Hall & Woodhouse Ltd Round Tin

Hall & Woodhouse Ltd tin tray dating from the early 1960s.

The Origins of the Hall & Woodhouse Brewing Business

In 1777 Charles Hall, an entrepreneurial farmer, built his brewery in the Dorset village of Ansty.
By 1793 the Napoleonic wars had begun, and the British Government permitted its troops a daily allowance of five pints of beer. Charles saw an opportunity and won the licence to supply Wellington's soldiers quartered in Weymouth.
Sixty years later his son, Robert Hall, who inherited the business, brought George Edward Illingworth Woodhouse as a partner into the business.
Woodhouse married Charles Hall's grand-daughter, Hannah Dodge, and Hall & Woodhouse was born.
Robert and Edward invested the majority of their profits back into the business, acquiring public houses through which to sell their 'Badger Beers'.
In 1875 George's sons, George Edward Woodhouse and Alfred Charles Woodhouse became new partners in the business.
In 1882 the partnership acquired Neame & Trew of Blandford St. Mary, with 12 public houses.
The Company operated both breweries, at Ansty and Blandford St. Mary, until a new brewery, at Blandford St. Mary, was built in 1900.
The brewery was named the Badger Brewery.
In that year the old Ansty brewery was damaged by a major fire causing its closure. The site was operated as a distribution depot, and the malt houses continued to be used until 1940.

Post-Registration Trading

The Company was registered in 1898, to acquire Hall & Woodhouse, of Ansty and Blandford, and Godwin Brothers of Durweston.
Including Godwin's 26 properties, the Hall & Woodhouse Ltd estate now totalled 105 public houses.
Throughout the 20th century business continued to grow steadily.
The firm's famous 'Badger' trade mark was first registered in 1901, and re-registered, with a slightly different design, in 1928.
The Company maintained a slow-paced acquisitions strategy purchasing Charles E Eliis' Town Brewery of Wimborne, with 18 public houses, in 1937, and Matthews & Co.'s Wkye Brewery of Gillingham, with 61 tied houses in 1963. Both breweries were closed.
In addition to bottling its own beers such as XXXX, Light Dinner Ale, Popular Ale, Brown Ale, and  Stout, the Company also bottled beers for Bass and Worthington from Burton-on-Trent, and Guinness, from Dublin.
In 1939, it was decided to extend the brewery buildings, and upgrade the plant.
In the early 1950s, Badger Bitter was first introduced, and this became the Company's best seller in the 1970s, when the business achieved its greatest growth.
In 1958, a new canning line was introduced, and in that year the firm won Gold Medals for its canned Forum Ale, and John Brown beer. The Company was also approached by Guinness to can its stout.
Hall & Woodhouse Ltd purchased and closed King & Barnes Ltd's Horsham Brewery, with 55 public houses, in 2000.
A new Badger Brewery was opened in 2012, a short distance from the original site built in 1900.
Hall & Woodhouse now owns over 150 public houses.
The Badger Brewery is still operating independently, and is run by the seventh and eighth generations of the family.
In order to maintain the highest quality its beers, including draught Badger Bitter, Tanglefoot, and 'The Fursty Ferret', these are only served in the Comapny's own tied houses.

The manufacturer's mark states - The Metal Box Co Ltd, (Liverpool Branch)