COURAGE BARCLAY AND SIMONDS [BREWERS]

The records are those of many of the constituent, predecessor and associated companies of Courage, Barclay and Simonds, with a very few from later companies. To these have been added records relating to licensed and other premises which have been deposited separately and which are distinguished by the reference PH (thus ACC/2305/PH/15).

Glossary

Clerks: senior staff employed at the brewery, incl. brewers

Gyle book: a book recording each brew, its raw materials, technical details, brewer, etc.

Mashing book: book recording raw materials used to make wort for each gyle

Rest book: traditionally beer was rested, that is not brewed, during the summer months, and when brewing ceased an annual valuation was made ('a rest was taken'). Upon this was based the partners' share of profits and investment for the following year. Rest books may contain one or more rests. Ledger or other rests are annual summaries made at the time of the rest, usually for the rest

Sancta sanctorum: literally 'holy of holies', and noticed only in records of Barclay Perkins where it applies to totals of brewings and main raw materials

Square book: records the wort in fermentation vessels 'on the square', that is working in a square vessel

Abbreviations

adj. adjoining, adjacent

BAC Business Archives Council

bdle. bundle

contemp. contemporary

cont. continued

corresp. correspondence

ctpt. counterpart

incl. including, includes, included

mess. messuage

ms. manuscript

pr. printed

pub. published

The present list is arranged generally in the order of the survey prepared by the Business Archives Council (BAC) 1982-1983. Each major company was listed followed by lists of the companies it acquired so that Barclay Perkins was followed by companies it took over, then Courage and its acquisitions, Courage and Barclay and its acquisitions, and so on to a series of 'miscellaneous companies'; then H and G Simonds and its acquisitions; finally Bristol Brewery Georges and its acquisitions. It is clear, however, that some companies could have more properly been placed elsewhere in the order of lists: searchers should consult the outline histories for information.

Within each company records have been listed according to the BAC divisions of corporate, accounting, sales, production, staff and premises, and generally in the BAC order within each division. Where appropriate further divisions, such as personal and public relations, have been created. Searchers who have access to the BAC's list, which they used to compile their Guide, will notice that the producer of this list has differed from the BAC in elements of the description of a number of individual documents.

A brief history of each company begins each list, derived from the records themselves, a draft of the BAC's The Brewing Industry: A Guide to Historical Records (1990), and CAMRA's Where Have All the Breweries Gone?, as well as from John Pudney's A Draught of Contentment. More information about the companies may be derived from these sources: the aim of the brief history is to indicate the known life of the company, name changes and associated companies.

Documents within files and bundles, especially of deeds and leases, have been numbered in the order in which they were found: only where schedules exist have 'original' orders been re-created. In a few cases (eg. ACC/2305/01/1066-1222) documents found in large numbers in disarray were similarly listed as found. Some bundles which were felt to be artificial were broken up where this was deemed most practical: where possible cross-references have been given to enable such bundles to be re-constructed.

ACC/2305/01 Barclay Perkins and Co. Ltd

Corporate records

Accounting records

Sales records

Production records

Staff records

Premises records: general

Premises records: brewery

Premises records: public houses

Premises records: unlicensed property

Records of individuals: company

Public relations records: museum collection

Public relations records: library

Records of individuals: personal

ACC/2305/02 Barclay Perkins (Sudan) Ltd

Blue Nile Brewery

Corporate records

Accounting records

Sales and production records

Staff records

ACC/2305/03 Camwal Ltd

Corporate records

Accounting records

Sales records

Premises records

Public relations records

Cantrell and Cochrane Ltd

ACC/2305/04 Dartford Brewery Company Ltd

Corporate records

Accounting records

Premises records

ACC/2305/05 Medway Mineral Waters Ltd

ACC/2305/06 Royal Brewery Brentford Ltd

Corporate records

Accounting records

Premises records

Public relations records

ACC/2305/07 Style and Winch Ltd

Corporate records

Accounting records

Staff records

Premises records

ACC/2305/08 Courage and Co. Ltd

Corporate records

Accounting records

Sales records

Production records

Staff records

Premises records: general

Premises records: public houses

Public relations records

Records of individuals: personal and company

Records of individuals: personal

ACC/2305/09 Camden Brewery Company Ltd

Corporate records

Production records

Premises records

ACC/2305/10 Courage (Central) Ltd

ACC/2305/11 Courage (Eastern) Ltd

ACC/2305/12 Courage (Export) Ltd

ACC/2305/13 Courage (Western) Ltd

ACC/2305/14 Farnham United Breweries Ltd

G. Hall and Co. Ltd

ACC/2305/15 Hodgson's Kingston Brewery Company Ltd

Corporate records

Accounting records

Sales records

Production records

Staff records

Premises records

Personal and other records

ACC/2305/16 C.N. Kidd and Son Ltd

Corporate records

Accounting records

Production records

Premises records: brewery etc.

