E.K. & H.Fordham Round Black Backed Steel

E.K.& H.Fordham Ltd black backed steel tray dating from the 1920s.

The Fordham Family

John Fordham was involved in brewing as early as the 1750s. In the 1780s he was in partnership with his future brother-in-law, Richard Flower, running a brewery in Hertford.
Richard Flower's eldest son, Edward Fordham Flower, started his brewery in Stratford-upon-Avon, in 1831.
Another of John Fordham's nephews, brewer Edward George Fordham, took out a mortgage around 1832, on a brewhouse in Ashwell, when the previous landlord ran up debts.
Edward George's son, Edward King Fordham, and his brother Oswald Fordham, founded a larger brewery on Mill Street, in Ashwell, in 1836.
The brewery included a tun room, cleansing room, counting room, a counting house, and a brewery office.
The equipment was powered by a water wheel driven from a leat passing under the buildings.
The brewery had two maltings on the Mill Street site.

E.K. & H.Fordham Ltd

The Company was registered as E.K. & H.Fordham Ltd, with 124 public houses, in 1897.
At the turn of the century large modern new maltings were built close to the brewery, on Green Street.
By 1932 Fordham's was producing over two million bottles of beer per annum, including XXXX, Double, Milk and Oatmeal Stouts, and Brown, Pale, Best Pale, Light, Light Bitter, Luncheon, and Old Ashwell Ales.
The Company, with 91 public houses, was acquired by J.W.Green Ltd in 1952,  which used it as a bottling store until its closure in 1965.
Flats and houses were built on the Mill Street site in 1969. The maltings on Green Street are still standing having been converted into accommodation.

The maufacturer's mark states - Causton.London.