Pubs and Inns

As we start to enjoy the beautiful British summer time, here at the Archives Hub our thoughts often turn to beer and beer gardens. We thought we ought to celebrate this by devoting our August feature to pubs and all things hostelry and alcohol related.

Pubs and public houses or similar types of institution have been supplying the people of Britain with alcohol since Roman times and the introduction of the first road network in the British Isles. Tabernae were built to serve food and wine to travellers. These tabernae evolved into alehouses, inns and taverns with the inn or coaching inn coming to prominence at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution.

The Industrial Revolution also saw the birth of large regional breweries who began to buy up local public houses with a view to renting them out to publicans with the condition they sold their beer exclusively. This began the relationship between brewery or landlord and publican that still exists today. Today there are many different types of pubs and inns to cater for almost every whim a drinker may have. From gastropub, to microbrewery to large chain theme pubs our high streets continue to have pubs to feed and 'water' their communities.

Adapted from:

• History of the English Pub (Traditional and Historic London Pub Guide) http://www.pubs.com/pub_history.cfm [Accessed 27 July 2009]
• Brief History of the Pub (CAMRA) http://www.camra.org.uk/page.aspx?o=182024 [Accessed 27 July 2009]

Photograph © The University of Manchester.

So this month we're highlighting descriptions for the records of breweries, licensed premises, and trade associations, plus the papers of pub users and temperance campaigners. There are also links to selected websites and suggested reading.

Collection descriptions

• Alhambra Bar: licensed premises in Ediburgh, leased from G Mackay & Co Ltd, brewers.
• Belhaven Brewery Co Ltd: was established in In Dunbar 1719, with the Dudgeon and Hunter families controlling the brewery until 1972.
• Brewers and Licensed Retailers Association: the Brewers' Society formed in 1904 to promote the interest of the brewing trade. In 2001 the Brewers and Licensed Retailers Association (BLRA) changed its name to the British Beer and Pub Association.
• Campaign for Real Ale: consumer pressure group formed in 1971 (CAMRA).
• Cefnfaes Estate: 19th century list of the public houses on the Cefnfaes Estate in Bethesda, Wales.
• Chilwell: photographs taken through most of the 20th century of Chilwell, Nottinghamshire, including photos of pubs
• Colpitts' Poetry Readings: Colpitts Poetry was established in 1975 to bring a wide variety of contemporary poets to Durham to read and discuss their own work. It took its name from its original meeting-place, the Colpitts Hotel, a small pub in Durham.
• Cuiken Inn: licensed house in Penicuik, Scotland.
• Drovers Arms: tavern in Caerfyrddin, Wales, popular amongst the ministers invited to preach in the local chapels.
• Drybrough & Co Ltd: brewers founded in Edinburgh in the 18th century.
• George Hotel: built in Bangor, Wales, the late 18th century and originally known as the Bangor Ferry Inn, since 1919 a hall of residence for students.
• Glasgow School of Art Club: established in 1969, affiliiated to the Students' Union and open to staff and students
• Grimston family of Yorkshire's East Riding; purchased the 'March of Intellect' pub in 1890
• Inns & Hotels (Scotland) Ltd: private company formed in 1947, owned and leased licensed properties throughout Scotland.
• London Coffee Houses, Taverns and Inns: three volumes of handwritten notebooks written by John Paul de Castro in the 1930s.
• Plas Alcock: a print of Plas Alcock pub, Bangor, Wales, now a bookshop.
• Scottish & Newcastle Breweries plc: brewers, licensed premises & leisure group.
• Society for Photographing Relics of Old London: originated in the wish to preserve a record of the 'Oxford Arms' Inn, threatened with destruction in 1875.
• Tennent Caledonian Breweries Ltd: founded in Glasgow in the 18th century.
• Thistle Inns Ltd: managed licensed premises in Scotland
• West of Scotland Taverns Ltd: a subsidiary company of J & R Tennent Ltd, brewers, Glasgow, Scotland, and was formed in 1955.
• William Younger & Co Ltd: established in Scotland in the 18th century.

