The Burton Cooper

I was born, and now live close to, Burton upon Trent.

Burton is known for brewing. The town originally grew up around Burton Abbey. Burton Bridge was also the site of two battles, in 1322 when Edward II defeated the rebel Earl of Lancaster and 1643 when royalists captured the town during the First English Civil War. William Lord Paget and his descendants were responsible for extending the manor house within the abbey grounds and facilitating the extension of the River Trent Navigation to Burton. Burton grew into a busy market town by the early modern period.

Burton became a centre for the brewing industry due in part to the quality of the local water, which contains a high proportion of dissolved salts, predominantly caused by the gypsum in the surrounding hills. This allowed a greater proportion of hops, a natural preservative, to be included in the beer, thereby allowing the beer to be shipped further afield. Much of the open land within and around the town is protected from chemical treatment[citation needed] to help preserve this water quality.


Burton came to dominate the brewing trade, and at its height one quarter of all beer sold in Britain was produced here. In the second half of the 19th century there was a growth in native breweries, supplemented by outside brewing companies moving into the town, so that over 30 breweries were recorded in 1880. However at the beginning of the 20th century there was a slump in beer sales, causing many breweries to fail; the industry suffered from the Liberal government's anti-drinking attitudes. This time no new markets were found and so the number of breweries shrank by closure and consolidation from 20 in 1900 to 8 in 1928. After further mergers and buy-outs, just three main breweries remained by 1980: Bass, Ind Coope and Marston's.

Of those three, Ind Coope no longer exists and Bass was bought out by Coors. There are a few independent microbreweries around though. So, you know where to come if you want a decent beer!

A by-product of the brewing industry, figuratively and literally, is the presence of the Marmite factory in the town. This in turn generated the production of Bovril. Both are now owned by multinational company Unilever. It annoyed me that Burton was removed from the labelling after that!