A detailed history of Soulby, Sons & Winch Ltd
By
Adam Cartwright
Courtesy of the Society for Lincolnshire History and Archaeology
From their Journal no 47 [[1]]
The names of long established Lincolnshire brewers - firms such as Hewitt's of Grimsby, Mowbray's of Grantham and Soames of Spalding, to name just a few - will mean nothing to most local folk these days. Beyond some (empty) beer bottles and other memorabilia which crop up on eBay from time to time, there are mostly only the distant memories of a few people dating back many years. But until the second half of the twentieth century, a wide range of locally produced ales was available for thirsty Yellowbellies, often brewed with malt made from Lincolnshire barley. A hundred years ago there were around thirty brewers spread throughout the county, including some very substantial businesses, although that figure had dwindled to only nine by 1945. The closure of the former Hewitt's brewery in 1968 left just one firm standing, the famous Batemans of Wainfleet, though happily in recent years they have been joined by a number of brewpubs, microbrewers and small brewing concerns.
This is the story of one of those long closed firms, Soulby's of Alford. Little now remains of this once large business which at its zenith supplied some 150 pubs, all but one within the county borders. One substantial piece of evidence may pass many people by: a badly faded advertisement for Soulby's Ales and Stout, painted on the eastern gable end of a house in West Street, Horncastle , which was once the Reindeer Inn, one of Soulby's tied houses. Until 2008, there was also the increasingly derelict shell of the old Soulby brewery and maltings, brooding over Alford. The tall chimney of the Victorian tower brewery marked the site, tucked away behind the White Horse Inn on West Street. Public concerns about the decaying buildings led to their eventual demolition, with the local council worried that trespassers might suffer serious injuries. The property was usually known as the Straven factory, after the clothing company which was the final occupier. How many people knew that the rambling site had once kept most of Lincolnshire supplied with beer for well over a hundred years?
At the end of the 18th century the extended Soulby family were landowners and farmers in mid Lincolnshire. The story of their involvement in brewing started with Edward Harding Soulby, born at Boston on February 19 1814, who was to become the driving force of the Soulby brewing business. By 1841 he was trading at New Bolingbroke in the recently drained West Fen as a brewer and maltster, and also as a brick and tile merchant, using the business name "E H Soulby & Co". EHS was later joined in partnership by his younger brother John Cooke Soulby . The precise location of the brewery in the then new planned settlement is not definitely known, but it was probably sited at the northern end of the village, where the 1891 Ordnance Survey six inch map indicates a building marked "Malthouse", just north of the (now former) Globe Inn on the eastern side of the main road through the village.
EHS reached his early thirties before he married. His bride was Margaret Dawber, born at Kings's Lynn in 1816 into a prosperous family of eastern counties merchants. Their marriage took place on 11 May 1847 at the tiny church of St Margaret's, Hawerby cum Beesby , on the Wold edge north of Louth, near to Wold Newton. Margaret's relation Anne had earlier married EHS's brother John, at Lynn in 1844. The Dawber family were tenant farmers at Beesby in the 1840s, but more significantly there may have been a family link to Robert Dawber of Lincoln, who set up a brewery and malting business in the West End of the city in 1826 . Margaret and EHS's first son, who took the family name Edward, was born on March 24 1848 and baptised at Revesby church on April 20, followed by a second and final child, Frederick on August 15 1850 .
By the 1851 Census, EHS and his young family had moved to Coningsby, where he traded as a maltster, brewer and brickmaker from a 30 quarters malthouse and brewery on Tumby Road. Built to the rear of a substantial house next to the village's Baptist chapel, the malthouse consisted of a main building some 100 feet long, with outbuildings, backing on to the Horncastle Canal close to its junction with the river Bain. EHS also began to build up a portfolio of properties, including (but not limited to) public houses, which would form the basis for the Soulby tied estate.
John Soulby continued to live in New Bolingbroke following EHS's move to Coningsby, and over the next nine years became a popular figure, "most kind and charitable to the poor, a most generous friend and an honourable and upright man in every sense of the word" . The village chapel, St Peter's, consecrated in 1855, was built largely due to his drive and determination. It was therefore particularly distressing when John committed suicide in July 1854, aged 38. The subsequent inquest found that his friends had been concerned about John's "heavy depression of spirits", caused by what newspapers understood to be "domestic affliction of a most painful nature" . John had come to believe that his wife was having an affair with a clergyman. Unexpectedly returning to the New Bolingbroke brewery from a visit to relatives on the evening of 27 June, he complained of feeling very low. After a brief conversation with head brewer Henry Shaw, he went upstairs to his office, from where a few minutes later Shaw heard "a report of fire-arms". Rushing up the staircase, he found that John had shot himself in the head. The inquest returned a verdict of "suicide whilst labouring under temporary insanity". It is perhaps significant that John's return home was "unexpected", suggesting a family disagreement. Yet no further details have emerged about the cause of John's depression, despite media speculation at the time suggesting that his concerns may have been justified. Certainly no local clergymen seem to have been suddenly moved to distant parishes. Following her husband's suicide, Anne moved to Lincoln, where by 1856 she was living on St James' Terrace on Newland, just a few doors away from the brewer Robert Dawber . Anne died in West Derby, Liverpool, in 1882, aged 65. She never remarried .
