Brewers call barley “the soul of beer” and there’s plenty that’s good for the soul in the Home Counties. In a fascinating new book, Brewing in Hertfordshire, Martyn Cornell shows that over the centuries the county has supplied grain not only to local brewers but also transported it by road and river to London beer makers.
Daniel Defoe, best known for Robinson Crusoe, also wrote a tour of Britain and commented in 1724 that “Hertfordshire malt is esteemed the best in England.” There were vociferous complaints that roads leading from Ware, the major malting town, were rutted and almost impassable due to the heavy wagons carrying grain.
In 1788 Ware had 33 maltings and a century later around 700 tons of malt a week were travelling from the town to London by road and the River Lea, sufficient to produce more than 60 per cent of the capital’s beer.
Hertfordshire and the neighbouring counties of Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and Suffolk are important barley-growing areas as a result of the soil that is well-drained and chalky: it’s what French wine makers call terroir.
There’s even a village called Barley on the Herts/Cambs border, though historians will be quick to point out that that name is an ancient one for a meadow, not the grain. The village is worth a visit as the Fox & Hounds pub has a rare “gallows” pub sign that stretches across the road.
The bountiful supply of malting barley created a sizeable brewing industry in the county. By 1832 there were 82 maltsters supplying some 140 breweries.
Times change. Today, as Martyn Cornell records, there’s only one maltster left in Herts, French & Jupps in Stanstead Abbotts, and McMullen in Hertford, the proud family brewer, is the sole reminder of the county’s brewing past. Most malt is supplied by large companies based mainly in Suffolk.
There are now a number of new, small craft brewers, such as the 3 Brewers of St Albans and Farr Brew in Redbourn.
We need to revere Herts great brewing traditions and Martyn Cornell has dug deep to restore them for posterity.
Some of the lost breweries, even though substantial in size, were in remote locations. I recall trying to find Rayment’s of Furneux Pelham, and getting lost in country lane. I stopped to ask a man clipping his hedge the way to “Furnow Pelham” and he grated “Furnix, Furnix, none of that French nonsense around here”. I suspect, years later, he voted in favour of Brexit.
Rayment’s, when found, was a large brewery and it produced some delicious beers. It dated from 1860 and as the Rayment family died it was bought by two directors of Greene King in Bury St Edmunds, who ran it as a separate business.
In 1931, Greene King took over Rayment’s and in 1987 it took the decision to close the brewery and supply its 36 pubs with its own beers, IPA and Abbot Ale.
Among the breweries listed by Martyn, Fordham’s of Ashwell was a major concern with more than 130 pubs. It was a tempting business for the fast-growing J W Green of Luton, which snapped it up in 1952.
The same fate befell the main brewery in St Albans, Adey & White, which was based in what is now the Maltings shopping centre. It brewed porter, stout, pale ale and a barley wine called Stingo and its 52 pubs and off-licences fell into the cold embrace of Green’s in 1936.
Martyn Cornell has done a brilliant job in researching Herts brewing past and his book has many fascinating photos and old beer labels. It’s not to be missed if you enjoy both history and a good pint.
•Brewing in Hertfordshire, Martyn Cornell, Amberley Books, £15.99.
First published in the Herts Advertiser, March 2025.