Premises records: public houses

Personal and other records

ACC/2305/17 Noakes and Co. Ltd

Corporate records

Accounting records

Production records

Staff records

Premises records

ACC/2305/18 Nevile Reid and Co. Ltd

ACC/2305/19 Courage and Barclay Ltd

Corporate records

Accounting records

Sales records

Staff records

Production records

Premises records

ACC/2305/20 Arthur Cooper (Wine Merchant) Ltd

ACC/2305/21 Carlos and Thrale Ltd

ACC/2305/22 Charles Kinloch and Co. Ltd

Corporate records

Accounting records

Sales records

ACC/2305/23 Nicholson and Sons Ltd

Corporate records

Sales records

Staff records

Other records

ACC/2305/24 Reffells Bexley Brewery Ltd

Corporate records

Accounting records

Sales records

Staff records

Premises records

ACC/2305/25 Yardley's London and Provincial Stores Ltd

ACC/2305/26 Courage, Barclay and Simonds Ltd

Corporate records

Accounting records

Sales records

Production records

Staff records

Premises records

Public relations records

ACC/2305/27 Anchor Taverns Ltd

ACC/2305/28 Charles Beasley Ltd

Corporate records

Accounting records

Production records

Staff records

Premises records

ACC/2305/29 Clinch and Co. Ltd

ACC/2305/30 Harmans Uxbridge Brewery Ltd

Corporate records

Accounting records

Sales records

Production records

Staff records

Premises records

Other records

ACC/2305/31 R. Halley Ltd

Corporate records

Accounting records

Sales records

Staff records

Premises records

ACC/2305/32 Horselydown Property Investment Company Ltd

Corporate and accounting records

Premises records

ACC/2305/33 Horselydown Property Investment Company (Developments) Ltd

ACC/2305/34 London and Provincial Shop Centres (Horselydown) Ltd

ACC/2305/35 London and Provincial Shop Centres Horselydown (Slough) Ltd

ACC/2305/36 HPIC: associated companies

ACC/2305/36/001 Town and City Properties Ltd

ACC/2305/36/002 Arndale - Horselydown Ltd

ACC/2305/36/003 Basingstoke Town Properties Ltd

ACC/2305/36/004 Couratown Property Developments Ltd

ACC/2305/36/005 Old Brewery Property Development Company Ltd

ACC/2305/36/006 Whepstead Properties Ltd

ACC/2305/37 Kingston Brewery Property Company Ltd

ACC/2305/38 McManus - Horsleydown Ltd

ACC/2305/39 Shepton Mallet Town Street Investments Ltd

ACC/2305/40 Slough Retail Centre Ltd

ACC/2305/41 James Hole and Co. Ltd

ACC/2305/42 Catering Services (Newark) Ltd

ACC/2305/43 Sheffield and District Public House Trust Company Ltd

ACC/2305/44 Saccone and Speed Ltd

ACC/2305/45 Lawn and Alder Ltd

ACC/2305/46 Star Brewery Company Ltd

ACC/2305/47 Wolton and Attwood Ltd

ACC/2305/48 Courage Group and Courage Ltd

ACC/2305/49 Ashford Valley Cyders Ltd

ACC/2305/50 Bournemouth Wine Company Ltd

ACC/2305/51 Mumford Hotels Ltd

ACC/2305/52 George Raggett and Sons Ltd

ACC/2305/53 Santovin Ltd

Stratford Catering Company Ltd

ACC/2305/54 South Coast Bottling Company Ltd

ACC/2305/55 Herbert Stebbings and Sons Ltd

ACC/2305/56 Chandlers Ltd

Union Breweries Ltd

ACC/2305/57 H. and G. Watts (1935) Ltd

ACC/2305/58 York Mineral Water Company Ltd

ACC/2305/59 Records of unidentified companies probably associated with Barclay Perkins and Courage