Despite his brother's death at the brewery, EHS held on to the New Bolingbroke premises until 1870, when he sold them to Horace Everitt . EHS's attentions turned to expansion. In 1865 he established an agency at 6 Emery Lane, Boston, his press advertisements loftily adding that "E.H.S. does not publish a list of prices, as such are generally deceptive, quality being the only true test of cheapness". But most significantly a opportunity had arisen to buy a small brewery and maltings on West Street, Alford, following the death of the owner, Thomas Bradley, late in 1868 . The business had been in the hands of the Bradley family since at least 1835 , though brewing at the site dated back many years previously; much later, local newspaper reports offered 1760 or 1777 as the year that operations had started. Alford offered several advantages to a brewer: it benefitted from a relatively high water table, allowing a ready supply of fresh well water, and had excellent transport links from the town's railway station on the East Lincolnshire line, offering easy access to most of the county. EHS purchased the business and started an investment programme which saw a new five storey brewery erected at the site during 1869 by Sherwins, the Boston builders , with brewing plant provided by Pontifex and Wood, a long established London based brewers' engineering firm which was one of the major suppliers of brewing plant at the time . EHS also acquired Brewery House, now known as Merton Lodge, an early 19th century five bay house next to the site, and probably Bradleys' small estate of public houses including the White Horse, a thatched inn on West Street which fronted the brewery site.
Around 1870, a 10 quarter malthouse was acquired at Partney, a village six miles to the south of Alford on the Boston road , augmenting the existing Coningsby maltings; and in 1870 he bought the freehold of the Coningsby premises at auction . The building was sited at the junction of Back Lane (now Maddison Lane) and the old A16. Despite the significant investment, in 1871 only four people were employed at the Alford brewery .
EHS made his sons Edward and Frederick partners in the business in 1870 , trading under the new title of E H Soulby & Sons. Frederick ran the Coningsby operation, including a coalyard, for a further 26 years. He married Ada Hodgkinson in 1871, the daughter of a small scale Retford brewer, Thomas Hodgkinson. Edward married Mary Walker (known as Polly) in 1874; she was the widow of Alford solicitor Banes Walker. Edward became stepfather to her two children Mary and Harry.
Unlike a number of brewery owners, EHS took no part in local politics or governance; his main interests outside brewing were horses and hunting. His later years were afflicted by a period of severe depression ("he went out of his mind", according to his solicitor) which hastened his retirement . By 1885 he had moved to Lisbon Villa, Station Road, Alford, another large detached house, where he recovered his mental health to some extent. He died on 29 July 1890 , aged 76, by which time the entire business had passed to his two sons.
The partnership now entered a decade which was both turbulent and expansionist, in contrast to the conservative approach favoured by EHS. A key player in these events was Thomas Montagu Winch (TMW), born into a highly prosperous Kentish brewing dynasty at Chatham in 1873 . He was educated at Sherborne School and Merton College, Oxford, where he obtained a BA in 1894 . TMW gained practical experience of brewing at Blencowe's brewery at Brackley, Northants and the Isleworth Brewery in Richmond. His father, also called Thomas, owned the Chatham brewery of Edward Winch & Sons , and was looking for a brewery to buy for his son; the Winch family were building interests in a number of breweries at this time .
The attentions of Winch senior alighted on a small brewery in Louth, some 180 miles distant from Chatham. Operated by trustees since the death in December 1889 of the proprietor Thomas East , the business, founded in 1839, included several pubs and storage at Ludford and Grainthorpe . The brewery and maltings were located in Maiden Row, off Queen Street, Louth (these buildings still remain today, in alternative use). The purchase was completed on July 1 1896, and little time was lost in overhauling the old East business. TMW relaunched the three main East beers and gave customers a choice of six cask ales and four bottled beers, including Bass and Barclay Perkins products; free delivery "to all parts" was offered. He also began buying up public houses as they came on to the market.
Louth's new businessman became an almost overnight hit with the Louth Advertiser, which listed with satisfaction TMW's various achievements: a member of the Junior Carlton club, director of the Chatham gas and waterworks companies, local commissioner of income tax, golf club captain and possibly most significantly as far as the Advertiser was concerned, chairman of the Mid-Kent Conservative Association. TMW probably cut a cosmopolitan figure in rural east Lincolnshire, which his marriage in 1897 to Philadelphia, US - born Violet Gordon could only have reinforced. The Advertiser lost few opportunities to mention in highly favourable the new firm of T M Winch & Co that first year, probably prompted by some editorial cultivation by TMW. In August 1896, when their favourite brewer was refused a licence to sell beer direct from the brewery premises, the Advertiser reacted with fury, speaking bitterly of the local Licensing Committee that "it might be wrong possibly to suggest that ... political considerations were not absent from the thoughts of those present. It really is time to protest against a flagrant abuse of judicial power by those discharging public duties in the interests of their political friends".
