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I am indeed continuing my Courage theme. Or rather, my theme of how the Courage group coalesced. And what better way to do that than with a table and a map?

Thicko that I am, I’ve only just realised that a map – or series of maps – is the best way to demonstrate how the group was assembled. I’d been fairly certain that all Simonds acquisitions were West of London and the map confirms this.

They were very active in buying other breweries, with 17 purchases between 1930 and 1954. With the exception of the war, they averaged almost one a year. In doing so, they amassed quite an estate of tied houses. In 1896 they owned 158 pubs, but by 1916 that was already up to 316. When they were absorbed into the Courage group in 1960, their estate stood at around 1,200 pubs. Or around one-fifth of the later Courage estate.

Looking at the map, something immediately struck me: a similarity with the map of the Great Western Railway I have hanging over my telly. Simonds expansion until 1950 mostly followed the Great Western mainline from Reading out towards Wales. While in the 1950’s it was in the extreme Southwest of England, in Devon and Cornwall, another branch of the GWR. Coincidence? I suspect not.

You can see why they made a very attractive takeover target for anyone wanting a presence in the West Country and South Wales. To Courage, very much centred on London and the Southeast, they offered an easy route to total coverage of the South. When John Smiths was added in 1970, pretty much all of England was covered.

Like J W Green, Simonds seem to have run out of breath in the mid-1950’s and just coasted along for a few years until themselves being gobbled up. What was the reason? Personal? Financial? Or both? I’ll need to dig a bit deeper.

These are the breweries Simonds took over in handy table form:

H & G Simonds acquisitions
year brewery address tied houses closed
1919 George Crake Tamar Bry Plymouth 28 1975
1919 Mackeson & Co. Ltd. Hythe 1929
1920 South Berks Brewery Ltd. West Mills Brewery and Atlas Brewery Newbury 150/200 1920/1930
1930 Ashby’s Staines Bry Ltd Staines 185 1931
1930 Wheelers Wycombe Brys Ltd High Wycombe 148 1931
1931 Newbury Bry Co Ltd Newbury
1935 W J Rogers Ltd Bristol 1952
1938 Cirencester Bry Ltd Cirencester 90 1937
1937 Lakeman’s Bry Brixham 50 1950
1938 R H Stiles Bridgend 27 1937
1939 J L Marsh & Sons Ltd Blandford Forum 8
1945 R B Bowly & Co Ltd Swindon 41 1945
1947 John May & Co Ltd Basingstoke 90/100
1948 East Africa Brys Nairobi, Kenya
1949 Phillips & Sons Ltd Newport 125 1968
1951 R Grant & Sons Torquay
1951 South Devon Brewery Ltd plus C W Blundell (Plymouth) 25 1948
1953 Pool & Son Ltd Penzance 1953
1954 Octagon Bry Ltd Plymouth 50 1970
Sources:
"The Brewing Industry a Guide to Historical Records” by Lesley Richmond and Alison Turton, 1990, page 298.
"A Century of British Breweries plus" by Norman Barber, 2005, pages 3, 5, 22, 24, 25, 34, 35, 39, 45, 46, 118, 131 and 158


And here’s the map:




Black: original brewery
Green: 1950

And, what the hell, here’s another table, too:

Simonds tied houses 1839 - 1916
year tied houses
1839 37
1872 79
1896 158
1916 316
Sources:
"The Brewing Industry a Guide to Historical Records” by Lesley Richmond and Alison Turton, 1990, pages 297 - 298.


I’ve drawn up a map of the breweries John Smiths bought. That also tells a story.

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