Catalogue description TRUMAN HANBURY BUXTON AND CO LTD

This record is held by London Metropolitan Archives: City of London

Details of B/THB
Reference: B/THB
Title: TRUMAN HANBURY BUXTON AND CO LTD
Description:

This collection consists of Corporate records, financial material, records of production, stall records, property records, trade records, family papers and printed material

Date: 1527 - 1977
Arrangement:

A: CORPORATE RECORDS

 

COMPANY FORMATION

 

Articles of Partnership and Association Partnership Deeds and Papers Stocks and Shares General

 

COMPANY ADMINISTRATION

 

Board Meetings

 

Monthly Reports

 

Letter Books

 

Memoranda Books

 

Directors Order Books

 

General

 

B: ACCOUNTING RECORDS

 

Rest Books etc

 

Rest Expenses Memoranda

 

Balance Sheets

 

Profits and Expenses Book

 

Annual Stock and Valuation Book

 

Partners Ledgers

 

Malt and Barley Ledgers

 

Trade Ledgers

 

House Cash Books

 

Abroad Cash Books

 

Loan Ledgers and Cash Books

 

Petty Ledger

 

Bond Books

 

Western Ledger

 

Country Ledger and Cash Books

 

Bad Debt Ledger

 

Main Ledger

 

General Ledgers

 

Receiving Books

 

Receipt Books

 

Expenses and Dissection Books

 

Private Ledgers and Cash Books

 

Property Ledgers and Cash Books

 

Rental Tenants and Landlords Ledgers

 

Tenants Accounts

 

B: ACCOUNTING RECORDS

 

Rent Ledgers and Cash Books

 

Repairs Ledger

 

Bottling Cash Books

 

Savings Bank Ledgers and Cash Books

 

Transport Ledgers

 

Insurance Registers

 

Miscellaneous Ledgers

 

General

 

Making Up Books

 

C: PRODUCTION RECORDS

 

BREWING

 

Gyle Books

 

Ale Gyle Books

 

Square Books

 

Letter Books

 

Barley and Hops Used

 

Malt Room Books

 

Suppliers

 

Samples

 

Gravities

 

Valuation

 

BOTTLING

 

General

 

COOPERAGE

 

General

 

STOCK

 

Stock Books

 

Excise Declarations

 

D: PREMISES RECORDS

 

BREWERY SITE, BRICK LANE

 

Title Deeds

 

General

 

LICENSED PREMISES

 

Title Deeds

 

Statement of Inventories

 

Public House Inventories

 

Photograph Albums

 

Register of Holdings, Properties Books

 

Public House Visits Registers

 

Cellar Inspections

 

Surveyors Instructions Books

 

Records of Individual Public Houses

 

BOTTLING STORES

 

Leases and Agreements

 

OTHER PROPERTY

 

Title Deeds

 

General

 

E: TRADE RECORDS

 

SALES

 

Account Sales, Sales Books

 

Consignments, Country Trade

 

Trade in Barrels

 

DELIVERIES

 

Delivery Books

 

Country Deliveries Books

 

RETURNS

 

Returns Books

 

Filtered Beer Replaced

 

GENERAL

 

Central Clubs Cash Books

 

F: STAFF RECORDS

 

CLERKS

 

Salaries and Agreements

 

BREWERS MEN

 

Wages

 

BOTTLING STORES

 

Wages and Presents

 

COOPERAGE

 

Wages

 

Work Carried Out

 

DRAYMEN

 

Wages and Presents

 

CELLARS

 

Wages and Presents

 

ENGINEERS

 

Wages

 

WORKMEN

 

Presents

 

MANAGED HOUSES

 

Register of Employees

 

RECRUITMENT

 

Applications

 

MEDICAL

 

Examinations

 

Accident Reports

 

PENSIONERS

 

General

 

WORLD WAR II

 

General

 

WAGES/SALARIES

 

General

 

