Ansells Brewery Ltd (Part of Allied Breweries Ltd) Square Tin

Ansells Brewery Ltd tin tray dating from the late 1950s. Joseph Ansell opened a new brewery and maltings on Park Road, Aston Cross, Birmingham in 1857. The Aston Brewery was registered as Joseph Ansell & Sons Ltd in 1889 but was re-registered as Ansells Brewery Ltd in 1901. In the years between 1890 to 1906, the brewery was extended on three occasions. During the 1920s and 1930s Ansells Brewery Ltd purchased four local breweries. One of the breweries it acquired was the Holt Brewery Co. Ltd in 1934 from which it adopted the famous squirrel trademark. Th Company's slogan, 'The Better Beer', had been created earlier in the 1920s. In the 1950s Ansells purchased a further two breweries less local to Aston, including Lloyds (Newport) Ltd, its only Welsh brewery. The rebuilding and modernisation of the Aston Brewery began in the 1930s but was interrupted by WWII and was not fully completed until the 1950s. Ansells Brewery Ltd, and its Aston Brewery, merged with Ind Coope Ltd and Tetley Walker Ltd in 1961. The newly merged Company was later renamed Allied Breweries Ltd in 1963. Allied Breweries Ltd merged with the J.Lyons Group in 1978 becoming Allied-Lyons plc. The Aston Brewery closed in 1981 after a lenghty industrial dispute and all brewing was transferred to Buton-on-Trent.