Living in London, I’m used to seeing the ghostly indications of defunct breweries everywhere I look — Taylor Walker; Truman Hanbury and Buxton; and, yes, Barclay Perkins. But the whole time I was growing up in Somerset, I didn’t once notice the arguably more subtle remains of the big regional brewery, Starkey, Knight and Ford.
Nowadays, you can spot their old pub buildings — many of which are now shops — by their black horse plaques.
From what I can tell, SKF were established in Bridgwater (or possibly Tiverton, in Devon) but then expanded aggressively into the surrounding towns (notably Taunton — this pamphlet is excellent). Googling them reveals very little other than a trail of takeovers of smaller breweries throughout the 20th century, until they themselves were subsumed by the colossal Whitbread empire in the early 1960s.
My Dad: “They had a big range of beers. There was XX double X at about 3.2%; triple X at about 3.8%; and four X at around 4.1%. Triple X was the best — sort of nutty, from what I remember.
“There was one called Lighthouse, named after the lighthouse on the beach at Burnham-on-Sea, and a stout, but I can’t remember the name. The brewery was right in the centre of town, behind where the swimming pool is now. I was drinking their beer right up until about 1966, when they started getting replaced in the pubs by Whitbread’s own beers.”
You can see the remains of SKF pubs on Fore Street (pic 1), Taunton Road (pic 2) and West Quay (pic 3) in Bridgwater, and on the Knowle Inn, Bawdrip (pic 4). For more details of remaining SKF livery, see the excellent defunct brewery history site.
I just happened to stumble across a Starkey, Knight & Ford beer in the Whitbread Gravity Book (where details of their competitor’s beers were recorded).
The sample of the beer was taken on January 6th 1950. It’s just described as Mild Ale, cost 1/2d for a pint, had an OG of 1037.8, an FG of 1008.5 and a colour of 40 + 2.5 (don’t ask me exactly what that means, but the Pale Ales are in the range 19 to 25 and Imperial Stout 320; most of the Milds are around 40).
Ron — thanks for that — interesting stuff. Glad your research is going well!
[...] A while ago, I wrote about Starkey, Knight and Ford, who once ran almost all the pubs in my home town. I was intrigued, but a bit frustrated at the dearth of information. Well, once again, Westminster City Archive (which I’m always on about) has come through for me, and I now know almost everything I need to about SKF. [...]
My grandfather was the landlord of the Halswell Inn, North St, Bridgwater, Somerset during the late 50′s. It was a Starkey Knight & Ford pub but I can’t find it on any websites. Have you any ideas where I can look.
Thanks for dropping in, Martin. All I can find online is reference to the Halswell Inn Carnival “Gang” from the 1950s. You might have to go offline. If you can, try popping into Bridgwater Library — they’ve got a decent collection of local history books, including lots of photos of the town from the Victorian era onwards.
[...] picture is the old logo of the Starkey, Knight and Ford brewery, which used to own the [...]
There’s a SKF glass in the Wolborough Arms in Newton Abbot; about 10 years ago I interviewed someone who worked for SKF as a drayman when a teenager, he wasn’t that much a mine of information sadly. I think he wrote a book about Bridgwater pubs which was available in the late 1990s.
sorry I meant to say glass window not glass.
My wife & I have bought a house in Bridford, Devon which I understand used to be the Harriers Inn (or Harriers Arms). We move in in late May 08. It was owned by the City Brewery, Exeter and also at one time SKF!!
Would love to get some memorabilia!
As a student I worked for Starkey`s each summer betwen 1965 and 1967. The first two years at the Fore St. site in Tiverton and the last at the new site.Bridgewater had closed by then and Tiverton was the only brewery still in action but under the aegis of Whitbread. I used to start off in the keg shop before fiddling my way out onto the lorries. In my last year our route covered from Ivybridge to Rooksbridge and from Seaton to Barnstaple the lorry was DPF 473B and still had the Bridgewater address on the side. As I remember Starkey`s had depots in Barnstaple and Plymouth, a firm called Norman and Pring were involved. When I was in the keg plant we mostly dealt with Tankard with occasional runs of mild. Each artic trailer held 187 10 gallon kegs and the 6 wheel Dennis 150(I had to load these on my own!) I also remember during their independent days Starkey`s brewed a keg beer called “Tantivy.” Some years before I delivered papers to Tom Ford the Chairman. He drove an old Ford(!) V8 which used o misfire evry so often.
corrected email address!!!!!
[...] happens every now and then, someone has come across an old post and left a fascinating comment which we wanted to bring everyone’s attention [...]
As a kid I remember that Starky Knight & Ford had a depot or did they brew in Union Street in Union Street Plymouth? I am trying to find out any information on a cider company called Carr & Quick. I remember a framed advertisment in the Kings Head in Elberton (just outside Plymouth) which if I remember went:
“Water is the best of drinks the ancient poet sings, but who am I to have the very best of things. Let princes wallow at their pumps and kings with wine make free, but cider made by Carr & Ouick is good enough for me”
For the past forty years I have wondered who were Carr & Quick. Any information gratefully received.
I was born in Tiverton in 1944 and lived there until leaving for Canada in 1977. From approx. 1946 to 1951 we lived at New Inn Gardens right beside the Starkey Knight and Ford brewery. I well remember playing with other local kids in the brewery grounds (companies weren’t so uptight about private property in those days!) If I may make a small detail comment on Tony’s message of 2008 Aug 06, I remember Tommy Ford as driving a grey straight eight Buick of late 40s vintage.
I came across this site through looking at old photo`s of my grandad,i remember the old brewery where the supermarket kwik save now stands
in Tivvy which became whitbreads and was gradually phased out to be replaced by the new brewery at bottom end of town near palmerston park which is now just a bottling plant.
Thing is that my grandad used to drive steam traction engines for SKF his name was william (bill) woodward,be nice to hear from someone who remembers him.
[...] example, because we’re one of the few sites online to even mention Starkey, Knight and Ford (a defunct West Country brewery) we’ve had some interesting comments from people with [...]
Hi – you Starkey Knight fans – I have an old glass bottle with the horse logo on – anybody interested in buying this from me?
It is clear white glass with STARKEY KNIGHT & FORD LTD TAUNTON AND HORSE AND RIDER AS TRADE MARK ALL EMBOSSED ON THE GLASS. IT MEASURES APPROX 7 -8 ” HIGH X 2 1/2 WIDE AT BASE.