Meanwhile, all was not well with the Soulbys. Following EHS's death, Frederick and Edward were now in charge of the business, which by 1890 consisted of the Alford brewery, a maltings at Partney and branches at Coningsby and Boston. Frederick's wife Ada had died in the hard winter of early 1895 and since then he had suffered from severe depression which ultimately led him to commit suicide . From March 1896 he had been under the close supervision in London of Dr J. H. Dawber, a psychiatrist and evidently a relative, to the extent that he had been living at his home. On July 16 1896, Frederick had left the doctor's house claiming he was going to visit his eldest son who was at boarding school in Wimbledon, but in fact he took a train to Peterborough, where he hired a boat and drowned himself in the river Nene. In giving evidence to the inquest which ensued, his cousin Guy Dawber drew a significant insight about the family's history of mental illness:
Deceased had been depressed but lately seemed better. Witness had never heard him threaten to commit suicide. He however believed there was a hereditary taint in the family, but he did not know that any member had committed suicide
Frederick's death in such tragic circumstances affected his brother Edward to such an extent that very quickly he too became so severely depressed that he was unable to run the business. In the absence of any relatives old enough or willing to take over, the family's solicitor Richard Millington , a partner in the Boston firm of Millington & Simpson, was obliged to become interim manager . A permanent solution to the leadership crisis was found in a merger with T M Winch & Co, which also involved a significant capital injection. TMW cannot have been an uninterested observer to the difficulties at Alford, although it is impossible to know in the absence of surviving financial records to what extent trade was affected. Nor do we know whether TMW was aware of the problems when he bought the East business at Louth, though it has to be said that the purchase of a small brewery with not many pubs by a young man almost 200 miles from home does suggest other factors may have been involved. Either way, sale negotiations took place quickly. On 9 December 1896 Soulby, Sons & Winch Ltd was incorporated with an authorised share and loan capital of £100,000 , of which £50,000 was 4 1/2% debenture stock. The remainder comprised 2,500 £10 ordinary shares and the same amount of 5% cumulative preference shares.
The share prospectus was issued on 22 December 1896, accompanied by a valuation from London accountants Alfred Thomas, Peyer and Miles, auditors to E H Soulby & Co for upwards of 20 years and well known for auditing brewery companies' accounts. The prospectus provides some insight into how the required capital was calculated, and gives the earliest surviving financial information for the business. The picture was encouraging; in the "previous year" (probably the year to 30 September 1896) E H Soulby & Sons had returned a profit of £5,854 from its estate of 83 public houses (57 freehold, 18 leased and 8 mortgaged), serviced by the Alford and Louth breweries and its five malthouses: as well as the Partney and Coningsby maltings, now there were three at Louth (able to hold 10, 30 and 50 quarters respectively). The property of the combined estate was valued at £63,850, with £6,359 for plant and machinery and £10,803 for stock and book debts. Goodwill of both the Soulby and Winch businesses was estimated at £16,000, giving a valuation for the combined business of £97,012 .
The prospectus was not without its problems. Accounts were not made available for the previous East business, which meant that when the valuation was completed at the end of October 1896, only about four months' financial statements for the Winch trade would have been available. The accountants nonetheless estimated the Louth profits at £1,500 per year. In fairness, the short accounting period was disclosed, but it still seems an optimistic forecast, bearing in mind that there were only 11 Winch houses compared to 72 Soulby. And the valuation for goodwill seems high; the prospectus states that the sum was fixed "by an agreement between the vendors to be taken at £16,000" - which suggests it might not have been an open market price. The London evening paper, the Pall Mall Gazette picked up on some of these concerns when the prospectus was released, adding for good measure a contrast between the new company and the brewery amalgamations which were starting to take place, in an irritable article headed "The Little Brewery Company" . It commented that "all goes as merry as a marriage bell until we come to the statement of profits ... those responsible should be heartily ashamed of themselves for putting forward such an impudent profit statement in a prospectus. There is nothing to show that the insignificant business is not rapidly dwindling into obscurity before the competition of powerful rivals with their tied-houses and extensive organisations"; adding acidly that "the whole of the purchase money goes as purchase money to the vendors".
The first directors were a mix of Soulby and Winch people: TMW and his father Thomas Winch were joined by Edward's stepson Harry Banes Walker , Richard Millington and Frank Curtis , manager of the Boston agency, who had joined the Soulby business in 1883 at the age of 20. Curtis became the first managing director of Soulby, Sons & Winch Ltd. All of the authorised shares had been issued and taken up by 1897. At first, control remained in the hands of the Soulby family, as the shareholders' register reveals (now at Lincolnshire Archives Office ), showing that Soulby nominees and associates controlled the businesses at inception. The initial Winch investment - by Thomas Winch's father - was a total of £12,500 in shares. At first, the only outside interest was a few shares acquired by Edward de Peyer of the company's accountants Alfred Thomas, Peyer and Miles, in 1897.
In January 1897 Edward Soulby was sent to Brighton for private treatment, where he twice tried to take his own life. Following his second attempt when he threw himself from a second floor window 40 feet above the ground at Markwell's Hotel , remarkably suffering only minor injuries, he was declared insane by a local doctor. He was admitted to Ticehurst House Hospital, a private lunatic asylum near Tunbridge Wells, on 20 February 1897.
