HUNT EDMUNDS & CO. LTD.

Business records of Hunt Edmunds & Co. Ltd., brewers of Banbury, consisting mainly of 19th and 20th cent. accounting records but also including some production and sales material.

John Hunt, maltster and brewer, built a brewhouse in Bridge Street, Banbury in about 1840. In 1842 he took Thomas Hunt into partnership. Thomas Hunt became the sole proprietor in 1848. William Edmunds joined him as a partner in 1850 and the firm was called Hunt & Edmunds. It became Hunt Edmunds & Co. in 1872 when Tom Wilkinson Holland joined the partnership. They acquired Banbury Brewery Co. and 14 licensed houses in 1879 and George William Barrett, Newland Brewery, Banbury in 1884. The wine and spirit business grew 1874-1888 and another 64 licensed houses were acquired in the same period.

Thomas Hunt's son Arthur continued to run the firm after his father's death in 1879. William Edmunds, Tom Wilkinson Holland, and Charles Fletcher Edmunds formed a new partnership in 1887 following the death of Arthur Hunt. Hunt Edmunds & Co. Ltd. was registered September 1896 to acquire the company of the same name. It took over Dunnell & Co of the Old Brewery Banbury in 1918. In 1919 it acquired H Byrd & Co, Model Brewery, Evesham; W H Knight, White Horse Brewery, Pershore; Fladbury Brewery, Fladbury and J G Baker's wine and spirit business, Pershore.

The company was amalgamated with Hitchman & Co. Ltd in 1925 under the company H.E.H. Co. Ltd., which united and managed both companies. Hunt Edmunds & Co. Ltd. transferred Evesham its bottling stores and Wine & Spirit business immediately to Hitchman & Co. Ltd.'s site in the same town. Brewing in Worcester was transferred to Hitchman & Co Ltd., Chipping Norton in 1929 and all brewing moved to Hunt Edmunds & Co. Ltd. Banbury in 1932. Hunt Edmunds & Co. Ltd. acquired Hitchman & Co. Ltd. outright in 1951. Hunt Edmunds & Co. Ltd. was acquired by Bass, Mitchell & Butlers in 1965 and brewing ceased in 1967.

Sources:

Anon., Hunt Edmunds & Co Ltd 1896-1946. With an Account of the Earlier Forms of the Business (Hunt Edmunds & Co Ltd, Banbury, 1946).

Richmond, Lesley and Alison Turton, The Brewing industry: a guide to historical records Manchester University Press, 1990.

Copies of both works are held in the Davenport Library at Oxfordshire Record Office.

Records less than 50 years old may not be consulted by researchers, unless they have obtained permission from the depositor.

Deposited by the successor company on closure of the site in Banbury in 1976 (Accession 1382). This deposit contained a small number of records from Hitchman & Co. Ltd, which have now been catalogued with the other records of that company under B19. A deposit of Hitchman & Co. Ltd. records in 1971 (Accession 986) also included some of the records now in this Hunt Edmunds & Co Ltd catalogue. Two of the items were deposited separately from other sources in 1975 (Accession 1381) and 1976 (Accession 1383).