Prologue

The Geeston Tap, previously the Geeston Lodge Brewery, in 1975. (Closed as a P.H. about 1970)

The 1890s and 1900s saw the rapid disappearance of home-brew pubs and the demise of many small breweries in the city and counties of Leicestershire and Rutland. At the same time there was a rise in the number of countywide concerns. The complexities of the excise system of taxation, the lack of interest in investment in new brewing equipment and the savings brought about by large-scale production forced many small concerns out of business.

The shortage of raw materials during the First World War and the immediate post-war period also took its toll, including notably the brewing side of the All Saints Brewery Co. It was forced to turn to the Leicester Brewing and Malting Co. for its draught and Ind Coope for its bottled beer. The manpower shortage caused by the "Great War" cannot be ignored either. The Geeston Lodge Brewery at Geeston (Rutland) was forced to close in 1914 when the head brewer "Mr Walker ... went to war" and presumably never came back.


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