G: PERSONAL PAPERS

 

Truman Family

 

Villebois Family

 

James Grant

 

General Henry Read

 

Hanbury Family

 

Tickell Family

 

General

 

H: HISTORY OF FIRM

 

Historical Research Notes

 

J: DIARIES

 

Personal Diaries

 

Area Diaries

 

BUR: BURTON BREWERY

 

Accounting

 

Production

 

Premises, Trade, Staff

 

GW: GEORGE WOOD AND SON LTD

 

Corporate Records, Premises Records

 

RUS: RUSSELLS GRAVESEND BREWERY

 

Corporate Records

 

Production

 

Premises

 

SUB: SWANSEA UNITED BREWERIES

 

Premises

 

WRI: WRITTLE BREWERY

 

Corporate Records

 

Premises

 

PMT: PRINTED MATERIAL

 

Black Eagle Magazine

 

Newspaper Cuttings

 

General

 

Official Publications

 

X: PHOTOGRAPHS

 

Photographs

 

Y: ARTEFACTS

 

Souvenirs

Related material:

The GLRO has extensive collections of brewery records including Barclay Perkins and Courage (Acc 2305), Fuller, Smith and Turner (Acc 891), Meux Ltd (Acc 1714), Sich's Isleworth Brewery (Acc 1214, Acc 1309, Acc 1399) and part of Reid's (Ac.75.108 interim list only).

 

Watney Combe Reid and Co. and Watney Man and Co. are listed as Acc 2979.

Held by: London Metropolitan Archives: City of London, not available at The National Archives
Language: English
Creator:

Truman Hanbury Buxton and Co Ltd, 1889-1971, brewers

Trumans Ltd, 1971-1991, brewers

Physical description: 17 sub-fonds
Access conditions:

The records can mostly be seen without restriction. However, there is a 30 year closure period on board and committee minutes and unpublished corporate and accounting records; a longer closure period on staff records which contain personal and confidential information is currently operated. Such restricted records cannot be consulted without the written permission of the Company Secretary of Courage Ltd.

 

Suitable copies can be made for the purpose of private study only. Permission to publish copies of documents or to quote large quantities of text in published works must be obtained from the Company Secretary. It is the responsibility of the individual researcher to contact Courage Ltd about matters of copyright.

Immediate source of acquisition:

The records of Truman Hanbury Buxton and Co. Ltd have been deposited in the Greater London Record Office in nine separate but interrelated sections in a period spanning from 1973-1979. They do not form the complete archive of the company since additional records are held by the Company Archivist of Courage Ltd. The collection has been arranged by three successive archivists, following the pattern set by the Business Archives Council (used in its survey of the records of Barclay Perkins and Courage).

Publication note:

Bibliography

 

Trumans the Brewers 1666-1966 (GLHL 35.145 TRU)

 

The Brewing Industry in England 1700-1830, P. Mathias (GLHL 35.145 MAT)

 

The Brewing Industry: A Guide to Historical Records, L. Richmond and A. Turton (GLHL 60.43 RIC)

 

Spitalfields, Survey of London vol 27 (GLHL 78.3 LCC).

Subjects:
  • Alcoholic beverages
Administrative / biographical background:

TRUMAN HANBURY BUXTON AND CO. LTD

 

The precise origin of the Truman family's involvement in brewing is unclear. Although 1666 is often cited as the start date, it is more likely to have been 1679 when Joseph Truman Senior (d. 1721) acquired the Black Eagle Street brewhouse from William Bucknall.

 

The two sons of Joseph Truman Senior, Joseph Truman Junior (d.1733) and Benjamin Truman (d.1780) entered the business in 1716 and 1722 respectively. The former retired in 1730 and the latter developed the business so that in 1760 (the year he was knighted) Truman's brewery was the third biggest in London, brewing 60,000 barrels of beer per annum. After 1780, James Grant (d.1788), Sir Benjamin's assistant and executor, ran the business whilst the property passed to Sir Benjamin Truman's grandsons, General Henry Read and William Truman Read.

