{"id":4375,"date":"1970-01-01T00:00:00","date_gmt":"1970-01-01T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brewerytrays.co.uk\/wp\/?post_type=product&#038;p=4375"},"modified":"2025-12-12T14:13:19","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T14:13:19","slug":"william-hancock-co-ltd-round-alloy-2","status":"publish","type":"product","link":"https:\/\/brewerytrays.co.uk\/wp\/product\/william-hancock-co-ltd-round-alloy-2\/","title":{"rendered":"William Hancock &#038; Co. Ltd Round Alloy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>William Hancock &amp; Co. Ltd alloy tray dating from the 1950s.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>William Hancock Brewer &amp; Founder<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>William Hancock founded the Wiveliscombe Brewery in Somerset in 1807.<br \/>\nAfter the death of his father in 1845, his son, also called William, took over control of the business.<br \/>\nBy the 1870s Hancock&#8217;s was using an agent to distribute its cask ales, brewed in Wiveliscombe, from West Bute Dock in Cardiff.<br \/>\nIn 1884 William Hancock purchased North and Low&#8217;s Bute Dock Brewery in Cardiff, and began brewing in Wales.<br \/>\nHaving purchased a brewery in South Wales, William Hancock then acquired a number of small breweries in the area.<br \/>\nEdwin Hibbard&#8217;s Anchor Brewery in Newport was purchased in 1884, and the Dowson Brothers Phoenix Brewery in Cardiff was acquired in 1887.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>William Hancock &amp; Co. Ltd Registration &amp; Expansion<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>The rapid growth of the Company in Wales resulted in William registering a separate business, William Hancock &amp; Co. Ltd, in 1887.<br \/>\nBy this time Hancock&#8217;s estate totalled 77 public houses in Cardiff and Newport.<br \/>\nWilliam Hancock &amp; Co. Ltd acquired John Biggs &amp; Co.&#8217;s South Wales Brewery with 12 public houses in 1889, and Ackland &amp; Thomas&#8217;s West End Brewery of Swansea in 1890. Hancock&#8217;s operated the West End Brewery until 1969.<br \/>\nIn 1894 Hancock&#8217;s purchased the County Brewery in Crawshay Street, Cardiff, from F.S.Lock. Brewing was transferred from the Bute Dock Brewery to the County Brewery.<br \/>\nHenry Anthony &amp; Co. Ltd&#8217;s Castle Brewery with 12 public houses in Cardiff was acquired in 1895, Thomas Jones &amp; Co. Glamorgan Brewery in Swansea was purchased in 1901, and the Canton Cross Brewery Co. Ltd in Cardiff was taken over in 1904.<br \/>\nHancock&#8217;s purchased two more breweries before the First World War. John Sherwood in Caerleon, and Lewis Jenkins Vale of Glamorgan Brewery in Cowbridge were both acquired in 1914.<br \/>\nDuring the First World War it purchased the Singleton Brewery Co. Ltd&#8217;s Wellington Brewery, a small business with no tied houses in Swansea.<br \/>\nBetween the two World Wars, the Company acquired John Rees Abernant Brewery in 1924, the Swansea Old Brewery in 1927, and Giles &amp; Harrap&#8217;s Merthyr Brewery with 62 public houses in 1936.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Bass Charrington Ltd Takeover<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>The business continued to trade successfully and by the late 1960s it owned 505 public houses across South Wales.<br \/>\nIt was a perfect target for a takeover by a bigger brewer.<br \/>\nWilliam Hancock &amp; Co. Ltd was acquired by Bass Charrington Ltd in 1968 and became Welsh Brewers Ltd.<br \/>\nDuring the 1980s the Company traded as Bass Brewing (Cardiff) Ltd and Bass Wales Ltd.<br \/>\nThe site was sold to S.A.Brain &amp; Co. Ltd in 1999 which transferred all its brewing to Crawshay Street.<br \/>\nWhen Brain&#8217;s moved to a new site in 2019, Hancock&#8217;s old brewery was closed and later demolished.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>William Hancock &amp; Co. Ltd alloy tray dating from the 1950s.<br \/>\nThe brewery was based on Crawshay Street in Cardiff, South Glamorgan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":10096,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":""},"product_brand":[],"product_cat":[398],"product_tag":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-4375","1":"product","2":"type-product","3":"status-publish","4":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"product_cat-wales-1950s","8":"first","9":"instock","10":"shipping-taxable","11":"purchasable","12":"product-type-simple"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brewerytrays.co.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product\/4375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brewerytrays.co.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brewerytrays.co.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/product"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brewerytrays.co.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4375"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brewerytrays.co.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brewerytrays.co.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"product_brand","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brewerytrays.co.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_brand?post=4375"},{"taxonomy":"product_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brewerytrays.co.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_cat?post=4375"},{"taxonomy":"product_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brewerytrays.co.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_tag?post=4375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}