{"id":4773,"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=4773"},"modified":"2025-11-06T14:40:15","modified_gmt":"2025-11-06T14:40:15","slug":"william-younger-co-ltd-round-black-backed-steel-6","status":"publish","type":"product","link":"https:\/\/brewerytrays.co.uk\/wp\/product\/william-younger-co-ltd-round-black-backed-steel-6\/","title":{"rendered":"William Younger &#038; Co. Ltd Round Black Backed Steel"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>William Younger &amp; Co. Ltd black backed steel tray dating from the 1930s.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>William Younger I Early History<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>The history of William Younger &amp; Co. Ltd is complex, with its origins dating from 1749.<br \/>\nIn that year William Younger founded a small brewery in Kirkgate in Leith.<br \/>\nWilliam married Grizel Cochrane Syme in 1753 and they had three sons, Archibald Campbell Younger, Richard Younger, and William Younger II.<br \/>\nTheir father died in 1770 and Grizel remarried a Leith brewer, Alexander Anderson.<br \/>\nIn 1772 Alexander employed Archibald as an apprentice, and also trained Richard and William II.<br \/>\nAlexander Anderson died in 1781 and Grizel took over the running of the brewery, trading as Grizel Younger Anderson.<br \/>\nShe was assisted by Archibald Younger until she retired in 1794.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>William Younger II First Brewery Ownership<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>William II opened his own brewhouse within Holyrood Abbey precinct in 1796. He focussed his attentions on penetrating the London market.<br \/>\nAfter he had extended his existing brewhouse William II acquired the Abbey Brewery of James Blair which was situated on a narrow lane between Canongate and the Abbey known as Horse Wynd in Holyrood in 1803. The purchase included a malt barn, kiln house, stables, and dwelling house.<br \/>\nArchibald Campbell Younger, established his own brewery in the precincts of the Abbey at Holyroodhouse in Croft-an-Righ.<br \/>\nIn 1786 Archibald Younger acquired a second, large brewery, in Croft-an-Righ, and in 1783 he opened a new, and even larger brewery, in the North Back Canongate.<br \/>\nThe site later disappeared when Waverley Station was built in 1868.<br \/>\nIn 1806 William Younger II and Archibald Younger collaborated to brew a porter for the Scottish market, and sold it through a separate firm, A.C &amp; W.Younger.<br \/>\nIn 1808 William II employed his brother-in-law, Robert Hunter, and the business traded as Younger and Hunter.<br \/>\nAfter the death of Robert Hunter in 1818, brewer Alexander Smith joined the firm.<br \/>\nIn 1819 Archibald died and his brewing business was sold by William II to George Hastie.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>William Younger &amp; Co. &amp; William Younger III<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>Both Grizel and Robert Hunter died in 1821 which resulted in William II consolidating all the family interests under the title William Younger &amp; Co.<br \/>\nIn 1825 and 1829 William II purchased land neighbouring his brewery and developed the site into the Abbey Brewery, the name Younger&#8217;s would become chiefly associated with.<br \/>\nIn 1836 he expanded further into the Canongate and was joined in partnership with his son, William Younger III, and Alexander Smith and his son, Andrew Smith.<br \/>\nBy the 1840s William Younger &amp; Co. was trading across Scotland and exporting to North and South America, India and Australia.<br \/>\nAfter the deaths of William Younger II and Alexander Smith in 1842, their sons. William III and Andrew Smith carried on running the business.<br \/>\nWilliam Younger IV joined the partnership in 1849 followed by his brother, Henry Johnston Younger, in 1852.<br \/>\nWilliam Younger III retired in 1851, and died in 1854, leaving Andrew Smith and William Younger IV to run the business.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>William Younger IV Holyrood Brewery<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>In 1858 Andrew Smith and William Younger IV purchased the adjacent premises of brewer Alexander Bewick, and built the Holyrood Brewery which was located between Canongate and its South Back.<br \/>\nThe firm&#8217;s &#8216;Two Triangle&#8217; trade mark was introduced in the 1850s.<br \/>\nThe firm&#8217;s first London office opened in 1861.<br \/>\nWilliam Younger IV died in 1886 and Andrew Smith retired in 1869 leaving the day-to-day control to Henry Younger, his brother David Younger, and Andrew Smith&#8217;s son, Alexander Smith II.<br \/>\nThe &#8216;View of Holyroodhouse&#8217; trade mark was registered in 1882 , and the &#8216;Monk with a Tankard&#8217; trade mark was introduced in 1884.