The Bowsing Ken

Tennent Caledonian Brewery : 
      Tennent's Original Export Lager

It's All About The Water...

   Back in the really olden days, there was a little stream - quite picturesque and tranquil by all ancient accounts - called Molendinar Burn or sometimes Malyndinor Burn. Now, the term "Burn" - or Burna, Bourn, Burnia, as well as other variations - generally has something to do with moving water. It could be a brook or a stream, or a wooded valley that has a stream in it, or other sorts of water courses. Sometimes it denotes that the stream issues forth from a well, spring or a fountain.  
  Molendinar Burn flowed from the northeast to the southwest before it emptied into the River Clyde, and it was on this burn that in 560 a holy man by the name of Kentigern founded his church and the See of Glasgow, and well, basically founding the city of Glasgow. Today, he is known as St Kentigern, or more popularly by many as St Mungo.  His first church is long gone, but as tends to happen, once a church is built on a particular site, and that church crumbles, another church is built in the same place, and so on. This is why today the High Cathedral of Glascow is located where St Mungo's church originally sat.

  Over the next thousand years or so, Glasgow went from a little village with a small church, to a bustling city with the aforementioned big cathedral. Situated in and amongst some very fertile farm land, and right on the River Clyde - a major water transportation nexus - Glasgow grew in importance. Everybody knows that back in the olden days, most households brewed their own beer. However, as a city grows, and more of the population is employed in their specialized trades rather than just making a subsistence existence, many people began to buy their beer instead of making it themselves. This happened in Glasgow, and although records are scant, a burgeoning malting and brewing industry was apparently well under way by the beginning of the 1600s.

   One would hope that the making of malt and the brewing of beer would be a simple affair, one without conflict, but in Glasgow, as well as other places, this was not exactly so. Again, records tend to be few, but it seem that the makers of beer - the craftsmen class - and the merchant class did not always get along. The merchants tended to be in league with the politicians who controlled the city government, to the exclusion of the craftsmen. Heck, there was even a religious aspect to the conflict, with the merchants being mostly in support of the pope, and later the episcopacy, while the craftsmen tended to support the Reformation. The bottom line was that the craftsmen brewers and the merchants were vying for control for not only the beer business, but also the running of the city.  
  Back in those days when a group of craftsmen - brewers, stone masons, goldsmiths, printers, etc... - became concerned about their trades, when they needed to exclude certain unscrupulous craftsmen from their trade, or when they wanted to exert some control over how outside influences impacted these trades, the people involved formed what was called a guild. These guilds were also formed to educate apprentices, take care of the sick and orphaned, provide for the old folks, and pay for funerals. The history of guilds is a contentious one, with guilds at times being encouraged and backed by the crown, only to be later outlawed by a different crown. One of the first mentions of an official recognition of a guild in Scotland was the Statute of James I, dated 1424, which allowed for the election of a "Maister" man to run a guild, in order to ensure that "the lieges be not defrauded in time to come as they have been in time bygone through untrue men." It took a little while, but this is what the brewers of Glasgow did.
 Here is an excerpt from a publication called: "Chronicles of the Maltmen Craft in Glasgow 1605 - 1879," written by on Robert Douie, who was at the time the Clerk of the [Guild] Incorporation. This explains much: "In the 16th century violent contests arose between the Merchant and Trade Ranks respecting the government of the city [Glasgow]. The Merchants had exercised the whole sway, monopolized the Magistracy, and assumed the sole right of managing the funds [taxes]. The Trades, who were more numerous, insisted on a participation of office. The animosities which has arisen from this source were at last allayed by a submission of the point of difference to Sir George Elphinstome of Blythswood, then Provost: Mr David Weems (the Parson of Glasgow): and Messrs John Bell and Robert Scott, two ministers of the city. The award of these Arbitrators, dated 6th February, 1605, is termed the "Letter of Guildry," and contains the Constitutions of the present Merchants' House, Trades' House and Incorporation of Maltmen."

  Although certain records indicate that the "Incorporation of Maltmen and Mealmen of Glasgow" actually existed as a trade group as far back as 1556, it was this date in February 1605 that it was recognized as a legitimate group. Some of the very early members of this trade guild were members of the family of Tennent. Unfortunately, according to Douie's book, because of a 1601 fire that destroyed many of the early records, the names of the original 45 founding members of the Incorporation of Maltmen cannot be ascertained. In the Douie book there is, however, a listing of the current members - as of 1879 - and what was called their "Craft Genealogy," basically a family tree tracing back family members that were Maltmen. So, for the name of Tennent there is the following listing (the dates are the year the person joined):
 Gilbert Rainy Tennent (1840), son of Hugh Tennent (1827), son of Robert Tennent (1807), son of Robert Tennent, Senior (1769), son of Hugh Tennent (1725), then with no relations noted, but of the same family, there was a Patrick Tennent (1687) and Robert Tennent (1632), this last gentleman was noted as an unlisted family member who was in the organization prior to 1605. So, according to the best information on hand, Mr Douie notes that the Tennent Family had been Maltmen for a long time.
 So, records indicate that an embryonic Guild of Maltmen existed back as far as 1556, which, by the way, other records state was the year that a particular brewery was established on the banks of the Molendinar Burn. Coincidence perhaps? Some surmise that this particular brewery had been there, in one way, shape or form, even earlier than 1556. And then simply by the fact that the guild was initiated around that time, or at least records were starting to be kept around that time, 1556 is the year that this particular brewery was established. Confused yet?
  The big question is whether or not this particular brewery was owned and operated by the Tennent family. Some references say yes, although they are a bit light on the documentation, while some sources don't note who actually owned it. According to Douie's book the Tennent family were brewers well before 1605, so concluding that the Tennents owned the brewery is not too far fetched. Clearly more research is required - I think I'll have a beer and get right on that. One thing that is fairly well documented is that Hugh and Robert Tennent started a brewery - perhaps calling it the Drygate Brewery - in 1740, which was also situated on the Molendinar Burn. Whether or not this is the same brewery that existed at least back to 1556, is not certain, and if it is in fact the same, what happened in the intervening 186 years.