Ticehurst represented the very best in mental health treatment, attracting an affluent clientele from across the country. Opened in 1792, the hospital was set in a vast estate of some 500 acres and, as The Priory Ticehurst House, it is still meeting the needs of psychiatric patients today. Edward spent the rest of his life there. His patient records show that his health never recovered; they also show an increasingly bitter man who considered that all of his money had been taken from him (possibly a reference to the transfer of his shares to his wife and stepson in August 1897). How much importance can be placed on such comments by an ill man it is impossible to say, though interestingly when Edward entered the hospital he conceded that the business was "getting too much for him and he had not the head for it" . Edward's inactivity eventually probably weakened his physical health. At lunchtime on November 22 1903 he complained of chest pains. Doctor Johnson prescribed an indigestion tablet, instructing Edward to have no more food or beer, though as Dr Newington, the head doctor, recorded, "as soon as his back was turned he took more lunch and drank a bottle of Bass" . Edward took a walk in the grounds and returned to write a note to Dr Johnson: "The pain is fearful ... Will you let me have a pint of Champagne this evening it will I know relieve me at dinner" . Handing over the note, Edward then picked up a newspaper and settled himself on a sofa. Dr Johnson did not have time to consider this bacchanalian request because Edward's attendant then saw his patient slide suddenly to the ground. He had died from a heart attack, aged only 55. Edward left an estate valued at probate at the remarkable sum of £46,015 11s 10d; even allowing for the difficulties in comparing now with then, that's something in excess of £4 million in 2011 terms. The Alford Gazette's report of probate rather artfully referred to Edward's address as "Lower Norwood, Surrey" , which was actually where his wife Mary was living .
Soulby, Sons & Winch Ltd quickly became profitable in its first three years, declaring a dividend on ordinary shares of 10 per cent for 1898/99 and 5 per cent on preference. With some £9,500 carried to reserve account by 1899, and capital provided by the incorporation, it was decided to embark on a vigorous expansion programme, which initially took the form of buying smaller local breweries, and public houses as they came on to the market. The brewery at Alford was enlarged so that production could be doubled, and during 1898, work started on new site at Boston to construct large new offices, bottling plant and stores off West Street to cope with the growing trade in the town. The buildings were designed by local architect James Rowell (who was also responsible for the Municipal Buildings in West Street) and the works were supervised by Frank Curtis. The new Boston premises opened in 1899 and included a boardroom, suggesting that the business was effectively being run by Curtis at that time rather than from the Alford site by TMW.
A small collection of public houses had been acquired with the moribund Old Leake brewery of George Horton earlier in 1899. Less welcome was the outcome of an advertisement inserted in the Boston Guardian of April 29 1899 announcing the takeover and that the former Horton brewery site, next to the Bricklayers' Arms, would be used as a storage facility for the Boston area trade. Acquiring the new West Street premises quickly persuaded Soulbys that the Horton site was not required, but the assistant poor law overseer for Old Leake had spotted an infringement. Not only was there a reference to "storage" in the Guardian advertisement, but Soulby's had also erected a signboard at the old brewery, yet no poor rate had been paid for alleged use of the Old Leake premises. Soulby's were summonsed for non payment of £6 17s poor rate. The case was heard by the Boston magistrates at the Sessions House on September 20 1899, when it was found that the signboard proved ownership and Soulbys were required to pay the rate .
Expansion continued despite that irritating episode, with the purchase of the Phoenix Brewery at Sleaford in July 1900. Operated by the Bellamy family since 1853 from their Southgate premises, the business had more recently been operating as a partnership between George Bellamy and John Ashton. Bellamy's death in April 1900 had prompted the decision to advertise the business for sale. The attraction, almost certainly, was the tied estate of nine pubs, most of which were long established premises in Sleaford town centre, including the Woolpack and the Carre's Arms (the latter sold to Bass as early as 1903). Soulby's closed the brewery later in 1900 and advertised it for sale, though they were not immediately successful and later attempted to rent out the site. At some point around 1900 Soulby's also acquired the Red Lion brewery, a smaller business in South End, Alford.
