Starkey, Knight & Ford Ltd Round Tin

Starkey, Knight & Ford Ltd tin tray dating from the 1960s.

George Knight Founder

The Northgate Brewery was founded in Bridgwater by a maltster, George Knight, in 1842.
George died in 1885 leaving his sons George and Henry to run the business.
Around this time the famous galloping or prancing horse trade mark first appeared.

Starkey, Knight & Co. Ltd

The Company was registered as Starkey, Knight & Co. Ltd when Knight's merged with Thomas Starkey of North Petherton and Taunton.
Brewing was mainly concentrated in Bridgwater and in 1889 a new state-of-the-art tower brewery was constructed there.
The offices were based on the High Street in Bridgwater.

Starkey, Knight & Ford Ltd

In 1885 Starkey, Knight & Co. Ltd acquired Thomas Ford & Son of Tiverton with 40 tied houses.
The new Company was registered as Starkey, Knight & Ford Ltd.
The brewery in Taunton ceased brewing in 1903 when its plant was offered for sale. It continued to be used as a mineral water manufacturer until it burnt down in 1952.
Thomas Strakey's North Petherton brewery closed in 1906 leaving Knight's Northgate Brewery in Bridgwater and Ford's Tiverton brewery, as the Company's two operating breweries.
The business traded succesfully and gained a good reputation for the quality of its ales. It supplied public houses from Cornwall to Wales.
After the First World War, the word 'unapproachable' was used as a marketing motto.

Trading 1920 to 1962

From the 1920s onwards the Company won numerous brewing industry medals and it began to advertise its beers as 'Prize Winning' and 'Medal Winning'.
After surviving the Second World War unscathed, the business was expanded when, in 1957, it acquired Holt Brothers Ltd of Burnham on Sea with 67 public houses. The brewery was immediately closed although bottling and malting continued in Burnham on Sea until 1964.
By the beginning of the 1960s the business was starting to struggle due to the disparate spread of its public houses.
In 1962 Whitbread & Co Ltd acquired Starkey, Knight & Ford Ltd with 400 public houses. Whitbread's closed the Northgate Brewery in the same year. It was demolished in 1967.
Ford's old Tiverton brewery was merged by Whitbread & Co. Ltd with Norman & Pring Ltd of Exeter becoming Whitbread Devon Ltd in 1970.
Any trace of the Starkey, Knight & Ford Ltd brand ceased at this point.
The Tiverton brewery was closed by Whitbread's in 1982.

The manufacturer's mark states - Made in Great Britain by Reginald Corfield Ltd 4728.
An earlier tray with exactly the same design and the same maker's mark was produced in the mid 1950s only a little heavier in weight.