After the total failure of their Starlight product,
in 1978 they launched the "new" (non-keg)
Norwich Castle Bitter.
Although it was not popular, by 1980 it was
by far the most common beer sold in the
25%-plus of Norfolk pubs who were actually
selling cask beer (i.e. Real Ale).

In 1981 arrived an imitation of Bullard's Mild.

Watney's main local competitor (Courage)
had been successful in promoting John Smith's
Yorkshire Bitter, so they retaliated with
a version of Webster's Yorkshire Bitter.
This soon killed-off both Castle Bitter
and Bullard's Mild.

A final attempt in 1984 to curry favour with
Real Ale drinkers was an imitation of
Steward and Patteson's bitter.

5. : The End Game

After a review of its operations in Norwich and
elsewhere, and in the 'light' of the nationwide
rise of  lager drinkers, Grand Met. closed the
facility in King Street in April 1985, with the
loss of 155 jobs.

Watneys, as a company, was dissolved in 1979.

The 78 inherited pubs, still in Norwich in 1990,
included 3 listed as Grand Met. Estates, while the
remainder used the odd title Manns & Norwich,
which had been set-up in 1987.

In the same year (1987), despite assurances, the
'new' firm abandoned the bogus S. & P. bitter
in favour of Ruddles Best.

6. : Acknowledgements etc.

Much of the material in this summary is taken from
a publication of the Centre of East Anglian Studies.

For the record :-
Watney Mann Ltd. was formed out of the 1958
merger between Watney, Coombe, Reid and
Mann, Crossman & Paulin.

A retired Norfolk brewer recalls that Watney`s
had been a great brewery, but blames two factors
for its decline :-

  • The marketing control freaks took over
    and tried to impose their vision of beer
    on the public.
  • It all changed when they brought in a
    Group Chief Chemist from Lyon`s Cakes!!
He goes on to say that a lot of ex-Watney brewers
went on to distinguished careers elsewhere in the
industry, and many micro-brewers have benefited
from their technical nous. In turn, those brewers
were released from their corporate shackles.

Earlier, Red Barrel produced at Tamplin`s in
Brighton, Red Barrel Continental, and Watney`s
London Lager had all been of good quality.

Footnote :
[1] The said retired brewer corrects this notion.
That particular beer was tankered down to Norwich
from another Watney satellite brewery (probably
Wilson's in Manchester) prior to being
packaged and sent to the Philistines in the Smoke.
Often, the tanker was driven around the block a
few laps, to make sure the yeast was evenly mixed in.

He also points out that the beer's name was absurd;
as generally, in this country, all beer is fined at some
stage. So the name was a marketeer`s bizarre take on
the real-ale brewing process. Indeed the Fined Bitter
was a half-hearted attempt to reinvent cask beer.

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