William Stones Ltd Round Tin

William Stones Ltd tin tray dating from the 1950s. In 1849 William Stones and Joseph Watts formed a partnership to learn brewing at the Cannon Brewery on Acorn Street in the Shalesmoor area of Sheffield. They traded as Watts & Stones and purchased their first property, the Kelham Tavern, in 1852. Watts died in 1854 and William Stones became the firm's sole owner. Expansion was slow at first, but by 1864 the firm had acquired about 10 public houses. In 1865 William Stones purchased land on Rutland Road in the Neepsend area of the city and purchased the Crown Inn which later became the brewery tap. In 1868 Stones took over the lease of Shepherd, Green & Hatfield' Neepsend Brewery and renamed it the Cannon Brewery after his original premises. Once established in Neepsend William Stones' business boomed. In 1880 he purchased two maltings in Worksop, and between 1865 and 1893 he acquired 34 public houses. By the time he died in 1894 William Stones was one of the weathiest men in Sheffield. He bequeathed the business to his cashier, James Haynes, and a corn miller, Richard Wigfull. The business was registered in 1895 as William Stones Ltd with a tied estate of 84 pubs. In 1896 William Stones Ltd extended its tied estate from Sheffield and Chesterfield, to Huddersfield. In 1911 the Company purchased the Brunswick Brewery of Chambers & Co. Ltd in Sheffield with 14 public houses. The Company continued to trade successfully and between 1913 and 1953 it purchased a further 24 public houses in South Yorkshire. In 1954 William Stones Ltd and Tennant Brothers Ltd jointly took over the Sheffield Free Co. Ltd but more significantly, in the same year, it acquired Mappin's Brewery Ltd of Rotherham with 59 public houses. The acquisition took Stones' total estate to well over 200 public houses. In 1959 the Company purchased a bottling firm, Ward & Sons of Swinton, which enabled Stones expand its bottling capacity and to bottle national beers including Bass and Guinness. Its own bottling plant in Neepsend had limited ouput which resulted in the Company transferring all its bottling to Swinton in 1961, and allowing it to redevelop the Cannon Brewery site. William Stones Ltd with 257 public houses was acquired by Bass Charrington Ltd in 1968. As a subsidiary of Bass, Stones was given a fair amount of autonomy, but the takeover did result in the closure of the Swinton bottling plant and the Worksop maltings. Bass continued to operate the Cannon Brewery until 1998 when all production of Stones' beers was transferred to Burton-on-Trent and Tadcaster. In 2000 Bass sold its breweries and the Stones brand to Belgian brewer Interbrew. Interbrew contracted the brewing of Stones cask ales to Marstons PLC. The Competition Commission ordered Interbrew to sell the Stones brand in 2002 which they did to American Coors Brewing Co., later named Molson Coors. The keg version of Stones Bitter is now brewed at the old Tadcaster Tower Brewery and the canned version is brewed in Burton-on-Trent. The cask product was brewed at the Highgate Brewery in Walsall and then transferred to Everard's brewery in 2005. Cask ales ceased to be brewed in 2015. The Maltings survived as offices and much of the Cannon Brewery is still standing, albeit in a derelict state. The manufacturer's mark states - Reginald Corfield Ltd Lombard Road, London. S.W.19. 599