Heavitree Brewery Ltd Round Tin

Heavitree Brewery Ltd tin tray dating from the 1950s. The business was founded by John Wolland on Church Street in the village of Heavitree, near Exeter, in 1790. By 1857 the brewery was named Heavitree Brewery. The Company was registered as the Heavitree Brewery Ltd in 1890. After registration the Company followed an acquisition strategy and had purchased two local breweries before the turn of the century. The business of George & Charles Finch, its Eagle Brewery, and a considerable number of public houses were purchased in 1892 and Crowson & Son's Windsor Brewery, also based in Exeter, was taken over in 1899. In 1916 a Mr E.W.Gall was appointed Company Secretary and General Manager of the firm. For six years he systematically stole from the Company but was caught when he fled to Canada in 1922, and sentenced to three years penal servitude. Despite this setback, the Newton Abbot business of Pinsent & Sons, its Mill Lane Brewery and it public houses, was acquired in 1920. John Parnell Tucker and H.C.Hammans joined the Company after the departure of Gall, and they managed to ensure the business became financially sound again. They acquired two further breweries in 1926, including Richard Brock Ferris Dawlish Brewery and 30 public houses in 1926, and Bartlett & Co. Ltd's Warfleet Brewery, based in Dartmouth. The Company decided to end brewing at the Heavitree Brewery in 1970 citing rising costs as the main reason. After the closure of the brewery business was entirely focussed on managing the tenanted pub estate. Initially all 135 of its public houses were supplied by Whitbread & Co. Ltd. In 1981 Heavitree Brewery Ltd became The Heavitree Brewery PLC as it is still known today. In 1984 the site was sold for redevelopment and the old Heavitree Brewery was demolished in 1986. The business is a profitable and stable independently run pub company, one of the oldest in the South West of England. The manufacturer's mark states - Reginald Corfield Ltd Lombard Road, London. S.W.19.