  By looking at a map from back in the late 1700s, one can see the Molendinar Burn running down past the Glasgow Cathedral, after which it takes a couple of turns before passing Drygate Street. Actually there was Drygate Street, Drygate Lane, and running perpendicular to both, the Drygate Foot.  And, apparently there must have been a bridge across the Burn because there was, at the time, a Drygate Bridge. Although no map I have yet seen shows the exact location of the Drygate Brewery, the later location of the Tennent Brewery was on the east side of the Burn, just opposite of Drygate street, so we can assume they are one in the same.
 So, in 1740 Hugh and Robert Tennent started a brewery on the Molendinar Burn, near the Drygate Bridge. Whether or not the brewery already existed, and what is was called, is not quite certain. In any case, the company was called H&R Tennent. Hugh had two sons - John and Robert - who took over the operation in 1769, and changed the business name to J&R Tennent. Then, in 1790, the Tennents bought out the adjacent brewery of William McLehose, and combined the two under the banner of Wellpark Brewery. Confusingly, some references state the McLehose's brewery was the original Drygate Brewery.
  It's all about the water. The geology of this area of Scotland is such that natural water wells are quite abundant, many of which, as aforementioned, are the sources of, and can feed into, many of the local burns. For example, St Thenaw's Well was once the source of St Enoch's Burn. So many of these wells were located in the area near where the Drygate Brewery would be established that the vicinity was collectively called the Well Park (or Wellpark). One of these natural wells that feed into the Molendinar Burn was called the Lady Well (or Lady's Well or Ladywell), which for time immemorial was known for gushing forth water with particular health and healing qualities. As Glasgow grew the Lady Well was soon surrounded by the city, and could latterly be found at the base of Drygate Street. Eventually, the ever-expanding Tennent brewery encompassed the entire area, and has been noted above, was named for the Well Park.

  A final word about the Molendinar Burn: One early 1800s document described the ancient burns in and around Glasgow as: "A small rivulet was erewhile wont to wind its way through overhanging grassy banks and flowery meads in its purling course to the Clyde, whose waters, like its own were back then unpolluted with the refuse of manufacturing industry." Alas, today the Molendinar Burn is all gone, being developed out of existence by a growing city. Probably for the best as one later correspondent described it thusly: "The Molendinar had later been transformed into a common sewer, and a handsome roadway now takes its place." Or, as another observer put it: "[The Molendinar Burn] was closed in by the vandalism of progress." Pity, really.
  It was Hugh Tennant, eldest son of Robert - the Robert of J&R Tennent - that can generally be credited with expanding Tennent's export business. Hugh was partner with one William Middleton, in a West Indian import/export and shipping firm called Middleton & Tennent. In 1835, Hugh left the firm to come home and help run the brewery, but stayed friends with his former partner William. Under the new company name William Middleton & Company, Tennent beers were shipped throughout the West Indies, and beyond.

   Over the ensuing years, subsequent generations of Tennents ran the brewery, which continued to grow. It was yet another Hugh Tennent, who in 1881, while on a tour of Bavaria, developed a taste for lager beer. Until then, as was common with most all brewers north of the Channel, Tennets made varieties of ales and porters. In 1885, Hugh began brewing lager beer - a first for a Scots brewery - mainly for export, and so popular did it become that a purpose built brew house was built at the Wellpark. Tennent's Export Lager, in bottles, was shipped as far away as Melbourne, Australia and San Francisco, California.
 Until 1953, when the Tennent Brewery went public, the company was owned and operated by various direct family members, close relatives and appointed trustees. After going public in 1953, Tennent has been governed under a number of different corporate structures - all of which are too tedious to list here - while itself buying up other breweries, as well as a number of tied public houses. In 1966, Tennent merged with United Caledonian Breweries to form Tennent Caledonian Breweries Ltd, with its main brew houses located at Wellpark and the Heriot Brewery in Edinburgh. Of course, any prosperous company is always subject to take over, and of course, the names Bass, Charringtons, Interbrew, AmBev and Imbev, all factor in, and again, a bit too tedious to document here, Today, Tennent Caledonian is part of the C&C Group of companies. Regardless of which name is on the letterhead, Tennent Caledonian still makes a lot of lager beer.