A HISTORY OF BERKSHIRE 



Abbey Mill. At the beginning of the last 

 century Mr. Child had a large brewery for 

 beer and porter, and there were several 

 smaller establishments for beer only. 



Some of the names of the great Newbury 

 brewers have been preserved. In the seven- 

 teenth century John Edmands, gent., Thomas 

 Martyn, gent., and Thomas Manning, are 

 styled ' beere brewers ' in the presentments 

 at the Court List of 1643, on which occasion 

 they were amerced for taking excessive gains. 

 The number of licensed houses in the town 

 was considerable, and must have taxed the 

 resources of the brewers in order to obtain 

 supplies. In 1761 there were no less than 

 forty-one within the borough. On account 

 of the position of the town on the great 

 western roads, and the good inland navigation 

 system of which it was the centre, the large 

 number of passengers travelling through the 

 town entailed the increase of inns and the 

 plentiful supply of liquors. At the beginning 

 of the nineteenth century there were thirteen 

 maltsters carrying on their trade in the town, 

 and six brewers, of whom Samuel Slocock & 

 Son, Satchell & Rowell, in Northbrook 

 Street, and Mr. Gale of Speenhamland were 

 the chief. 



Malting was carried on in Hungerford, 

 where there were three establishments in 

 1830, also in Kintbury, where a malthouse 

 was owned by Edward Giles. The Homers 

 and Morlands were maltsters and brewers at 

 West and East Ilsley. Five maltsters flourished 

 at Faringdon. The Stephens family were 

 brewers at Aldermaston, and John Kingston 

 carried on malting both there and at Wool- 

 hampton. Lamboum had two malt makers 

 and a brewery. Nor was the eastern division 

 of the county less amply provided. Cook- 

 ham had a famous firm of brewers, Messrs. 

 James and Stephen Darby, to which we shall 

 refer later, besides the breweries of James 

 Mickley and R. Partlo ; two of the old brew- 

 houses in the town have recently been pulled 

 down. Wokingham had a brewer and malt- 

 ster, James Hayward, and a brewery in Broad 

 Street owned by Thomas Lock. Bray had 

 a malting house owned by John Barton, and 

 there were small breweries at Twyford and 

 at Hurst, both of which are now extinct. 



The most flourishing trade in Wantage a 

 century ago was malting, the malt being 

 chiefly used locally as most of the private 

 householders brewed their own beer. The 

 Days and Willoughbys were the chief malt- 

 sters, and there was a brewery in Tanner 

 Street owned by Robert Palmer. One of the 

 old public-houses called ' Thatchells,' in Back 

 Street, was the origin of the present Want- 



age Brewery Company. 1 Lewis' Rockwell 

 Brewery also flourishes in the same town. 



Brewing and malting were amongst the chief 

 industries of Windsor in former days. The 

 muniments of the town record the names of 

 many of the brewers who supplied ale and 

 sack to the members of the corporation when 

 they were assembled at their meetings. Nor- 

 den's map of the castle and town shows that 

 the brewing of beer was one of the chief indus- 

 tries of the town. He depicts several casks 

 lying on the ground near the present stables 

 of the dean and canons. In a survey of the 

 manor of Windsor Underoure in the reign of 

 Edward VI., ' John Aldham beare brewer ' is 

 described as the tenant of these premises, 2 

 when there were twenty-one inns in the town. 

 The brewery shown by Norden still exists a 

 few yards to the north of the site indicated by 

 him, and is a striking example of the perman- 

 ence and stability of trade in the borough. 



Windsor ale frequently was sent as a present 

 by the Corporation to some noble lord as a 

 reminder of favours required, or as a mark of 

 gratitude for favours received. Hence under 

 1640 there are entries of payments to William 

 Mills for ale sent to the Earl of Holland, 

 and to Thomas Chapman for ale sent to Sir 

 Thomas Roe. 



William Mills and Thomas Chapman were 

 the chief brewers of the town. Other gifts 

 of hogsheads of ale are recorded, and need 

 not be mentioned here. Mr. Galland and Mr. 

 Sweetzer were also purveyors of ale in 1645, 

 and the names of George Pennington and 

 Mr. Quartermaine appear in the records of 

 1666 as providers of beer and sack for Mr. 

 Mayor and his guests when they met for the 

 transaction of the business of the town. 



The following curious table shows the price 

 of malt sold in Windsor market from 1646 

 to 1746 since continued twelve years further 

 to I758. 3 



N.B. The bushel contains 9 gallons and the 

 duty on malt is not included. 



Malt. 



Per Quarter. Per Bushel 

 ,. d. ,. d. 

 For the 1st 20 years from 

 1646 to 1666 . . . 

 For the 2nd 20 years 

 from 1666 to 1686 . 

 For the 3rd 20 years from 

 1686 to 1706 . . . 

 For the 4th 20 years from 

 1706 to 1726 . . . 

 For the 5th 20 years from 

 , 1726 to 1746 . . . 



i 12 oj 40 

 167 3 3j 



i 6 8 



3 4 



2* 3 



408 



1 Wantage, Past and Present, p. 93. 

 1 Annals of Windsor, ii., 25. 

 o Add. MSS. No. 4391. 



