Book Review – Brewing in Manchester and Salford
Manchester and Salford are unusual in retaining a batch of long-established family brewers whereas in other major cities and conurbations they have long since been consumed by global operators. So what’s the story?
The recently-published ‘Brewing in Manchester and Salford’ by Deborah Woodman (from Amberley Publishing) seeks to give you the answer to this question across its easily digestible 90-plus pages.
It tells a story running from the late 18th century to the current day highlighting the relationship between pubs, publicans and commercial brewers. From brewing in pubs through to the large scale commercial brewers it tells a story encompassing some storied and respected brewers of which some remain today.
From Boddingtons and the Joule family through to Joseph Holt, Hydes, Threlfalls and Wilsons while on the periphery of the city we have JW Lees and Frederic Robinson. These names run through the book as we hear about how large scale brewing featured in London from the early 1700s but not in the provinces.
The Beer Act of 1830 had massive consequences on brewing with an explosion in beer houses such that further legislation came in 1869 and 1877 to curb the numbers, improve the standards and ensure there was sufficient volumes of beer for the many outlets. Commercial brewers stepped in to address the issues and subsequently purchased these pubs and lived off the tied sales.
Against this backdrop the chapters then cover North Manchester, Ardwick and Hulme, South Manchester and Salford and within these there are some great images of beer mats and other brewing ephemera along with pubs and breweries (of which some are now sadly apartments!). The glorious red brick of the city features extensively. Thankfully we do still have some classic pubs featured including the Peveril of the Peak, Lower Turk’s Head and Grey Horse Inn.
The book also reveals the intriguing story in 1901 of the beer arsenic poisoning scandal involving contaminated sugar in beer that affected 6,000 people in the city and resulted in 70 deaths.
The key brewers of the region receive due attention with rich histories featured of Boddingtons and the Strangeways Brewery including its iconic ‘Cream of Manchester’ advertising in the early 1990s. Sadly we hear about the site’s closure in 2005 by owner Interbrew after 227 years of brewing on the site.
This is offset by the success of Robinsons in Salford that received a £6 million investment in 2012 to help it with production of impressive quantities of its Iron Maiden Trooper beer. Although Manchester does retain its critical mass of family brewers the book is still a story of takeovers and closures that reflects the national and global phenomenon.
There is also the tale of the reduction in pub numbers but this is arguably an inevitable development as 200 pubs in Salford alone at the turn of the 20th century sounds rather toppy. Only 10 of this batch remain.
On a more positive note the book ends with some new quality breweries including Cloudwater and Track but most notable is the standard bearer Marble that was founded in 1997 and helped bring to life the renowned Marble Arch Inn.
The book should give the reader sufficient thirst to visit this great pub and enjoy its beers while also drinking in a bit of history as the city still proudly has Holt’s, JW Lees and Robinson’s producing beers worthy of exploration.
Glynn Davis, editor, Beer Insider