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Beer history

Bristol: Ground Zero for Guinness in England

“In 1819 a sailing vessel ex-Dublin discharged ten barrels of Guinness porter in Bristol. It was the first bulk order for England that can be traced in the Guinness books. This was probably the first sign of the imminent expansion of the Guinness company. One might have expected this token invasion to have started at Liverpool for it is a short haul of 140 miles from St James’s Gate to the Mersey, but twice that distance to Bristol.”

The above comes from an article in Guinness Time, the in-house magazine of Guinness’s London brewery at Park Royal, for the summer of 1966. It goes on to explain that the Guinness family had relations in Bristol which might explain the oddity, but also suggests other more likely reasons: the North West was locked down by big brewers for one thing, and Bristol was effectively the nation’s second city at that time.

Dockside scene with huge Guinness tanks.
The Pluto unloading in Bristol c.1966.

In 1966, Bristol was still a major destination for Guinness, with two ships arriving every week from Dublin, carrying between 1,400 and 2,000 barrels each. Pluto (998 tons) set out from Dublin every Friday, stopping on the way at Waterford to pick up Draught Guinness tankards from the glassworks there, arriving in Bristol at 8 on Monday morning. Her sister, Dido, at 1,598 tons, arrived in Bristol every Thursday.

The Guinness Store, AKA the Dublin Store, was on Broad Quay (the long low building at the waterside, pictured above in 1910) and held the beer at 10°C ready for dispatch in bulk for bottling at 23 breweries in the region. It also held Harp Lager and Draught Guinness kegs from the brewery London. Intriguingly, there were apparently three pubs in the region still receiving ‘unpressurised Draught Guinness’ (so, cask-conditioned?) direct from Dublin at this time. We’ll have to see if we can find out which ones.

Harry Mico (seated) and his foreman, Wally Loud.

The head office for Guinness in the West Country was at Clifton, covering Swindon to Land’s End, as well as South Wales. Harry Mico, a veteran Guinness man who joined the company in 1924, managed the Store, while the Western Sales Area manager was L.J.G. Showers, a former Gurkha officer shipped back to England from India after 1947. The Bristol Office manager was Brian Vernall, a former brewer and marketing man who got the job when his predecessor in Bristol died in 1965.

We’ll have to investigate what, if anything, is left of Guinness’s operation in Bristol. The Store has certainly gone, the Quay filled in and the road diverted, but perhaps there might be some trace of the office in Clifton.

In the meantime, we’re going to have to find a pint of cask stout somewhere in Bristol this weekend.

2 replies on “Bristol: Ground Zero for Guinness in England”

“Harry Mico, a veteran Guinness man who joined the company in 1924, managed the Store, while the Western Sales Area manager who L.J.G. Showers, a former Gurkha officer shipped back to England from India after 1947.”

Something is missing or out of place in the second half of this sentence.

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