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HewettsDymoreBrown

Page history last edited by PBworks 15 years, 11 months ago

YATELEY'S BEERHOUSES

 

Hewetts & Dymore Brown

 

All three beerhouses featured on this board, The Cricketers, the Royal Oak and the Ely were supplied by Henry Hewett & Co Ltd of Waltham St Lawrence, founded in 1842. The first mention of Henry Hewett in Yateley is in connection with a mortgage on the Royal Oak in 1862. In 1871 he provided a mortgage to John Thick of Blackwater, Yeoman, for property formerly in the occupation of William Bourne, afterwards of James Baigent and now of his widow Frances Baigent. In 1880 George Bourne was described as "undertenant of Henry Hewett" for all that messuage or cottage now used as a Beerhouse and called or known by the name or sign of The Bell and other buildings erected upon the said piece or parcel of land or on some part thereof. The Bell was then transferred to John May & Co of Basingstoke.

 

Henry Hewett had built up a good local trade with 46 tied houses, but he died in 1893 leaving his ageing widow Mary as owner of a business producing 20,600 barrels. Under a good manager Henry Hewett & Co continued to prosper, earning 14% on turnover. But by 1908 the widow and manager had both died and output and profits were falling, causing resort to borrowing.

 

Thomas Skurray, one of the most outstanding Berkshire brewing entrepreneurs, had joined Morland & Co Ltd's brewery in Abingdon in 1890. He became a Director in 1899, the year Morland acquired Ferguson & Son's Angel Brewery in Reading. By 1906, at the age of 38, he had become Managing Director. He tried to persuade his board to buy the Reading brewers, Dymore Brown & Co Ltd, close Ferguson to release its valuable Broad Street site for development, and do all the brewing at Dymore Brown, since both breweries were experiencing declining output and profits. The Morland board turned down Skurray's proposal.

 

Skurray therefore revised his plan. An agreement was signed in May 1911 between Hewetts, which had the good portfolio of tied houses, and Dymore Brown, which had the good productive capacity. Skurray achieved this by buying shares on his own account in each company and becoming Chairman of Dymore Brown. This agreement did not involve Morland. However in 1913 he got the approval of Morland's board for the next stage, which was to stop brewing at Ferguson. Dymore Brown would supply them with beer while Ferguson would supply Dymore Brown with wines and spirits, and sell through Hewett's outlets.

 

When the original agreement between the companies came up for renewal in 1926 Skurray finally got his board to agree to purchase Dymore Brown and H Hewett & Co outright and wind them up. When Thomas Skurray died in 1938, James Dymore Brown V, who had studied brewing at Birmingham University, became Head Brewer at Morland, thus maintaining a 150-year link.

 

The Royal Oak, the Ely and the Cricketers continue (1997) to be owned by Morland of Abingdon in direct succession to Henry Hewett of Waltham St Lawrence.

 

Back to 1997 Exhibition: Inns, Alehouses & Maltsters of Yateley

 

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Original page written by P J Tipton for the Yateley Society's 1997 Exhibition: Inns, Alehouses & Maltsters

Additional research by Richard Johnston & Elizabeth Tipton

Original page may now have been revised to include the Society's latest Research

(c) The Yateley Society, 1997 & 2008

 

Page Exhib.1997.17

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