ACC/2305/60 H. and G. Simonds Ltd

Corporate records

Accounting records

Sales records

Production records

Staff records

Premises records

Other records

ACC/2305/61 Ashby's Staines Brewery Ltd

Corporate records

Accounting records

ACC/2305/62 John May and Co. Ltd

ACC/2305/63 Octagon Brewery Ltd

Corporate records

Staff records

ACC/2305/64 Phillips and Sons Ltd

ACC/2305/65 South Berkshire Brewery Company Ltd

Corporate records

Premises records

ACC/2305/66 Wheeler's Wycombe Breweries Ltd

Corporate records

Staff records

Premises records

ACC/2305/67 Further records of unidentified companies

ACC/2305/68 Bristol Brewery Georges and Co. Ltd

ACC/2305/69 Bristol United Breweries Ltd

ACC/2305/70 Charlton Brewery Company Ltd

ACC/2305/71 Oakhill Brewery Company Ltd

ACC/2305/72 Plymouth Breweries Ltd

ACC/2305/73 Torquay Brewing and Trading Company Ltd

ACC/2305/74 Ashton Gate Brewery Company Ltd

ACC/2305/75 Crocker Brothers Ltd

ACC/2305/76 McGeorge and Heppenstalls Ltd

ACC/2305/PH Deeds of licensed and un-licensed premises, various companies

<p>Other records for many of the companies have been retained by the Company Secretary of Courage Ltd or are in the care of the Company Archivist. Yet other records have been deposited in appropriate local record offices, for example the large deposit of records of Bristol Brewery Georges and its related companies in Bristol Record Office. Deeds to licensed premises continue to be deposited locally. Records of the Barnsley and New Trent Brewery Companies remain in Tadcaster. See also ACC/2355 held at London Metropolitan Archives containing deeds relating at Courage Ltd licensed premises</p>

• <corpname>Medway Brewery, Saint Peter's Street, Maidstone, Kent</corpname>
• <corpname>Anchor Brewhouse, Horselydown, Southwark, Greater London</corpname>

Access to the records is subject to the following restrictions:

1. board and committee minutes and papers, solicitors' papers and those relating to acquisitions, from Jan 1951 may not be consulted without the written permission of the Company Secretary of Courage Ltd;

2. other corporate and accounting records the date of the last entry in which is less than 30 years old may not be consulted without the written permission of the Company Secretary;

3. staff records which contain personal and confidential information may not be consulted without the written permission of the Company Secretary

Entries in the list indicate to which records these restrictions apply.

Records of Courage, Barclay and Simonds Ltd and associated companies deposited by successive Company Secretaries and others July 1969 to December 1970 and August 1986 to September 1988 (Acs. 69.49, 69.71, 69.101, 70.41 and 70.98 and Accs. 2305, 2310, 2412, 2521 and 2615).

These records were first surveyed in 1966 and were then deposited by Courage between 1969 and 1988. An account of the first and subsequent surveys, of the series of deposits and of possible losses appears in Archival history section to this list.

Surveys and deposits

The records in this list, ACC/2305, were deposited by Courage in the Greater London Record Office (GLRO) [now London Metropolitan Archives] over a period of nearly twenty years. They were first surveyed by the then Head Archivist in 1966, probably because she, as Editor of the Survey of London, had previously used them for volume 22 of that series, Bankside (St Saviours and Christchurch Southwark) (1950). The records were then in the strong-room and paper store at Horselydown and in the strong-room and vaults in Anchor Terrace. Subsequently the Company Secretary deposited some Barclay Perkins records in the GLRO, including deeds of title to the brewery site, board minutes and rest books, but increasing pressure of work made it impossible for him to continue to organise further deposits. In 1975-1976 another survey was carried out by an assistant archivist from the GLRO who worked on the records then held at Anchor Terrace. Various factors made further deposits at that stage impossible and in 1982-1983 the Business Archives Council's Company Archives Survey carried out their own survey of the records at Anchor Terrace and Horselydown. They also surveyed all the records of the Courage Group held elsewhere and produced a valuable and comprehensive report. In 1986, when a series of changes were occuring in the company, the records at Anchor Terrace were finally deposited in the GLRO. To these were added in 1987 records which had been in Horselydown and Anchor Terrace but which had since been transferred to Reading. The list also includes three deposits of deeds and other records relating to brewery and licensed premises made by other departments of the company after the major deposit of 1986.

