Brickwoods, a remembrance by Bruce Awford

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FROM The Brewery History Society Newsletter No 95]]

Brewing at Brickwoods Ltd in Portsmouth: 1959-1968

A remembrance by Bruce Awford

I left school in Southampton with moderate A-levels in Maths, Physics and Chemistry and joined Brickwoods as a Pupil Brewer in October 1959. I was 17 years old and not legally allowed to drink alcohol.

The Head Brewer was John Clubb who served in the Royal Flying Corps in World War I - he came from a brewing family and was 'old school' in that he was rarely seen around the brewery and spent most of his time in his office entertaining and being entertained by Allied Traders most days of the week. He chain-smoked Senior Service and kept a case of Brickwoods Sunshine Bitter (OG 1045) under his desk. More of this later...

On my first day, I turned up about 8.30am and tentatively knocked on the door of the Brewers' Office, whereupon a voice boomed ‘Come!’ and, on entering, I was greeted by the figure of the redoubtable Pat Heron reclining, feet on desk, studying the Telegraph crossword. He was 'Mashing Brewer' that day and had just had his breakfast of poached eggs on toast supplied by the office lady - 'Jeannie' (wife of the Cellar Foreman). I was given a white coat and taken to observe the third mash of the day. I was immediately addressed as 'Sir' by all in the Brewhouse. I was assigned to the third brewer, Dickie Dutton (20 years my senior), as my mentor.

As was customary, I spent my first year moving through each department to learn the mysteries of brewing, including bottling and cooperage. The cooper was a rotund gent called Fred Eggington who guided me through assembling a barrel myself - I think it leaked! In December, having joined the Incorporated Brewers' Guild as a Student Member, I attended the Annual Dinner of the London Section at the Criterion Restaurant in Tottenham Court Road wearing my father's dinner jacket and still not of drinking age. A baptism of fire indeed.

I have mentioned that the Head Brewer kept beer in his office for entertaining Allied Traders such as 'Digger' Knight and his nephew Jonathan Hill, Adrian Palmer, Roy Townsend, John Crisp - too many to name. On the occasional day when he had no visitors, the HB would summon any spare brewer or pupil to drink with him from 11am onwards before proceeding to his favourite pub, the Dolphin on the Hard close to HMS Victory where he would sample and have a 'square meal' which consisted of four Jacobs Cream Crackers covered in Stilton cheese whilst continuing to smoke his Senior Service.

Christmas time was a revelation as HB's office filled up with gifts from the Allied Trades - thousands of cigarettes of luxury brands, bottles of every type of spirit and boxes of cigars and chocolates. These would be distributed among the staff according to status - I received a packet of Perfectos Finos and Sobranie Cocktail cigarettes - a treat indeed.

I had a month sojourn during February 1960 at the Maltings in Hove which was a floor malting and damned hard work starting at 6am 'turning the piece'. I celebrated my 18th birthday strolling around Brighton and I was on the pier when it was announced that Prince Andrew was born - whatever happened to him? Back to Portsmouth and my first experience of a 'Brewers' Walk' - namely, accompanying the Head Brewer around the matelots' pubs in dubious areas of Portsmouth to sample the beers. The HB was treated like a god and seemed impervious to the fact that many of the beers were undrinkable. As an aside, reputably, when part of the brewery suffered some bomb damage during WW2, many local people cheered....

Quality Control in the brewery at that time involved a brewer loading the 'forcing tray' with racking samples each day and examining the sediments with a microscope two weeks later when a myriad of organisms appeared as well as some yeast. Results were duly noted in a book, but no action was ever taken.

In 1962, the Head Brewer retired and, as Brickwoods had become under the 'Whitbread Umbrella', he was replaced by a Whitbread man, Derek Littleton, who came from Duttons of Blackburn. Things were transformed and a proper laboratory was established under a man from Chiswell Street, none other than the late Peter Ogie. A new language came into being involving words like 'wort agar', O.proteus, Lactobacillus, Brettanomyces etc. The main benefit was a reduction in the number of 'returns' - all of which had to be individually tasted before an 'Excise Destruction' allowed duty reclamation.

At this time, the public bar price per pint of the beers were stencilled on to the head of the wooden casks - 1/- for Mild, 1/1d for Bitter and 1/3d for Best Bitter. The Brewery basic wage was £8-10s per week. In the autumn of 1960, I had the good fortune to be sponsored by Brickwoods to take a degree in Biochemistry at Manchester College of Science and Technology (later UMIST) followed by a post-graduate year at Heriot-Watt in Edinburgh studying under Professor Preece and tutored by Anna Macleod (who also smoked Senior Service, drank pints, and played golf). I returned to Brickwoods at the end of each term being paid £10 per week, and increased my knowledge considerably as the Whitbread influence was imposed, including the installation of a pure yeast culture plant (installed by Bob Ricketts of Briggs of Burton) and, of course, work study which decimated the workforce and brought the attentions of the T&GWU! A new kegging plant was installed ready for the brewing of the new product - Whitbread Tankard.

During one of these periods, I had my first visit to Whitbread HQ at Chiswell Street in the City of London where shift brewers were housed in suitable surroundings and attired in smart suits and bowler hats. I was tasked with taking some wort samples from Portsmouth to London by train and having delivered them for the attention of Norman Curtis and the Head Brewer, Bill Lasman, I was invited to the 'Mess' for lunch. I was dressed in sports jacket and grey flannels and a pair of Hush Puppies and, walking in, was regaled by remarks such as, "Good Lord - he's wearing brown shoes...!"

Having finished my studies in Edinburgh, I returned fulltime to Brickwoods as, so I thought, a fully-fledged Assistant Brewer only to be brought down to earth on my first 'mashing shift' by the foreman who, towards the end of the mash with the tun about to come over the top, took some delight in reminding me that I had left the 'underlet' on!

During the next three years I studied for the Diploma of the Institute of Brewing with the help of the Whitbread man, Robin Richards, and achieved success in 1967, sitting the exams in IOB Clarges Street along with Tom Dawson, Alastair Macleay, John Duckworth and others. Six papers were completed in three days and lunch breaks were spent in the Samuel Pepys next door. In those days, young brewers were advised to move around to gain experience and I intimated this to the HB who arranged for me to go to 'an audience' at Whitbread Chiswell Street - this time I wore black shoes. Having had my credentials checked, I was told that they were prepared to grant me the honour of being allowed to join them to be 'Whit-washed', as it was known. On having the temerity to ask about the salary, I was told it would be the same as at Brickwoods, which was £1,400 per annum.

As I was then married with two children, I was less than impressed by the idea of moving to London and, the next month, an advertisement appeared in the Guild Journal for brewers to join the recently formed conglomerate, Bass Charrington (North West) (see Bass, Ratcliff & Gretton Ltd. I was advised against it, but attended an interview in Manchester, where I negotiated a starting salary of £1,850 and moved to Masseys Burnley Brewery in 1968.

- Je ne regrette rien .....

Bruce Awford