Benskin's Watford Brewery 1867-1967

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BENSKINS WATFORD BREWERY 1867-1967 by C.J.M. Bradbury

When the famous Liberal Prime Minister Mr. Gladstone fell from power in 1874 he observed that he had been borne down “in a torrent of gin and beer”. Some of this beer must have been brewed in Watford by Joseph Benskin, who purchased Dyson’s Brewery in Lower High Street in 1867.

(** See note below) As a 13-year-old boy, Joseph had run away from the village of Seagrave in Leicestershire where his father was Vicar, and made his way, without money or friends, to London. He became apprenticed to an apothecary and later the owner of the Castle and Falcon Hotel in the City. After some years of hard work plus considerable business acumen, he was prosperous enough to purchase the “Limmers”, said to be the first hotel, as we understand the term, in London.

In about 1865 Joseph retired to Turnham Green, but came to Watford two years later, attracted by its beautiful surroundings and healthy air.

Showing considerable foresight, Joseph Benskin, a great lover of horses, soon realised that the London and Birmingham Railway would turn Watford into a dormitory area for London, and also increase its industrial potential. He therefore set about developing his private and tied trade in London and Watford. In the years prior to his death in 1877 he was assisted by his son John Pusey Benskin. Joseph, his eldest, took no part in the business, while his third son, Thomas, trained in London as an architect. John unfortunately suffered from ill-health and early blindness, so that on old Joseph’s death the control of the brewery passed to his widow, John, and the managing brewer, Walter Green, who married Maria Benskin, old Joseph’s daughter. It is interesting to note that at this time the three main Watford breweries, Healey’s, Sedgewick’s and Benskins, were all controlled by women.

Agencies were opened in towns as far afield as Eastbourne, Southend, Brighton and Aldershot, while the London Stores at Chalk Farm and Camden Town supplied by rail from Watford, brought the famous Watford Ales to an ever increasing number of customers in London and the Home Counties, including the refreshment rooms of the House of Commons and the majority of West End theatres. In due course, the export market was also entered, so that by 1890 the weekly output from the Cannon Brewery had increased more than twelve-fold.

Thomas Benskin was well-known in Watford with his square beard, frock coat and silk hat. At first he came down from London daily by train, then lived in the Brewery House, and finally at Glenthorn, from where he could be seen daily driving in his coach down Clay Hill.

The Pennant, the Benskin trade mark, was suggested by Mrs. Briggs, daughter of Thomas Benskin, and wife of a former chairman of the company. She shared her father’s enthusiasm for yachting, and got the idea from an enamel brooch of a Thames burgee, which he had given to her.

Note **: Further research has determined that Joseph Benskin was born in 1814 or 1815 in Barking, Essex. Martyn Cornell has established that he ran the following pubs before moving to Watford: (1) the City of London Tavern in Finsbury from 1848; (2) the Royal George in Drummond Street in 1853; (3) the White Conduit House in Islington in 1857; (4) By 1859, he was apparently running the refreshment rooms at Swindon Station; (5) by March 1860, he was also running the Royal Hotel, Swindon; (6) he was still running the refreshment rooms at the station in 1865.


Acknowledgments are made to The Pennant, the house magazine of the brewery.

This article was extracted from the Rickmansworth Historian. The Society is grateful to the Chairman and Editor of the Rickmansworth Historical Society for permission to reproduce it.