Soulby's now had a substantial trading presence in five locations across eastern and southern Lincolnshire: as well as the breweries in Louth and Alford, there were the agencies in Sleaford, Coningsby and Boston. The pub estate had grown to around 150 houses by 1904, covering a wide area of the county , with a further 100 or so free houses taking Soulby's beer . But servicing the business from two breweries and five malthouses was increasingly difficult operationally. The Partney maltings were particularly poorly sited, involving a long drag up Dalby Hill to get the kilned malt to Alford or Louth, and much the same could be said of the Coningsby malthouse. A decision was taken to concentrate production as far as possible at Alford. Central to this new strategy was the construction of a new, state of the art maltings to the rear of the brewery at Alford, on the site of the old brewery garden paddock and "thatched cellar" . Augustus Miller-Baily , a Nottingham architect and brewers' engineer, was engaged to design the new building, whilst the construction contract was awarded to Louth builder George Vickers. Robert Boby Ltd, the agricultural implement manufacturers of Bury St Edmunds, supplied most of the plant and machinery, though power to the brewery was provided by a 13 hp gas powered engine, one of the latest products from Crossley Brothers Ltd, the Manchester engineers . The maltings, opened towards the end of 1904, had a capacity of 50 quarters, which was in fact significantly lower than the 90 quarters total capacity of the previous collection of malthouses, but the new building offered greater efficiency and modernity on one site. Miller-Baily produced a stylish and practical design, with a malt kiln at one end of the building and the grain stores at the other, separated by the four malting floors, the whole set off with decorative brickwork and a large, gently sloping slate roof to the main storage area. The malt kiln was set at right angles to the rest of the building, with a tall ventilation cowl rising from its roof. The finished malt was conveyed from the top floor of the malt kiln to the brewery by means of a high aerial ropeway which ran back down the brewery yard; the Alford Gazette's almost reverential review of the new maltings remarked that it was "a strange sight to see a truck gliding on 'telegraph wires' through the air."
It would be good to be able to say something about the employees during this period of expansion, but unfortunately little is known about them; the minutes of the Soulby directors' meetings, which would probably have helped, are lost. However, brewery employees can be identified from the 1881, 1891, 1901 and 1911 Census returns for Alford, a method which is not without its problems: for example, though many made clear in their job titles that they worked in a brewery, some did not, so some employees will be missed. Prior to the 1901 Census, Soulby's were not the only brewery in town, so those workers who were living close to those other breweries have been omitted from the table. Bearing these limitations in mind, the number of staff working at Alford can be estimated over the 30 year period as follows:
Table 1: Occupations of probable Soulby staff living in Alford, 1881 to 1911
| 1881 | 1891 | 1901 | 1911 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brewer/Director | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Brewer's Labourer/Workman | 5 | 6 | 9 | 6 |
| Brewer's Foreman | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| Brewer's Drayman | 5 | 2 | 3 | 1 |
| Cooper/Cooper repairer | 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| Brewer's Engine Driver/Engine Driver | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| Copper Man | 1 | |||
| Clerk | 1 | |||
| Accountant | 1 | 1 | ||
| Cellarman | 2 | 2 | ||
| Bottler/Bottle Washer | 2 | |||
| Brewer's Manager | 1 | |||
| Brewer's Traveller | 2 | |||
| Wine & Spirit Merchant | 1 | |||
| Total | 11 | 12 | 26 | 17 |
There are several interesting threads running though these records. Nearly all the workers were local men, many of whom had either previously been working as agricultural labourers or left to work on the land - or both. This is not particularly surprising given Alford's location, and shows that most of the brewing process did not call for particular skills. Only the coopers, and the professional men, came from further afield; for example, London-born cooper Edward Moulton was working in West Ham in 1881, and by 1891 was employed in Alford; ten year later he had moved to Ely in Cambridgeshire, where there were two large breweries. One of his replacements, James Martin, came from Berwick upon Tweed, but they were by far the exceptions to the predominantly Lincolnshire-bred workforce. Very few of the men were over 45; in 1901, the average age of the 26 identified staff was 36, and several of them died young. Simon Evison, a drayman in the 1901 census, died later that year aged only 40, and labourer George Barnes died in 1913 aged 50. This may reflects the hard physical work involved at the brewery; though it should be added that many workers were with Soulby's for decades. John Dowlman, born in Wrangle, seems to have spent well over 30 years with the company: in 1881, aged 26 he was a brewer's labourer, progressing to foreman in 1891, a post he held for the next 20 years and probably later too. He died in 1927 aged 82. There are only a couple of instances (apart from the Soulbys themselves) of sons following their father into the brewery, such as Anthony Hackney who followed his father Seth in 1891, though by that time Seth was an unemployed general labourer. One surprising aspect is the apparent reduction in staff in 1911 and the absence of any maltsters in Alford, though this may be caused by difficulties in searching the 1911 census online; Nonetheless, it may suggest that the Louth maltings were still open in 1911.
By 1907 the Soulby family and its nominees had lost control of the company. Thomas Winch and his son Tom Montagu Winch owned 1415 of the 2500 ordinary shares, giving them 57% of the company (the preference shares would have been non voting and therefore discounted for control purposes). It was around this time that TMW moved his home away from Alford, to Legbourne Abbey, a large house a few miles outside Louth, where he lived for many years. Frank Curtis, the Boston - based joint managing director, resigned in April 1905, very probably moving to a similar post with one of the Nottingham breweries (the 1907 shareholders' register shows him living in that town as a "brewery manager"); however he wisely retained his shareholding and by 1927 held nearly 12% of the ordinary shares in issue. TMW became Chairman in 1912, and younger men joined the Board; TMW's brother Isaac replaced Thomas Winch senior (who had died in 1913) and Oswald Giles took over from Richard Millington (who died in 1912). Giles - later knighted, and after whom the Giles Academy school at Old Leake is named - was a partner in Millington & Simpson, the solicitors' firm, and became hairman of Holland County Council.
