A Brewery or pub in Reading

[Trees]

On the 1881 census Alfred J Pilgrim was  Cellarman Brewery living in Charles St
1891 he has moved to  143 Wolseley st and was a labourer
on the 1901 census he was at the same address but a Wine and Spirit Cellarman

From the occupations board  a brewery cellar man was sometimes known as a labourer so was he with the same employer throughout?

The question is which Brewery did he work for or was he working in a pub which brewed its own beer  Breweries don't usually have wine and spirit cellars
Which was the nearest pub to 143 Wolsely street?

[newburychap]

Plenty of breweries had wine and spirit cellars - they supplied all the booze to their tied houses. And Reading had plenty of breweries.

[wendy47]

Hi Trees

I am a Reading girl born & bred, & there was a large brewery called Simmonds up until the 1970's (I went for an office job interview there upon leaving school back in the early 1960's but ended up at Huntley & Palmers]. There were drays drawn by Shire horses often driving through St Mary's Butts from the brewery even at that late date. they were mainly for display purposes at shows by then too. The brewery was taken over by Courages & moved to a site next to the M4. The Oracle shopping center now resides in it's place.

Checking on Google Earth, Wolseley Street is not at all far from where the brewery was, about 1/2 a kilometer.

http://www.localhistories.org/reading.html

http://atschool.eduweb.co.uk/radstock/rht/themes/manufacture/brew.html

http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1032970

Wendy

[wendy47]

Hi Trees

I think I may have just discovered that Alfred J Pilgrim's son William 1890 was the father of my father's best friend Raymond Pilgirim b 1923. 'Uncle Ray' was a lovely man.

Wendy

[Trees]

many thanks for three useful links Wendy and what an amazing connection
It is a very loose connection on our part though I'll pm you about it 
Trees

[geniecolgan]

Yes, thanks for the links Wendy.
Now I know my gt gt grandad worked for Simonds Brewery 

[Trees]

Newbury chap my apologies for not thanking you  I had not thought about the brewery supplying the Wines and spirits to their tied houses. When did Breweries start owning their own houses? It makes great sense and looks like he was employed at Simmonds as a cellar man
Many thanks
trees

[behindthefrogs]

I think your question about Breweries owning their own houses is a bit chicken and egg.  Most taverns in the early days would have brewed their own beer.  However by 1729 when JPs started to license beer retailers one would anticipate that some retailers were buying their beer from another who still brewed.

It is very evident that after the 1830 beerhouse act was repealed in 1869 a lot of the premises which survived into the 20th century were owned by the breweries even though they were originally set up as "front room" activities.  Most of these would still have only been licensed to sell beers, ales and stouts and their numbers only started to really reduce as a result of the positive actions of the licensing authorities in the early 20th century.  This in turn would have pushed even more premises into the hands of the breweries who had the muscle to fight for their retention.

David

David

[Trees]

Thanks David that is interesting even today some houses ftill brew their own there is one excelent example in pontypridd.
I have seen the bill of sale of a midlands farm which fhows the adjoining breweryhouse the new owners completed the trchanged the emphasis  from farming to brewing. We also often stay at a cider farm in Somerset which I think is a modern version of the same progress
Trees