Watney Combe & Reid was a leading

brewery A brewery or brewing company is a business that makes and sells beer. The place at which beer is commercially made is either called a brewery or a beerhouse, where distinct sets of brewing equipment are called plant. The commercial brewing of bee ...

in London. At its peak in the 1930s it was a constituent of the

FT 30 The FT 30 (''FT Ordinary Index'' or ''FTOI'', not "FTSE 30") is a now rarely used index that is similar to the Dow Jones Industrial Average. As an index of stocks to represent the real trends on the market, the FT 30 has been superseded by the FTS ...

index of leading companies on the

London Stock Exchange London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St P ...

. It produced Watney's Red Barrel.

History

The

Watney family The Watney family is an English family known for its association with the brewing firm Watney Combe & Reid,Janes, H. ''The Red Barrel: A History of Watney Mann'' (1963). as well as for its political activities, philanthropy and missionary work. Mem ...

were the main partners in the Stag Brewery,

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

, for much of the 19th century. In 1837

James Watney James Watney (18 December 1800–16 March 1884) was an English brewer and landowner who resided at Haling Park, Croydon, and Beddington, Surrey. He was born to Daniel Watney (1771–1831) of Mitcham, Surrey and Mary Galpin (1771–1830), ...

became a partner in the brewery, followed by his sons

James James is a common English language surname and given name: *James (name), the typically masculine first name James * James (surname), various people with the last name James James or James City may also refer to: People * King James (disambiguati ...

and Norman in 1856. On his death in 1884, the brewery became a

private limited company A private limited company is any type of business entity in "private" ownership used in many jurisdictions, in contrast to a publicly listed company, with some differences from country to country. Examples include the '' LLC'' in the United St ...

. In 1889 James Watney & Co., acquired the Mortlake Brewery (latterly referred to as the Stag Brewery of

Mortlake Mortlake is a suburban district of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames on the south bank of the River Thames between Kew and Barnes. Historically it was part of Surrey and until 1965 was in the Municipal Borough of Barnes. For many cen ...

), which had been owned by Charles James Philips and James Wigan since the 1840s. In 1898 the company merged with Combe Delafield and Co. and Reid and Co., and was subsequently known as Watney Combe and Reid. The amalgamated company was the largest brewer in London. The Combe brewery in Longacre and the Reid brewery in Clerkenwell closed almost immediately, and production was concentrated on the Watney Stag Brewery in Pimlico. The company had an annual output of 1.8 million hectolitres (some 39.5 million imperial gallons). Watneys Key Fob

Watney Mann was formed in 1958 with the merger of Watney, Combe, Reid & Co. Ltd with Mann, Crossman & Paulin Ltd. When the Stag Brewery in Victoria was demolished in 1959 the name was transferred to Mortlake Brewery. The business acquired other brewers, including Wilsons of

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

Phipps NBC Phipps Northampton Brewery Company Ltd has a long and varied history of brewing real ale and stout. It is based in Northampton, England. Early brewing history The company began in the South Northamptonshire town of Towcester where founder Pick ...

of Northampton, Samuel Webster & Sons of Halifax and

Ushers of Trowbridge Ushers of Trowbridge was a brewery in Trowbridge, Wiltshire, England, between 1824 and 2000. History In 1824, Thomas Usher and his wife Hannah acquired a small brewery in Back Street, Trowbridge, renaming it Usher's Wiltshire Brewery. In 184 ...

, before being taken over by

Grand Metropolitan Grand Metropolitan plc was a leisure, manufacturing and property conglomerate headquartered in England. The company was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index until it merged with Guinness plc to for ...

, a hotels and catering group, in 1972 and closed in 1979.

Watney's Red Barrel

Watney's Red Barrel was a

bitter Bitter may refer to: Common uses * Resentment, negative emotion or attitude, similar to being jaded, cynical or otherwise negatively affected by experience * Bitter (taste), one of the five basic tastes Books * '' Bitter (novel)'', a 2022 nove ...

which sold highly in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

during the 1960s and 1970s. It was introduced in 1931 as an export

keg A keg is a small barrel. Wooden kegs made by a cooper were used to transport nails, gunpowder, and a variety of liquids. A keg is normally now constructed of stainless steel, although aluminium can be used if it is coated with plastic on th ...

beer that could travel for long distances by being made stable through filtering and

pasteurising Pasteurization or pasteurisation is a process of food preservation in which packaged and non-packaged foods (such as milk and fruit juices) are treated with mild heat, usually to less than , to eliminate pathogens and extend shelf life. Th ...

, as such it was the first keg beer. It was renamed "Red" in 1971. A 3.9%

abv Alcohol by volume (abbreviated as ABV, abv, or alc/vol) is a standard measure of how much alcohol (ethanol) is contained in a given volume of an alcoholic beverage (expressed as a volume percent). It is defined as the number of millilitres (mL) o ...

pale lager Pale lager is a very pale-to- golden-colored lager beer with a well- attenuated body and a varying degree of noble hop bitterness. The brewing process for this beer developed in the mid-19th century, when Gabriel Sedlmayr took pale ale brew ...

called Watney's Red Barrel was sold by

Sleeman Breweries Sleeman Breweries is a Japanese-owned Canadian brewery founded by John Warren Sleeman in 1988 in Guelph, Ontario. The company is the third-largest brewing company in Canada. Along with its own Sleeman brands, the company produces under licence the ...

until 1997 and a 6.0% beer with the same name is still brewed by

Alken-Maes Alken-Maes is a Belgian brewery created out of the 1988 merger of two small breweries, Maes located at Kontich-Waarloos and Cristal-Alken located at Alken. It was bought by Scottish & Newcastle in 2000, who were taken over by Carlsberg and H ...

Advertising

For many years, Watney's advertised with the

strapline Advertising slogans are short phrases used in advertising campaigns to generate publicity and unify a company's marketing strategy. The phrases may be used to attract attention to a distinctive product feature or reinforce a company's brand. Etym ...

"What we want is Watney's". The company sponsored the

Watney Cup The Watney Mann Invitation Cup (normally referred to as simply the Watney Cup) was a short-lived English football tournament held in the early 1970s. It was held before the start of the season, and was contested by the teams that had scored th ...

association football tournament from 1970 to 1973.

References

External links

Access to Archives: Files held at the London Metropolitan Archives on Watney Come Reid and Co Ltd and Watney Mann Ltd

Illustration of label of Combe Delafield & Co., Best London Porter
{{DEFAULTSORT:Watney Combe and Reid 1898 establishments in England 1972 disestablishments in England 1972 mergers and acquisitions Breweries in London British companies established in 1884 British companies established in 1898 Companies based in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames Companies formerly listed on the London Stock Exchange Defunct breweries of the United Kingdom Food and drink companies disestablished in 1972 Food and drink companies established in 1898 History of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames Watney family