World War I was a particularly difficult time for the brewing industry, and Soulby's were quite badly placed due to their scattered estate. At a time when fuel for lorries was increasingly difficult to obtain, and staff numbers badly depleted by the UK's wartime commitments, it was bad enough that many of Soulby's houses were clustered around Boston and Sleaford, some 25 miles distant from Alford, but also there was a smaller collection in Lincoln, Spalding and around Holbeach, all three almost 40 miles away. The situation was so bad by 1917 that Soulby's were moved to write to their bigger and more profitable rival, the Spalding-based brewer Soames & Co Ltd, to see if "some arrangement should be come to between the companies of the supply of beer in Boston and Spalding to each others' houses with a view to saving labour and cost of transport" . Soulby's tentative query was seemingly attractive because of the situation at Boston, where between them the two companies had around 30 pubs and off licences, though Soames had a few houses to the north of Boston as well. Soames replied asking for a list of Soulby houses in both towns with details of the trade at each, which Soulby's supplied quickly enough for their rival to consider it at their next Board meeting three weeks later. Charles McLeod, the Soames managing director, reported that overall Soames' houses were doing three times the amount of business. The request was therefore rejected as "unworkable" even though, as the Soames company minutes record, at the time they were having to lay off staff due to the "slackness of trade".
It's possible that, even given the stresses of wartime production, the Soames episode may present a slightly distorted view of profitability at Alford. Though very few trading results have survived, it is known that Soulby, Son & Winch Ltd returned gross profits of £35,433 in 1918, declining steadily to £31,470 in 1924, and were paying a dividend on ordinary shares of around 8% during that time . By comparison, Soames paid dividends on ordinaries from 1918 and 1924 ranging between 5 and 17.5%, returning only slightly higher net profits - certainly not results which suggested that Soames were doing three times as much business. Nonetheless, share capital was restructured in 1920 with the issuance of 47,500 new ordinary shares, strengthening the balance sheet at the expense of control. The new shares were taken up by a range of mostly local people, who between them now controlled over a third of the company. Sidney Allinson , who had been company secretary since 1896, managed to acquire some 23% of the total ordinary shares, partly through associated parties .
Some rationalisation took place in 1923 with the end of brewing at Louth. There were staff changes, too, with the arrival in 1921 of a new head brewer, S. P. Damon, and a new brewery manager, Captain C. E. Jay, formerly of the colonial Indian Army. Cyril Jay had served with the Railway Transport department in India, where he was promoted from Lieutenant, and also with distinction in the Waziristan campaign against tribal insurgency of 1919-1920. He was one of a number of former officers entering the labour market as the Army pursued a policy of "Indianisation", and no doubt he was an able administrator, but it may well have helped that he was Sidney Allinson's son in law . The Damon and Jay families were housed in the Brewery House (now Merton Lodge) at Alford, though following a serious fire there in January 1931, Jay moved to 27 Station Road, which he renamed "Sundown" .
Soulby's were attractive enough to interest the major Burton on Trent brewers Marston, Thompson & Evershed Ltd. During 1924 TMW approached Marstons to explore the possibility of an umbrella arrangement whereby the Staffordshire firm would acquire Soulby's and also Mowbray & Co Ltd of Grantham. He may have been prompted by the sale of Horry's brewery at Boston to Soames early in 1924 for £7,000 (approximately £300,000 in 2011 prices), an opportunity which Soulby's either could not afford or simply missed. The post-war picture for brewers was one of increased amalgamations, with the general climate little better - in some ways worse - than it had been in wartime. TMW had other business interests (in the following year he became a director of Wells' Watford Brewery Ltd and Waller's Bradford Brewery Ltd, both companies formed to take over existing businesses ) and may have felt that running a medium-sized Lincolnshire business with an awkwardly large tied estate was a responsibility he could do without. Mowbrays operated over 200 pubs mainly in the Grantham and Lincoln area; their tied estate was less scattered than that of Soulby's. Marstons were not interested in TMW's proposal as they had already decided not to buy Mowbrays, and were even less interested in his suggestion that he should join the Marstons board ("it would be quite out of the question"). However, they did spend several days carrying out a full due diligence on Soulby's, and the results of their investigations are of much interest .
Marstons found that Soulby's were brewing three draught beers: XXX mild, XK light bitter and XPA best bitter. The best seller by some distance was XXX, of which 5,226 barrels were produced in 1924, accounting for 65% of the total (it was probably a development of TMW's original XXX mild which he was brewing when he arrived in Louth in 1896). Of the other two ales, 1,580 barrels of XK and 764 of XPA were produced . There was a strong stout available in bottled form only, production amounting to the equivalent of only 416 barrels. Finally, Soulby's were also bottling Bass, Worthington and Guinness, both at Alford and Boston. A three day scouting mission at the end of November was arranged to visit the brewery and 63 of the houses, finding that they were in a good state of repair but outside Louth and Boston the trade was very limited with little chance of increasing it. 74 of the houses - approximately half of them - were selling less than 50 barrels per year, with the Royal Oak at Ruskington selling only 2 barrels and 51 dozen bottles during 1924. Marstons seem to have found these results surprising, though low volume houses, subsidised by low rents and also by substantial trade in the towns, had always been Soulby's tried and tested business model. The beer range caused disquiet as well; the XXX mild was the "lowest class of beer that any brewer can turn out"; selling at 5d per pint, the low profit margin was unattractive, although the likely fit with Marstons' more expensive beers might have been more of an issue. Closing the Alford brewery was part of their plans, even though Burton is 104 miles distant (presumably the relatively new maltings would have been retained). Even with savings from closing production at Alford, Marstons could not see how they could make the business more profitable; not only would the expense of carriage from Burton eat into margins (and the cost of returning empties), the spread of the estate was a concern as well .
