Courage Ltd Square Tin

Courage Ltd tin tray dating from 1970.

John Courage

The Company was founded in 1787 by John Courage, a Scottish shipping agent, when he purchased the Anchor Brewhouse from the Ellis family, in Horsleydown, Bermondsey.
John died in 1793 at the young age of 36, when his wife Harriot took over the running of the business.
She died in 1797, and John Donaldson, the managing clerk, took over. The Company traded as Courage & Donaldson.
From the early 1800s, the firm's famous 'Cockerel' became associated with Courage beers.
In 1888 the business was registered as Courage & Co. Ltd.

The Acquistions Trail Begins

In 1903 Courage & Co. Ltd purchased the Alton Brewery Co., with 77 public houses, for the production of pale ale.
Between the two World Wars Courage pursued an acquisitions strategy which resulted in the purchase of five breweries in the South of England including the Camden Brewery Co. Ltd, with 78 tied houses, in 1923, Farnham United Breweries Ltd, with 196 public houses, in 1927, Noakes & Co. Ltd of Bermondsey, with 120 public houses, in 1930, C.N.Kidd & Son Ltd of Dartford, with 65 public houses, in 1937, and Hodgson's Kingston Brewery Co Ltd in 1943. The Hodgson's Stout brand name was used by Courage until the 1950s.
Three of the breweries continued to operate for Courage in different capacities for a long period of time.
Brewing continued in Alton until 1979, the Farnham brewery was used as maltings until 1956, and bottling continued at Kingston until 1965.
During the 1930s Courage's 'Cockerel' was redesigned and more prolifically used across the business.

The Mergers Era

In the 1950s and 1960s Courage & Co. Ltd was involved in two significant mergers. Firstly, in 1955, it merged with Barclay, Perkins & Co. Ltd whose Anchor Brewery was based in Southwark close to Courage's own Anchor Brewery. The Company became Courage & Barclay Ltd.
Whilst trading as Courage & Barclay Ltd the business purchased Nicholson & Sons Ltd of Maidenhead, with 22 properties in 1958, and Reffell's Bexley Brewery Ltd, with 19 public houses, in 1959.
After a further merger with H. & G.Simonds Ltd, based in Reading, the Company name changed again to Courage, Barclay, Simonds & Co. Ltd, in 1960.
Further acquisitions during the 1960s and early 1970s, included Bristol Brewery Georges & Co. Ltd, with 1,459 public houses, in 1961, Clinch & Co. Ltd (Witney), with 74 tied houses, in 1962, Harman's Uxbridge Brewery Ltd, with 88 properties, in 1962, Charles Beasley Ltd of Plumstead, with 88 properties, in 1963, the Star Brewery Ltd (Eastbourne), with 43 public houses, in 1965, and James Hole & Co. Ltd with 220 public houses, in 1967.
The massive John Smith's Tadcaster Brewery Co. Ltd, with 1,800 public houses, was purchased in 1970.
The Courage empire now employed 15,000 people, and owned an estate of 5,000 properties.
By 1970 the Company name had been simplified to Courage Ltd when its final acquisition was Plymouth Breweries Ltd.

Restructuring & Brewery Closures

At the beginning of 1971, Courage Ltd was operating seven breweries in London, Alton, Reading, Bristol, Newark, Tadcaster and Plymouth.
By 1971 Courage's Anchor Brewery became known as Courage (Eastern) Ltd.
In 1972 the Imperial Tobacco Group Ltd acquired Courage Ltd, and in 1978 it built a vast new new brewery at Worton Grange near Reading. The majoity of Courage's beers were transferred to the new Berkshire Brewery as it later became named.
The existence of the new state-of-the-art brewery resulted in the closure of Simond's Bridge Street Brewery in 1979, the Alton Brewery in 1979, Hole's Castle Brewery in 1983, the Regent Brewery based in Plymouth in 1983, and sadly Courage's original Anchor Brewery in 1981.
The Tadcaster and Bristol breweries both survived due to their geographical importance for the supply of beers to the North and West of England.
From the 1990s, the remaining Courage breweries, the pub estate, and its beer brands, were the focus of a number of takeovers and mergers.
The Imperial Tobacco Group Ltd was taken over by the Hanson Trust plc in 1986, which then sold Courage to Elders IXL, renamed the Foster's Brewing Group in 1990.
In 1991 Foster's took over all the remaining Grand Metropolitan plc breweries, combining them with the Courage business, in exchange for Courage's old public houses, which had been jointly run with the Inntrepreneur Pub Co.
In 1995 Scottish & Newcastle Breweries Ltd purchased all of Foster's breweries, creating Scottish Courage Ltd as its brewing arm.
In 1999 the old Bristol Brewery Georges & Co. Ltd, which had become the headquarters of Courgae (Western) Ltd, ceased brewing.
John Smith's, based in Tadcaster, is the only remaining ex Courage brewery still operating and is now owned by Heineken which acquired it in 2008.
The rights for brewing, marketing and selling the Courage beer brands were sold to Wells & Young's Ltd, based in Bedford, in 2007.
In 2017 Marstons PLC, now named the Carlsberg Marstons Brewing Company, acquired all the Courage beer brand names including Courage Directors and Courage Bitter.