 

In 1789 Sampson Hanbury acquired James Grant's share of the business and managed the brewery until 1835. He was joined in 1811 by his nephew Thomas Fowell Buxton. Additional partners joined in 1816: Thomas Marlborough Pryor and Robert Pryor, who had previously run Proctors brewhouse, Shoreditch. During the first half of the Nineteenth Century, production rose from 100,000 barrels per annum in 1800 to 400,000 barrels per annum in 1850, so becoming the largest brewery in London.

 

Truman Hanbury Buxton and Co. Ltd was registered in 1889 as a limited liability company. The company was acquired by Grand Metropolitan Hotels Ltd in 1971 and changed its name to Trumans Ltd. In 1974 it merged with Watney Mann Ltd. Brewing at Burton ceased in 1971 but the Black Eagle Brewery at Brick Lane continued to operate until 1988. In 1991, Grand Metropolitan Hotels Ltd was taken over by Courage Ltd.

 

Acquisitions made by Trumans during its history for which GLRO has records:

 

Phillips' Brewery, Burton on Trent (1873);

 

Swansea United Breweries Ltd, Orange Street Brewery, Swansea (1926);

 

Russells Gravesend Brewery Ltd, West Street Brewery, Gravesend (1930);

 

Other acquisitions for which GLRO does not hold records include:

 

Michell and Aldous Ltd (1920);

 

Gilbert Reeves and Co. Ltd (1951);

 

Daniell and Sons Breweries Ltd, Castle Brewery, Colchester (1958).

 

NOTES ON OTHER COMPANIES

 

Russells Gravesend Brewery Ltd

 

This brewery was originally operated by W.S. Plane and John Heathorn. In 1858 it was sold, with 22 licensed houses, to the Russell family: John Russell ran the brewery from 1858 to 1893. In 1893 Russell's Gravesend Brewery Ltd was registered as a limited liability company. The company took over:

 

Webb and Co., Fort Brewery, Fort Road, Margate, Kent (1896);

 

Wilmington Brewery Co. Ltd, Hythe Street, Dartford, Kent (1899);

 

James Fleet, The Brewery, Ramsgate, Kent (1899; closed 1919);

 

Writtle Brewery Co. Ltd, Writtle Brewery, Chelmsford (1902; closed 1920);

 

George Wood and Son Ltd, The Brewery, East Street, Gravesend (1911; closed 1911).

 

In 1930, the company and its 223 tied outlets were acquired by Truman Hanbury Buxton and Co. Ltd and it ceased brewing.

 

George Wood and Son Ltd

 

Gravesend Brewery, 8 East Street, Gravesend was founded in the late 1770s. It was operated by Charles Becket in 1832 and run by the same family until the 1850s when George Wood took over the brewery business. His son joined him as a partner in the 1870s. In 1899, George Wood and Son Ltd was registered as a limited liability company.

 

In 1911 it was acquired by Russells Gravesend Brewery and ceased brewing.

 

Writtle Brewery Co. Ltd

 

This brewery dates at least from 1803 when Henry Lambirth (d.1835) of Little Stambridge, Essex was recorded as common brewer. He was a partner with John English at the Stambridge Brewery, and also owned Writtle Brewery. The latter was the office of Lambirth and Porter, wine and spirit merchants.

 

In 1835 the business was inherited by the children of Henry Lambirth's granddaughter, Frances Lambirth; Henry Hardcastle and Thomas Osborne acquired a majority interest in their share in 1873. The brewery was operated by Pattison and Co. until 1888 when Writtle Brewery Co. Ltd was registered as a limited liability company.

 

In 1902 it was taken over by Russell's Gravesend Brewery and the brewery closed in 1920. Some records of the company are kept at Essex Record Office.

Link to NRA Record:

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