John Smiths Brewery Tadcastle built 1884 Stephen Hartley began brewing in Tadcaster in 1758.[1] In 1845 Jane Hartley mortgaged the brewery to David Backhouse and John Hartley.[1] In 1847, Samuel Smith of Leeds arranged for his son John to enter the business.[1] Jane Hartley died in 1852, and John Smith acquired the business, bringing in his brother William to help him.[1] The timing proved fortuitous; pale ales were displacing porter as the beer of choice, and Tadcasters hard water proved to be well-suited for brewing the new style.[5] The prosperity of the 1850s and 1860s, together with the arrival of the railways, realised greater opportunities for brewers, and by 1861 John Smith employed eight men in his brewing and malting enterprise.[6] The operations became sizeable during the last quarter of the nineteenth century.[7] Smith died in 1879, leaving an estate valued at under £45,000 (around £3.3 million in 2013 adjusted for inflation), and his assets were jointly inherited by his two brothers, William and Samuel Smith (a tanner).[6][8] William purchased Samuels share of his brothers personal estate, and built a modern brewery in 1883–4 at the cost of £130,000 (£9.7 million in 2013).[6] By this time the company had a staff of over 100.[9] William Smith died in 1886, and the firm was inherited in partnership by his two nephews, Henry Herbert (1863 - 1911) and Frank Riley, henceforth known as Riley-Smith under the terms of his will.[10] The firm expanded throughout the 1880s by creating an agency network, establishing sixteen offices in nearby settlements, and offering free trade discounts on their beer of 20 percent or higher.[6] By 1889, the brewery was producing 150,000 barrels annually.[11] In 1889, the companys first scientifically-trained head brewer was appointed, Percy Clinch, son of Charles Clinch of the Eagle Brewery in Witney.[12] In 1892, the partnership became a limited company called John Smiths Tadcaster Brewery Company Limited, with Henry Herbert Riley-Smith as chairman.[13] In 1899 the company acquired Simpson & Co of Market Weighton, with 51 public houses, and converted the brewery into a maltings.[14][15] By the turn of the century the brewery was considered to be one of the best-run in Britain, a byword for first-class management.[6] In 1907, John Marples of Sheffield, the wines and spirits distributor, was acquired.[16] In 1907, the company began to bottle its own beer, in Tadcaster.[17] In 1912, the company owned over 250 horses, 41 of which saw service during the First World War.[18] Artificially carbonated beer was first bottled in 1923.[19] Paired horse drays were phased out by 1929.[18] During and for some time after the World Wars, the Government raised the duty on beer, and forced brewers to lower their beer strength.[20] During this period, substitutes for malted barley had to be used for brewing, including flaked barley, oats and rye.[20] The last of the companys dray horses was retired in 1947.[18] Horses had delivered beer to all the areas surrounding the brewing, as far afield as Pateley Bridge.[18] From 1948 the company exported beer to Belgium where it was bottled and distributed by Tilkens brewery.[21] In 1950 there was a general strike in Belgium, and John Smiths hired two Handley Page Halifax heavy bomber aircraft to carry 7 ton loads twice-daily of their beers into the country in order to ensure supply.[22] In 1953 the firm became a public company, with fixed assets of around £5 million, 1,000 licensed premises and around 1,100 employees.[23] In 1958, Whitworth, Son & Nephew of Wath-upon-Dearne was acquired with 165 licensed houses, and the brewery was immediately closed down.[24] In 1959 the company began to bottle imported Alken lager at Tadcaster, in response to growing customer demand.[25] In 1961 the company also began to bottle Carlsberg lager.[26] In 1961, John Smiths acquired the Barnsley Brewery Company, adding 250 licensed properties to their growing estate.[13] In 1962 the company acquired Warwicks & Richardsons of Newark-on-Trent.[27] Whilst some product rationalisation took place, popular lines such as Warwicks Milk Maid Stout were retained.[28] John Smiths closed down all the breweries it acquired, apart from Barnsley, where it invested in the brewery, and added production of John Smith beers to the site, as well as increasing the distribution of Barnsley Bitter.[29][30] As a result of acquisitions, by 1967 John Smiths was the third largest regional brewer in the country after Courage and Scottish & Newcastle, with fixed assets of £30 million.[31][32] Acquisitions diluted the Riley-Smith family stake in the company to around 10 percent.[33]
Posted on: Fri, 10 Oct 2014 09:41:02 +0000
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