Once upon a time Norfolk was dominated by two Norwich brewers: Steward & Patteson (which had over six hundred tied pubs) and Bullards (which had more than five hundred).
In 1963 Watney Mann acquired the whole lot. In a single stroke much of East Anglia was reduced to a single, monopoly supplier. Red Barrel became the universal fizzy concoction, the prototype for keg beers, flogged out at 3.9% alcohol. I have to admit it always seemed to me to have a metallic fore-taste and after-taste of onions. Red Barrel was widely and quite properly mocked:
"Why is Red Barrel like making love in a canoe?"
"Because it's fucking close to water."
One might think the British brewing industry couldn't fall lower. It could. Watneys was in turn taken over by Grand Metropolitan, a vertically-structured leisure, hospitality and property goliath, which in its turn was merged with Guinness to arrive at the Diagio empire.
All of which left me a trifle amused to find Bullards is not only still in business, but still producing 'the Spirit of Norwich' — or, at least, flavoured gins.
There's a faint whiff of pseudery in The Bullards Story Presumably the Bullard family, quite reasonably, retained the name through the Watney take-over. Then decided to exploit it.
But what grates is the design of those gin bottles. My memory is: you went into even the better Bullards houses, and the young miss with whom one was accompanied (as if!) had advanced from expensive perries to someone 'harder' — a G&T perhaps (ha-ha! we're in luck with this one!). What was on offer was Gordon's. Or at a pinch, Gilbey's.
Since when we have had a tsunami of gins. Well, I mean, it's a raw spirit diluted to non-toxic levels, with added colouring and flavourings. And, unlike whiskey, it can be marketed without being natured in barrels. What's not for the marketing-manager and accountants to like?
So Bullards sell a gin.
Look closer.
Two small matters show up.
- The claim to be 'Est 1837' would be valid only if we ignore the 1963 sell-out. Oh, and various changes of business name through the nineteenth century. Still, if the Bullard family secured the name from Watneys, fair enough. Any link, though, has to be purely financial, as a 'family share-holder'.
- Then the trade-mark of the Anchor Brewery. That opened in 1867 at St Mile's Bridge. It closed in 1968, and the landmark chimney came down in 1982. If one pokes around the Coslany Street area one will find 'Anchor Quay' — but that's about it. Bullards distillery is now the other end of town, in Cattle Market Street, between an architect and a take-away.
So why am I griping?
It's yesterday's EDP, of course:
Famous Norwich firm locked in legal battle with Red Bull
Despite being 150 years older, Bullards has been accused by Red Bull of "creating a conflict of interest" due to an apparent clash with the naming of the companies.
Basically, Red Bull which has existed for just three decades, believes a centuries-old company should ditch its famous name.
Major mistake, then, to feature a photograph of a very living Russell Evans, left, founder of Bullards Spirit.
Good luck with that one.
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