Courage & Co. Ltd

Reading Festival Ale

Courage Glass Sign. Photo: Jorgen Langkilde Larsen, Aarhus, Denmark

Courage & Co. Ltd, Anchor Brewery, Horselydown, Bermondsey, Southwark, London SE1

Acquired by John Courage in 1787. Registered in April 1888.

• Acquired the Alton Brewery Co in February 1903 with 77 tied houses. Courage required the brewery for the production of pale ale.

• In 1930, they acquired Noakes & Co. Ltd with 120 tied houses and closed their Windsor brewery the following year; the site was used by Courage as a depot until 1952.

• Merged with Barclay, Perkins & Co. Ltd in 1955 to form Courage & Barclay Ltd. with about 1,250 houses.

• Merged with H & G Simonds Ltd in 1960 to form Courage, Barclay & Simonds Ltd. The Bridge Street brewery (Reading) was demolished in 1983.

• In 1961, they acquired Bristol Brewery Georges & Co. Ltd with 1,459 tied houses. The Bristol brewery was closed in 1999.

• Hole & Co. Ltd, Castle Brewery, Newark, was taken over in 1967 with 220 houses. Brewing ceased here in 1983.

• They acquired John Smith's Tadcaster Brewery Co. Ltd in 1970 with about 1800 houses.

• They acquired Plymouth Breweries Ltd in December 1970 but closed this brewery in 1983.

The Anchor Brewery, Horselydown was known as Courage (Eastern) Ltd from October 1970. The brewery closed in 1981 and brewing was transferred to Bristol and Reading. The Brewhouse has been converted to riverside residential apartments.

Courage was acquired by the Imperial Tobacco Group Ltd in August 1972. The Imperial Group was acquired by the Hanson Trust in 1986 who sold Courage as a separate concern to Elders IXL, the Australian brewers of Fosters Lager - later known as the Fosters Brewing Group.

In 1991, Courage took over all of the Grand Metropolitan breweries (Ruddles, Ushers, Websters and Watney Mortlake) in exchange for the Courage public houses which were run by a jointly owned company, Inntrepreneur Estates.

In 1995, Courage were sold by Fosters to Scottish & Newcastle Breweries Ltd to become Scottish Courage.

List of Courage & Co Ltd pubs

The brewery features in The Noted Breweries of Great Britain and Ireland by Alfred Barnard published 1890.

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An assortment of images of the brewery

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The brewery in 2010. Courtesy Steve Peck.

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