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>William Younger &amp; Co. Ltd Expansion of the Abbey &amp; Holyrood Breweries<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>The Abbey and Holyrood breweries continued to expand and in 1887 the business was registered as William Younger &amp; Co. Ltd. The firm became a public company in 1889.<br \/>\nBy 1907 the breweries covered 27 acres and brewed a quarter of all the ale produced in Scotland. Younger&#8217;s also controlled a network of over sixty agencies across the world; it had become a truly global brand.<br \/>\nGrowth continued through the Great War and in 1920 Younger&#8217;s installed its first bottling plant at the Holyrood Brewery for the production of chilled and carbonated beers, a new drinking trend.<br \/>\nThe Company&#8217;s famous &#8216;Long Bearded Old Man with Glass&#8217; trade mark was registered in 1927.<br \/>\nWith the onset of the Great Depression in the late 1920s and early 1930s, the business of William Younger &amp; Co. Ltd took a different turn.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Scottish Brewers Ltd<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>William Younger &amp; Co Ltd&#8217;s Abbey &amp; Holyrood Breweries merged with William McEwan &amp; Co. Ltd&#8217;s Fountain Brewery in 1931 to form Scottish Brewers Ltd.<br \/>\nWhile both Companies continued to brew and market their ales separately, they shared financial and technical services, and exports were handled by a new Company McEwan-Younger Ltd.<br \/>\nIn 1933 William Younger &amp; Co. Ltd acquired the Collin Croft Brewery Co. Ltd of Kendal.<br \/>\nBy 1946 the Company employed 1,350 people.<br \/>\nThe Abbey Brewery closed in 1956, and was later redeveloped as the Head Office of Scottish &amp; Newcastle Ltd.<br \/>\nScottish Brewers Ltd continued to increase its market share in the brewing industry, and a costly five-year investment programme between 1958 to 1863 enabled the Company to double its production.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Scottish &amp; Newcastle Breweries Ltd<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>Scottish Brewers Ltd merged with Newcastle Breweries Ltd&#8217;s Tyne Brewery in 1960 to form Scottish &amp; Newcastle Breweries Ltd.<br \/>\nThe Holyrood Brewery was closed in 1986.<br \/>\nScottish &amp; Newcastle Breweries Ltd followed an aggressive acquisitions strategy and took over and closed some well known breweries in Britain.<br \/>\nIn 1995 it acquired the brewing operations of Courage Ltd to form Scottish Courage Ltd.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Heineken Takeover<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>Scottish &amp; Newcastle Ltd was a giant of the brewing industry when it was jointly taken over by Carlsberg and Heineken in 2008, and the assets were split. Heineken now owns the UK business.<br \/>\nIn 2011 the Younger&#8217;s and McEwan&#8217;s brands were sold by Heineken to Wells &amp; Young Ltd of Bedford, which then sold them to Marstons PLC in 2017.<br \/>\nThe sites of both the Abbey and Holyrood Breweries were the land on which the Scottish Parliament was built in 2004.<\/p>\n<p>The manufacturer&#8217;s mark states &#8211; Hancock Corfield &amp; Waller Mitcham. London 10M.12.32<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>William Younger &amp; Co. Ltd black backed steel tray dating from the 1930s.<br \/>\nThe Abbey Brewery and the Holyrood Brewery were both based in Edinburgh, Lothian.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":10585,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":""},"product_brand":[],"product_cat":[386],"product_tag":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-4773","1":"product","2":"type-product","3":"status-publish","4":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"product_cat-scotland-1930s","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\/4773","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=4773"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brewerytrays.co.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brewerytrays.co.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"product_brand","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brewerytrays.co.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_brand?post=4773"},{"taxonomy":"product_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brewerytrays.co.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_cat?post=4773"},{"taxonomy":"product_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brewerytrays.co.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_tag?post=4773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}