And that was that; Marstons decided not to buy, and Soulby's continued much as they had done for the past 57 years, making limited changes to the beer range and the tied estate. The premium bitter was rebranded as Anchor Ale, taking its name from that of the brewery itself. There was also one indulgence: the opening of a new pub in Boston, the Hessle House on Fenside Road, to service the large Fenside council estate which was completed during the early 1930s. No other new properties were opened following 1924, which simply encouraged rival brewers to muscle in to east and south Lincolnshire. However, the interest of such firms as Home Brewery and Shipstones, both of Nottingham, remained mostly in the larger towns: Spalding, Boston, Sleaford, Louth - and Skegness, where Soulby's had never operated a pub.
The death of TMW, at his Alford home in April 1942 deprived the company of its Chairman; he was still in post at the age of 69. The Lincolnshire Standard spoke of his "infectious laughter and genial personality ... his whole interest has been in the welfare of the staff, employees and tenants" . Elderly Chairmen and paternalist managerial styles were still common in the brewing industry, but it was a glowing tribute nonetheless. Under TMW's chairmanship the company had been returning 20% dividends on ordinary shares for some years and were to go on paying the same consistent return between 1943 and 1950 . Sir Oswald Giles replaced him as Chairman, with Cyril Jay becoming managing director. Col. Cosmo Winch joined the Board as a director, as did Capt. G. R. Coles.
The risk of fire is always a concern in brewing, with the proximity of boilers and flammable material . A serious fire broke out at Soulby's in the early hours of the morning of 5 October 1945 which badly damaged the premises, gutting two floors of the brewery tower and its roof, and destroying some of the plant. The fire, which took over three hours to extinguish, caused several weeks' interruption to production, but fortunately fellow breweries in the East Midlands Brewers' Association were prepared to support Soulby's , supplying the estate with other beers. The damage was covered by insurance and necessitated significant reconstruction of the upper floors, identifiable thereafter by the metal framed windows of the repaired structure. An opportunity was also taken for some limited modernisation of the brewery plant.
Despite this setback, profits were reasonably buoyant in the late 1940s; for the 1949 year the business returned net profits of £25,109 (around £650,000 in current figures) which were almost certainly its highest ever, though noticeably expenditure was reducing, probably reflecting significant cost cutting. Fortunately, details for three years around this time have survived to indicate the trade at each pub. For 1952, 1953 and 1954 (in fact, just after Soulby's had been taken over) there are barrelage figures available for the 137 pubs (and four off licences) which then survived. On average, each house was selling the equivalent of 96 barrels (including bottled beers) annually. This remarkably low figure masks the overall picture considerably, since some of the houses were doing very well, especially the Boston houses; table 2 shows the average barrelage for the top ten pubs over the three years. There was no denying that there was a hardcore of small, unremunerative country pubs: 43 of them, including all the off licences, were failing to sell more than 50 barrels a year. For the record, the worst performing house was the Wilsons Arms at Walcott, averaging an incredibly low 11 barrels a year, closely followed by similar offenders in other remote fenland settlements. Only eight pubs saw an appreciable (more than 10% over the three years) increase in trade. And yet 52 of those 137 houses are still open today, including some of the pubs doing limited business which remain some of the nicest in the county - so perhaps Soulby's were more astute, and maybe more socially aware, than we might give them credit for. The pub in rural Lincolnshire was very much the centre of the village, as it still is in the smaller numbers which remain open; closure, as happened on a wide scale in the 1960s, has often meant decay within those close knit communities.
Table 2: Top 10 Soulby houses by beer sales, 1952 - 1954
| Ranking | Pub | Location | Three year average barrelage | Still trading? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Eagle | West St, Boston | 433 | Yes |
| 2 | Wellington | Ramsgate, Louth | 403 | Closed 2005 |
| 3 | Ram | Wide Bargate, Boston | 361 | Yes |
| 4 | Napoleon | Fishtoft Rd, Boston | 358 | Yes |
| 5 | Station | Trinity St, Boston | 341 | No |
| 6 | Hessle House | Fenside Rd, Boston | 325 | No |
| 7 | Golden Eagle | High St, Lincoln | 299 | Yes |
| 8 | Crown & Sceptre | Cornmarket, Louth | 278 | No |
| 9 | Greyhound | Upgate, Louth | 243 | Yes |
| 10 | Rum Puncheon | Market Place, Boston | 243 | Yes (renamed Stump & Candle) |
Nonetheless 1950 saw a large fall in net profits to £18,662, and 1951 proved to be even worse, returning a paltry £11,251 . Beer production nationally had entered a long term decline, whilst the big brewers were jostling for a bigger share of the market. Soulby's, with their unwieldy widespread estate, and consequent inability to dominate the local market, were particularly at risk. The sale of Soames and their 240 pubs to Norwich brewers Steward & Patteson in 1949 probably made Soulby's board feel even less at ease.