Losses

In addition to the surveys made 1966-1983, records were used and identified by Ida Darlington in the Survey of London previously mentioned (she referred only to deeds to the Anchor Brewery) and by Peter Mathias for his seminal work The Brewing Industry in England 1700 to 1850 (1959). A comparison of the surveys and bibliographies, and a list of items shown in the Courage and Barclay museum at Anchor Terrace in October 1966, reveals that the whereabouts of a number of records, most notably of Barclay Perkins and Courage and many before 1850, is no longer known. Among the items used for the Survey of London volume, a typescript, John Perkins 1730-1812, has not since been noted. Peter Mathias listed the following Barclay Perkins documents which have not since been noted: a cash book 1692-1704, Mrs Thrale's letter book of 1773, a letter from Robert Barclay to John Perkins 1782, brewing books or book 1798-1801 (although a brewing book of 1798 was in the museum in 1966), a manuscript list of Parliamentary representation in Southwark to 1728, brewery statistics 1776-1830 (although the description may cover a range of items which would give such information and have been deposited in the GLRO), and a manuscript history of the Perkins family by S Barber.

None of the items listed as being in the museum in October 1966 has been noted since: a brewing book 1798, a letter of recommendation from Dr Johnson, a powers of attorney witnessed by Mrs Thrale and Dr Johnson (possibly from bundle ACC/2305/01/1215 and at some time in the Board Room), the first volume of the first edition of Dr Johnson's Dictionary, seven visitors' books 1826-1844, 1857-1897, 1936-1957, newscuttings 1817-1831, and Tryton's New Art of Brewing (1691).

Records listed in 1966 but not since noted fall into two groups. The first group consisted of mainly nineteenth centry papers both business and personal, including Anne Courage's accounts 1785-1789, letters from Australia, account books for a Continental tour and, most readily identifiable, an inventory of the Abercorn Arms, Stanmore, of 1847. These were auctioned in Crewkerne in 1974 and, it is believed, were acquired by the Courage family. The other group has not been seen since and is much more varied. It includes (and this is not a complete list) the Gwilt plans of the Barclay Perkins brewery 1792-1800 (that of 1774 was photographed in 1983 and the negative deposited in the GLRO: the present whereabouts of the original is not known); public house transfer books 1841-1906 (13 vols), change books 1910-1930 (2 vols), an inspection book 1876-1878, a licensees' report book 1916-1930, a tank book 1932-1939, fermentation books 1936-1938 and 1946-1947 (2 vols), and a microscopic examination book, all Courage and Co; a private ledger of 1935 for the IK Brewery; a brewing book 1922-1924 from the Cannon Street Brewery; and a bundle of accounts, letters, etc, from 1859, including an account book of the Westerham Brewery, part of Noakes' records.

No detailed comparison has been made with 1975-1976 survey but it is known that a Courage main ledger 1863-1873, two Courage air-raid log books 1940-1944, and two Hodgson's change books 1884-1910 were seen then but did not appear in the BAC survey.

Records seen by the BAC whose whereabouts are now not known also fall into several groups. The first is John Courage's ledger 1785-1787 and his journal 1790-1796 and a ledger of Alleyns School, Dulwich, 1874-1883. The second is a box of annual reports and accounts of various companies which was in Anchor Terrace. The third group is of further annual reports and accounts of various companies, Courage photographs (which may have been deposited in the GLRO but which have not been correctly related to the BAC list), papers relating to the formation of Style and Winch and other documents of a similar date and some records of Reffells Bexley Brewery, all of which had been in Horselydown (and which are now perhaps in Reading). Finally there are documents which may have been deposited in the GLRO but identified differently: a register of sealing 1900-1920, a public house stock book 1964-1965, and so forth.

The physical movement of records over the years, and until their deposit, for administrative purposes, may have contributed to some losses but generally the condition of the records is good. Unfortunately the environment in the vaults at Anchor Terrace deteriorated (for record-keeping purposes) in the 1980s and over a third of the records held there had to be fumigated upon deposit because of mould. Little permanent damage seems to have been done.