Temperance and intemperance

• Thomas Hughes (1822-1896) and Mary Hughes (1860-1941): as MP for Lambeth, Thomas Hughes attempted to introduce legislation against false weights and measures and on public house opening hours, which was not a popular move amongst the local small traders and publicans; in 1928 Mary Hughes moved to a converted pub in Whitechapel and renamed it the Dew Drop Inn as a social centre and refuge for the local homeless.
• Isaac Reckitt (1792-1862): the Reckitt family dominated the village life of Swanland for several decades, ensuring that there were no pubs until quite recently.
• Arthur James Sherwell (1863-1942) MP and temperance campaigner.
• British Women's Temperance Association: founded in 1876.
• David Lennox: lecturer in Forensic Medicine, researched working class life in late 19th century Dundee, including drunkenness and crime.
• Health Survey for England: a series of annual surveys sponsored by the Department of Health; includes data on alcohol use.

Related links

• Scottish Brewing Archive: founded in 1982, the Archive has extensive holdings of archives, photographs, and objects representing 120 companies and trade associations for the brewing, malting, and coopering industries - some dating back to the 18th century (University of Glasgow website)
• Brewers' organisations: an online guide to records of brewers' organisations held at the Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick
• The Brewery History Society: the society for all who are interested in the history of British breweries; the Society has its archive at Birmingham Central Library.
• Pub History Society: founded in 2001.
• Temperance Societies: a collection of photographs and artefacts associated with the Temperance Movement in Wales (National Library of Wales 'Gathering the Jewels' website)
• Pub Heritage - Historic Pub Interiors: CAMRA aims to preserve our pub heritage, and maintains the National Inventory of Historic Pub Interiors.
• Icons of England winners: pub signs came top in the Campaign to Protect Rural England's recent 'Icons of England' poll (CPRE website)

• CAMRA (The Campaign for Real Ale): campaigns for real ale, real pubs and consumer rights
• British Beer and Pub Association: leading organisation representing the UK beer and pub sector
• Pub is the Hub: set up in 2001, through the Rural Action Programme of Business in the Community
• Beer in the Evening: UK's biggest and pub, bar, and club guide

• Mr Fitzpatrick's Temperance Bar: Britain’s last original temperance bar (Rawtenstall, Lancashire)
• Temperance: in the 19th century Methodism identified itself with 'total abstinence' (Methodist Church of Great Britain website)
• Drink driving: Department for Transport road safety advice (Think! website)
• Campaign Against Drinking and Driving: registered charity providing support for the families of victims killed and injured by drunk or drugged motorists
• Drinking and Driving: RoSPA factsheets as PDF files [requires the free Adobe Acrobat reader]
• Stupid Git: Public Information film on drinking and driving, Christmas 1982 (The National Archives website) [requires the free Adobe Flash player]

Suggested reading

Links are provided to records on Copac for these items. Copac is the free, web based national union catalogue, containing the holdings of many of the major university and National Libraries in UK and Ireland plus a number of special libraries. For more information about accessing items see the FAQs on the Copac website.

• Beers of the World by Gilbert Delos (1994) Records on Copac
• The Brewing Industry. A Guide to Historical Records edited by Lesley Richmond and Alison Turton (1990) Records on Copac
• Darts in England 1900-1939: A social history by Patrick Chaplin (2006), the story of the popular pub recreation Records on Copac
• A Dictionary of Pub, Inn and Tavern Signs by Colin Waters (2005) Records on Copac
• The English Alehouse : A Social History 1200-1830 by Peter Clark (1983) Records on Copac
• The Good Pub Guide 2008 edited by Alisdair Aird and Fiona Stapley (2007) Records on Copac
• An Inebriated History of Britain by Peter Haydon (2005, originally published as Beer and Britannia) Records on Copac
• "Principal London coffee houses, taverns and inns in the eighteenth century" by John Paul De Castro, in: Notes and Queries, 12th series (1920-1922) Records on Copac
• Temperance : or, How to pull down the signs of the public houses by Richard Weaver (1861) Records on Copac
• Victorian Pubs by Mark Girouard (1984) Records on Copac

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