Wild & Co
George Wild & Co, 24 Estcourt Street, Devizes, Wiltshire
Brewery and 6 tied houses offered for auction 8th October 1902. The brewery and the adjoining Bell Inn were acquired by Wadworth & Co. Ltd in 1903. The brewery was demolished in about 1992 for a supermarket.
An advert from 1898
THE FAMILY FIRM by Rachel Multon
(Reproduced from the Brewery History Society Journal no. 55, February 1989)
When Eddie Hodder, Wadworth's cooper, found an old brass bung ring inscribed 'WILD & CO', Devizes, and showed it to the Managing Director I was asked to try to fill in its history and find out where Wild's brewery used to be.
My researches revealed that the Wild family had the Estcourt Brewery and The Bell Inn (now The Bell on the Green), Estcourt Street from 1861 to 1902. The brewery was used as offices for many years and prior to that it served as the local fire station.
Decimus Wild was, as his forename suggests, the tenth child of Robert and Charlotte Wild, Yeoman farmers of Coate, and they were my great-great-grandparents! Before moving to the Bell they had the White Bear Inn and Brewery between 1855 and 1861. Decimus died in 1870 but Eliza carried on successfully running the business and she purchased properties from one Robert Cale on 10th January 1872. By 1880 the Inn and brewery were being run as separate concerns; the Bell by Eliza and the brewery by George Wild, one of her sons and my great-uncle. There was another son James, but he had a drapery business in Bath, and a daughter Ellen (known as Nellie) who helped in the Bell until her early death in 1892. She was already a widow twice over bearing four children orphaned, one of them my grandmother.
The Bell Inn being the first inn on entering the town from London attracted many travellers who soon learned that this was a fine place to stay with good food served on fine silver and good beers from the brewery: DA - a light Dinner Ale; DS - and Invalid Stout, as well as XXXX, XX and X ales and Harvest Ale. In 1890 a mineral water plant was added; Wilds were the sole makers of Kola Champagne in the district and Old Fashioned Ginger Beer in stone jars was a favourite as was a new beverage called 'Clincher Squash' especially for cyclists!
On October 28th 1895 Eliza Wild died, aged 78. It was said in the Gazette that "this much respected landlady would be sadly missed". She was an Honorary Founder of the Licensed Victuallers Association. Her son George carried on the business in partnership with his Solicitor trading as Wild & Co. XXXX Strong was at this time 1/4d (7p) a gallon with XX at 1/- (5p) and X at 10d (4p). They were also agents for Harper's Celebrated Cider and Perry in casks and bottles "in splendid condition, 1/11 (5½p) per gallon". All kinds of aerated waters were made from "compressed gas supplied in cylinders by the Carbon Acid Co. of Farnham, guaranteed absolutely free from obnoxious substances which were liable under the old system of making gas".
By 1902 the competition between the breweries in the district was fierce and due to the ill health of George Wild, the Bell Inn and Estcourt Brewery was sold to Wadworth & Co Ltd on 16th November of that year. The five pubs belonging to the brewery were sold separatelv on the same day. They were the British Lion, Estcourt Street; the Unicorn, Sidmouth Street; the Bridge Inn, West Lavington; the White Lion, Northgate Street and The Lamb, Littleton, near Great Hinton. Just to conclude with my other brewery connections, and go back another generation, my great-great-great-grandparents were David and Mary Harding who had the Queens Head Inn and Brewery and farm at Dunkirk in the 1830s. David was born in Farway, Devon in 1793 and married Mary Watts of Bromham - they were the parents of Eliza Wild. Eliza's sister, Jane, married Nathaniel Millwaters and they had the Hare & Hounds Inn and Brewery in the 1870s. Another George Wild, my great-great-uncle and brother to Decimus, had the Three Crowns and Brewery about 1856 - 1862.
The amazing thing is I knew very little of all this until I came to work for Wadworths over 10 years ago and soon after took up the hobby of tracing my family tree!
When Eddie learned that I was a direct descendant of the Wild brewing family he kindly presented me with the bung ring mounted on a plaque - I shall treasure it always.