Yet it was still a surprise locally when it emerged in August 1951 that Soulby's was to be sold. There was clearly limited press briefing, ensuring that the whole affair was treated as if it were a routine matter between respectable gentlemen ("there is no suggestion of winding up the old established company of Soulby, Sons & Winch Ltd") but the employees were addressed by Col. Cyril Jay at a special meeting at Alford to confirm the news that an offer to purchase the company had been made. The bidder was a highly ambitious firm from Luton, Messrs J W Green Ltd, who controlled 600 pubs in southern England. Already in the last three years Greens had acquired breweries in Sussex, Kent and Hertfordshire , but the takeover of a brewery some 115 miles distant was an unusual development. Nonetheless, the Luton local newspaper (presumably briefed by Green's) confidently expected brewing to continue at Alford ; the purchase was quickly approved by the respective company shareholders. Neither the precise reasons for the sale, nor the purchase price were ever disclosed, but Green's total issued share capital was increased by £72,728 at an Extraordinary General Meeting held on 25 September 1951 to approve the purchase of Soulby's. At the time the issued Soulby share capital was £75,000 (£50,000 in ordinary shares and £25,000 in preferences - at some point there had been a further reorganisation), so a share for share exchange seems to have been highly likely, thus valuing Soulby's at slightly under its total issued shares. Given Soulby's 150 or so houses, mostly held on freehold, that seems very little; at current prices, it's equivalent to only around £1.9 million, though the value of property has of course increased much more rapidly than cost price inflation over the last 60 years.
Green's, however, were not finished. Mowbrays of Grantham had remained independent, and the basis of TMW's original idea, as pitched to Marstons in 1924, was now to be revived. It was announced that negotiations to purchase Mowbrays had been "proceeding for some time" (in the words of their Chairman ) and on 7 February 1952 a formal takeover bid was announced under which Greens would acquire all the issued shares of the Grantham business. Mowbrays proved more forthcoming about why they had sold up. Probably echoing the sentiments of the Soulby board, they complained of "the high costs of improvement and maintenance of properties and replacement of brewing plant ... [and] growing competition in the trade". Even a small decrease in trade was likely to seriously affect profit, "quite apart from ... the continual rise in overhead costs" . Mowbrays were not in a position to acquire more pubs, which was "the usual way of dealing with these circumstances" according to its Chairman.
The takeover immediately caused alarm in Alford as to the future of the Anchor Brewery. Alford Urban District Council called a special meeting to discuss the issue, having heard on good authority that brewing would be moved to Grantham. The cause for particular alarm was probably a letter which Greens had sent to their shareholders on February 12 which claimed that the "eventual" closing of the Alford brewery was envisaged at the time Soulby's were acquired. The UDC wrote to Greens expressing their "grave concern" ; a meeting was subsequently arranged with Colonel Jay, the managing director of Soulby's (rather than anyone from Greens) who confirmed the closure, emphasising that everything was being done to find an alternative use for the brewery premises. Green's would try to find alternative jobs at Grantham, where the Mowbray brewery would be modernised (and where Jay would be the new MD), and had already set up a trust fund for hardship cases who could not be found other employment. In all this despondency, there were indications that the maltings would not be closing as well; they were, after all, not yet 50 years old.
The last brew took place at Alford in September 1952. The years that have passed since have not been kind to the brewery and its former pubs. Within seven years of the takeover, the entire tied estate had been sold off in batches when Flowers Breweries Ltd (as Greens had renamed themselves) withdrew entirely from eastern Lincolnshire . The old Soulby pubs were mostly carved up between three other breweries. Hewitts of Grimsby bought some 30 former Soulby houses at the end of 1956, including many in Louth but a number further south . Batemans of Wainfleet managed to obtain finance to buy some 27 around the same time (some of which they still own), giving them a significant presence in Boston. Already prominent in the south of the county following the Soames purchase, Steward & Patteson took 66 pubs in January 1957 and a further 21 in June 1958 . Others were closed down, such as the Barley Sheaf at Holland Fen, which shut its doors for the last time in March 1956 after serving the village for some three hundred years. The pace of pub closures quickened during the 1960s but far worse was in store for the old brewery and maltings. Initially used for a few years as a hosiery factory by a Leicester firm, Skeltons, the site suffered a lingering fate, with periods of use followed by abandonment. In 2001 the last occupants, Straven Knitwear, left the site.
There followed a seven year period of terminal dereliction, with the ownership of the buildings at times unclear and from which few of the parties involved emerge with much credit. Demolition became the only sensible course, which took place during 2008. Planning permission exists to build new homes on the site, but work has yet to start at the time of writing.