There are four
ginger-flavoured drink products, two of which are known as ginger beer although
there is a great difference between them; there is also ginger wine and ginger
ale. Ginger wine is alcoholic, a fortified wine with an ABV (Alcohol By Volume) of 13.5-13.9% (compared with about 5% for beer,
12% for wine and 40% for spirits in modern beverages). Made from
fermented raisins and root ginger blended with brandy, it was first produced by
the Finsbury Distillery Company of London in 1740. At one time there were
also non-alcoholic ginger wines made especially for children and teetotallers.
Ginger ale, however, is non-alcoholic, despite its name. It was (or
so he claimed) invented by an American doctor, Thomas Cantrell, and first
manufactured in Belfast, Northern Ireland, by Grattan and Company, under the
slogan "The Original Makers of Ginger Ale". Sometimes referred
to as “golden ginger ale”, it was dark in colour and sweetened. Dry
ginger ale is also non-alcoholic and was created by a Canadian, John
McLaughlin, a chemist and pharmacist who opened a soda water bottling plant in
1890. Following experiments adding different flavours to the soda water,
he finally settled on "Pale Dry Ginger Ale," patented in 1907 as
"Canada Dry Ginger Ale". Used as a mixer for alcoholic drinks,
it became an instant success that is still with us today.
Ginger Beer
originated in Yorkshire during the mid-18th century but it was not until
large-scale manufacture commenced nearly a century later as part of the boom in
the consumption of aerated mineral waters (“fizzy drinks”) that it really
became popular and remained so in Britain until the start of World War 2 in
1939 and to the present day. Originally an alcoholic home-brewed
drink (probably around 4%), following the 1855 legislation that stipulated a
maximum alcohol content of 2% for ginger beer it is clear that although these later
drinks use terms like “home brewed” they were almost entirely
non-alcoholic. Sold in glass or stoneware bottles, ginger beer was made
in hundreds of small local factories throughout the length and breadth of
Britain as well as overseas, these bottles come in a
wide variety of shapes and sizes. They are usually marked with the name
of the manufacturer and the town where made. Although mostly for local
consumption, some of the large manufacturers managed a widespread national
distribution and even supplied an international market. Because the
subject is so vast this webpage is to record and illustrate those stoneware
bottles originating from places in Kent, though examples from elsewhere may be
used for explanatory purposes. No attempt is made to deal with the even
wider subject of glass bottles used for ginger beer.
Another process
usually associated with bottles on which the beer maker’s name is impressed is
salt-glazing, in which salt is added to the kiln during final firing. This produces a brownish-coloured orange peel
effect and is extremely strong and waterproof, hence why at one time it was
favoured in the manufacture of such things as drainpipes. Transfer-printed stoneware bottles are made
from white clay given a greyish-white slip and then fired at a very high
temperature. This produced a vitreous glaze inside and out that made them
watertight. Many of these bottles have an added yellow-brown colour at
the top, usually from the shoulder upwards, occasionally all over.
Although few (so far) have been noted from Kent, other colours such as green or
blue were used occasionally. The bottles themselves were usually
manufactured by specialist potters, among them the famous Denby company, who marked their wares with a small oval stamp that
included the date of manufacture. Other bottle manufacturers found on
Kent bottles include Doulton, Lambeth in London, Stiff,
also from Lambeth, Price of Bristol (some of which also include the date of
manufacture), Skey, Tamworth in Staffordshire, Lovatt & Lovatt,
Nottinghamshire, the Fulham Pottery, London,
Smith & Co, Old Kent Road, London, and Port Dundas, Glasgow.
The present site is
confined to the bottles where the manufacturing details were impressed into the
bottles when the clay was still soft or transfer-printed (
i.e. ink transferred from a plate, not an actual transfer) under the vitreous
glazing. Other bottles etc. may be covered separately at a later stage.
There are several
different shapes, including those that are known as "champagne" and
also "skittle". The most commonly encountered shape after 1900
has straight sides with a sharp shoulder and has a concave neck which is
usually brown in colour. This is often referred to as the
"standard" shape. The tops were closed with a cork or, from
about 1900 onwards, by a screw-in stopper, either a flat-topped version made of
hard wood or Vulcanised rubber, or the Riley’s Patent chisel-shaped
version. There were also two rarer types of stopper, the Galtee More
Patent (a porcelain stopper with a hole from side to side, designed so that it
could be attached to the bottle and so prevent it being lost), and the swing
type, which consisted of a sprung wire clip holding a porcelain stopper with
rubber seal. These bottles were intended to be re-usable and occasionally
carry warnings about illegal use, sometimes by refilling with an inferior or
“own brand” mixture (as cited in the case where an official of the Mineral
Water Bottle Exchange Company, which was formed for the purpose of restoring
bottles to mineral water manufacturers, took a street trader to court for
selling his own brew in R. White bottles).
It is clear that the nature of the contents of some bottles would have
been shown by affixing a printed paper label to the side. This would have been particularly true of the
salt-glazed bottles, where the details of the brewer were exceedingly brief,
often just giving the name, but was also the case with some of the vitreous
–glazed bottles, the one for H. &. G. Watts of Sandwich being a typical
example.
To qualify for
inclusion here, the stoneware bottles must either include the word "ginger
beer" on the label or where there is good reason to believe that they were
used for this purpose. It should be noted that other aerated mineral
waters and also beers, notably stout, were sold in similar bottles, though not
always labelled as such.
In the catalogue
the bottles are listed in alphabetical order of the place of manufacture and by
manufacturer within that location. They include some locations that were
part of Kent but have since been swallowed up by London.
Updates:
Minor amendments to the text 2 June 2016