3-009-018 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Messrs. Allsopp and Sons' pale-ale brewery at Burton-on-Trent, 1862. '[This] establishment...[has] attained a world-wide celebrity. Messrs. Allsopp's leviathan works are continually in full operation, and until the enlargement in 1859 they were not considered extensive enough to meet the demand for their ales. In that year, in consequence of the large increase in their business, Messrs. Allsopp erected...the present building; and, with the further object of facilitating their large traffic, the firm applied to Parliament to construct, at its own cost, lines of railway to connect their two breweries with the cooperage, and with the London and North-Western and Midland Railways. These private railways cross the streets of Burton on a level, and are now regarded by the inhabitants as a boon in relieving the formerly congested traffic of the thoroughfares; but their construction...was in the first instance fiercely opposed...Large quantities of [Burton beer] were...exported to Russia, and "piva Burtonski," was a favourite beverage with the Empress Catherine...the wars of the French Revolution...almost entirely banished what old Marshal Blucher used to call "La bonne bière de Burton" from the continent of Europe'. From "Illustrated London News", 1862.