A HISTORY OF SURREY 



there was at the end of the eighteenth cen- 

 tury another, that of Messrs. Fassett & 

 Burnett, a firm with which under its present 

 style of Sir Robert Burnett & Co., we deal 

 below as one still in existence.* Lysons 

 speaks of the very large distilleries which 

 were at Lambeth, both in 1792 and 181 1, 

 but does not enumerate them or give any 

 particulars of their business.' In 1826 we 

 hear of the extensive distillery of Messrs. 

 Hodges & Son in Church Street, Lambeth, 

 occupying part of the site of the old Norfolk 

 House.' In 1850 or thereabouts this was 

 owned by Mr. Benjamin George Hodges.* 



Of distilleries in other riverside parishes in 

 Surrey there would appear to have been one 

 at Battersea in the year 1786, for Mr. James 

 Bell, a malt distiller of that place, took out a 

 patent in that year for making a vegetable 

 acid or mineral from the reftise of the malt 

 wash after distillation, commonly called the 

 spent wash.* 



In 1794 there were at least two distilleries 

 in this parish, those of Messrs. Hodgson & 

 Co. and Messrs. Benwell. The former 

 company, who are described as malt distillers, 

 had purchased the curious horizontal wind- 

 mill, which had been erected near Battersea 

 Bridge some few years before for the purpose 

 of grinding colours, and had converted it into 

 a corn-mill. Their distillery was large and 

 extensive, and almost circumscribing their 

 premises they had built a range of houses 

 about 600 feet in length by 32 in width, for 

 the great number of oxen which they had 

 made it a part of their business to fatten." 

 Similarly at Messrs. Benwell's distillery from 

 three to four thousand hogs were annually 

 fattened.' 



Wandsworth has been for a hundred years 

 and more an important seat of the industry. 

 Here as early as 1792 were the distilleries of 

 Messrs. Bush & Co.,* at which we are told 

 in 1794 that 2,000 hogs were annually fat- 

 tened.' In 1 8 1 1 there was a large distillery 

 by the waterside belonging to Messrs. Leader, 

 Attlee & Langdale." The John Falconer 



' Nichols, Hist, of Lambeth, 95. 



» Lysons, Envimu of London: Surrey, i. (ed. i), 



318 ; (ed. 2) 229. 



' Allen, Hilt, of Lambeth, 341. 



' Brayley and Britten, Hist, of Surr. v. App. 

 21. 



* Pat. of Invention, No. 1527. 



' James and Malcolm, Genera/ Fieto oj the 

 A ^culture of Surrey, 31-3. 

 ' Ibid. 35. 

 » Lysons, Environs of London (ed. l), i. 503. 



• James and Malcolm, op. cit. 35. 

 " 'Lpo'D.i, Environs (ed. 2), i. 379. 



Attlee of Wandsworth, distiller, whose patent 

 taken out in 1807 for an apparatus to be 

 used in fermentation we have already noticed 

 in our account of the Surrey brewing industry, 

 was doubtless a partner in this firm. Messrs. 

 Bush & Co.'s distillery " is now the well 

 known one of Messrs. John Watney & Co., 

 which in 1850 was the only great distillery 

 properly so called in Surrey, and was one of 

 the six great firms which we are told at that 

 period performed in London and its neigh- 

 bourhood nearly all the English distillation." 

 The description of Mr. Watney's disrillery 

 in 1850 speaks of its then newly-erected 

 spacious fireproof granaries 65 feet high, its 

 chimney rising about 120 feet, the ample 

 brewery and distillery, the lengthened stables 

 and the adjoining dwelling-house amidst 

 shrubberies and green fields. The stills in 

 use were on the principle of ^neas CofFey, 

 over steam boilers, and the establishment, 

 employing two steam engines of forty horse- 

 power each and not more than seventy men, 

 paid a duty to Government on an average of 

 ;^i,ooo a day, at the rate of 7J. 10^. per 

 gallon on a million of gallons yearly of proof 

 spirit. The grain employed was malted 

 barley, with a large proportion of raw barley, 

 oats or rye. The distillery at the present 

 day is still devoted to the distillation of the 

 raw spirit from grain. The process of recti- 

 fication is performed further down the river 

 in compliance with the provisions of the 

 Spirits Act." 



But although in Surrey in 1850 the first 

 process in the manufacture of English patent 

 still spirit was carried out in one great dis- 

 tillery only, there were at that time a far 

 larger number of firms in the county than at 

 present devoted to the process of rectification. 

 There were nearly fifty rectifiers, some of 

 whom had very important establishments 

 which required a large outlay of capital and 

 displayed, we are told, great ingenuity in the 

 application of science. Of the rectifying 

 distillery of Messrs. Stephen Child & Son in 

 Trinity Square, Southwark, which was formed 

 in 1840, and in 1850 was occupied by Mr. 

 J. Scott Smith, we learn that : * Its arrange- 

 ment of boilers and stills with a steam-engine 

 and supply of hot and cold water is perfect ; 

 . . . the chimney to the engine furnace 

 though not fifty feet in height does not emit 

 more smoke than a common kitchen fire, in 

 consequence of the very simple precaution of 

 drying the coal around the fire before it is 



396 



" C. T. Davis, Industries of Wandsworth, 1 1 . 

 " Brayley and Britton, Hist, of Surr. v. App. 21. 

 " C. T. Davis, loc. cit. 



