W. B. MEW, LANGTON & CO., LTD.

ML

W. B. MEW, LANGTON & CO., LTD.

1862-1971

A collector of business records reflecting the financial, administrative and trading activities of a successful Isle of Wight brewery

When cataloguing commenced in 1987 it was decided not to carry out a major resort but simply to describe what existed. The present catalogue, then, should be regarded primarily as a working tool to be used in the further ordering and description of the documents at a later date. Original bundles were reconstituted wherever possible, but with due caution, disturbed bundles are always described as such in the catalogue. The bundling of tenancy agreements by location is entirely artificial. The final arrangement in the catalogue was achieved by re-sorting a set of index cards describing each bundle or individual item as appropriate - hence the dual numbering system, catalogue number in the left hand column and call-number in square brackets below the relevant entry.

CONTENTS

ML/1. Articles of association etc.

ML/2. Attendance books

ML/3. Audited accounts

ML/4. Published accounts

ML/5. Share and Debenture certificates, etc.

ML/6. Debenture Trustee Deeds, etc.

ML/7. Register of dividends and interest

ML/8. Title deeds, etc.

ML/9. Ledgers

ML/10. Cash Books

ML/11. Banking Account Books

ML/12. Bought Ledgers

ML/13. Public House Sales Ledgers

ML/14. Public Ledgers

ML/15. Private Ledgers

ML/16. Daily Sales Books

ML/17. Trade summaries

ML/18. Rent Ledgers, etc.

ML/19. Stocke Books, annual returns

ML/20. Other financial records

ML/21. Post Books

ML/22. Registers of Mortgages

ML/23. Balance Books

ML/24. Sales Analysis Books

ML/25. General Analysis Ledgers

ML/26. Invoice Books

ML/27. Petty Cash Books

ML/28. Half Yearly internal accounts

ML/29. Annual summaries of wages

ML/30. Cheque books

ML/31. Invoices

ML/32. Receipts

ML/33. Bank Books

ML/34. Salaries and Wages Books

ML/35. Leases and tenancy agreements

ML/36. Public House Inventories

ML/37. Licences

ML/38. Notices re Changes of tenancy

ML/39. Bundles of Licencing Files

ML/40. Rent Receipt Books

ML/41. Property registers

ML/42. Miscellaneous property records

ML/43. Employees and wages records

ML/44. Brewing books

ML/45. Canteen ledgers

ML/46. Stock ledgers

ML/47. Spirit stock books

ML/48. Bottle and case ledgers

ML/49. Branch accounts

ML/50. Wines and spirits receiving books

ML/51. Bottled beer stock books

ML/52. Stock cards

ML/53. Cask lists

ML/54. Lists of Christmas gifts

ML/55. Correspondence

ML/56. Lymington Brewery records

ML/57. Brewer's Union records

ML/58. Miscellaneous records

ML/59. Records of Royal Spa Hotel, Shanklin

<span class="wrapper"><p>Further material from the Mew, Langton archive will be found at the Isle of Wight Record Office in two other places. The Eldridge deposit includes a nice set of old title deeds to the Crocker Street site, ELD.40 - ELD.196, entitled 'Mew Brewery Deeds,' Traditionally Roach-Pittis acted as solicitors for the Company but the business was transferred to James Eldridge for the last five or six years of its existence, while Buckell &amp; Drew took on the management of Francis Joseph Templeman Mew's private affairs. Acc. 87/9 is made up of leases, partnership agreements and title deeds but is not yet catalogued. These latter papers were deposited by Mrs. Hammer of Sevenoaks, Kent, niece of Leonard Parker Mew junior, long serving Managing Director of the Company and a cousin of Francis Joseph Templeman Mew.</p> <p>Amongst the material recovered from the brewery in 1979 were a quantity of personal family papers which had been left in the old board room by Francis Joseph Templeman Mew. These included, amongst much else, detailed records of his father's investment portfolio and sporting activities. All these family papers have been extracted from the business archive and now form a separate deposit of their own, Acc. 88/19.</p> <p>Documents both from the business papers and the personal papers are known to have been pilfered from the old brewery and two lots have been bought by the Record Office at public auction, ML/44/4, a brewing book, was acquired as Acc. 82/131, while more volumes of Francis Templeman Mew's sporting records were bought as Acc. 86/34, and have been added to the personal papers. Finally an interesting set of genealogical papers, evidently compiled by Joseph Harris Parker Mew, a London doctor, were bought by the Record Office as two lots in 1981 and 1983 and are now combined under the reference "Mew".</p> <p>JO'D April 1988</p> <p>ML/5 - ML/59, W.B.MEW, LANGTON &amp; Co, LTD.</p> <p>ELD.40-ELD.196, MEW BREWERY DEEDS</p></span>

English

59 Series

The Mew, Langton archive has unfortunately become rather dispersed and the items catalogued here by no means represent all the material known to survive.

The Company minute books, dating from 1887 to 1930, along with some share and financial records were transferred first to Romsey and then to Whitbread's London headquarters in 1968. These records are now found at WWE/P/B and WWE/1W, entitled 'Mew, Langton Records Transferred from London. Many more documents, however, remained at the Crocker Street brewery after 1968 in two separate locations. A secure strong room contained records of a subsidiary company, set up in 1958 to run the Royal Spa Hotel, Shanklin and known as The Spa, Shanklin, Ltd. Records of Mew, Langton itself were, regretably, consiged to an old malt store which was evidently broken into on more than one occasion by local youths. When Record Office staff were invited to remove these records in 1979 they found the malt store in a state of deep and dirty chaos. Many original bundles had been disturbed or broken up altogether and the room was thick with filth. Loose papers were boxed as found by the Record Office staff and, along with about two hundred volumes, taken away to the Record Office.

Small scale brewing and malting were carried out at various premises in Crocker Street, Newport by a succession of individuals and partnerships from the 17th century down to Regency times. The connection of the Mew family itself with Crocker Street dates at least from 1814, when Benjamin Mew and his partner James Cull, brewers, were jointly occupying premises there. In 1854 the Newport interests of Benjamin's son, William Baron Mew, including the Crocker Street brewery, and the Lymington, Hants., interests of another son, Thomas Parker Mew, were combined. Walter Langton, late of Lambeth, injected £20,000 capital into the business in 1873 which then became W. B. Mew, Langton & Co. Fourteen years later limited liability status was assumed.

Control of the new company remained in the hands of the Mew family throughout its life. It passed to William Baron Mew's son, Francis Templeman Mew and, after the latter's death in 1922, to his son Francis Joseph Templeman Mew. By 1965 two hundred public houses and twenty off-licences on the Isle of Wight, around Lymington and in Southampton and Portsmouth were controlled and annual sales amounted to more than £1.5 million. In that year, however, a take-over by Strong & Co. of Romsey was accepted and Mew, Langton's independent existence came to an end. In 1968 Strong's itself was bought out by Whitbread. Part of the Crocker Street brewery site is still used by Whitbreads as a depot but the major part, including most of the buildings, has been adapted and redeveloped as sheltered housing.