BEERWOLF - Wolverhampton Campaign for Real Ale

Now that CAMRA has reached 40 years of
age, lets look back at the earlier editions of our
flagship publication - the Good Beer Guide.
The first Good Beer Guide in book format was
published in 1974 and consisted of 98 pages
costing 75 pence!
Well what did you get for your money?
A list of pubs by County and a list of 118
breweries (of which 31appear in the 2012
guide) plus details of the four surviving
home brew pubs. They were The All Nations,
Madeley, Salop (Mrs Lewis); The Old Swan,
Netherton,Worcestershire (Doris Pardoe);
The Three Tuns, Bishops Castle, Salop (John
Roberts) and The Blue Anchor, Helston,
Cornwall (Geoffrey Richards).
Wolverhampton Branch entries - all under
Staffordshire - were The Horse & Jockey,
Church Street, Bilston (Banks’s); The New
Inns, Kiddemore Green (Ansells); The Rock,
Old Hill, Tettenhall (Ansells); The Hartley
Arms, Long Street, Wheaton Aston (Banks’s)
and The Bridge, Stafford Road, Wolverhampton
(M & B).
However, the publication had to be quickly
withdrawn and reprinted with the reference to
the beer from Watneys altered from “avoid like
the plague” to “avoid at all costs”!
Only the Bridge Inn has disappeared .It
closed in September 1975 and has since been
demolished.
The 1975 guide which followed almost doubled
in size to 178 pages but still cost only 75 pence.
It listed 148 breweries plus 6 home brewpubs
- the two newcomers being The Miners
Arms, Priddy, Somerset - bottles only (bottle
conditioned) and Traquair House, Innerleithen,
Scotland. It also referred to the Big Six
breweries who between them owned 57 of the
listed breweries - well over a 1/3rd of them.
After the 1974 shake up of the counties,
Wolverhampton Branch entries were now split
26
What a Difference in Forty Years
between Staffordshire & West Midlands.
The entries for Wolverhampton were The New
Inns, Kiddemore Green(Ansells); The Crown,
Wergs, Tettenhall(M & B); The Hartley Arms,
Long Street, Wheaton Aston (Banks’s); The
Golden Cups, High Street, Bilston
(M & B); The Hop Pole, Market Street,
Bilston (Banks’s); The Old Stags Head,
Penwood Lane, Penn (Banks’s); The Dog
and Partridge, High Street, Wednesfield
(Banks’s); The Clarendon, Chapel Ash,
Wolverhampton (Banks’s); The New Inn,
Salop Street, Wolverhampton (Banks’s); The
New Inns, Bilston Road, Wolverhampton
(Banks’s) and The Old Ash Tree, Dudley Road,
Wolverhampton (Banks’s). Only the Golden
Cups has gone. Lidl stands on part of the site.
Compare this with the 2012 Guide which has
910 pages. The brewery section alone at 189
pages is more pages than the total of the 1975
Guide.
Did you know that........
Finings, or isinglass - the substance which
makes your beer clear - is made from the
dried swim bladder of a fish.
Originally it was made exclusively from
the sturgeon which had to be imported from
Russia at great expense.
However, in 1795 the inventor William
Murdock developed an alternative made
from dried cod which was much cheaper than
the 25 shillings a pound which isinglass cost.
This cost saving was so attractive that the
Committee of London Brewers paid £2000
for the right to use his invention.