Until it was bought out by Ind Coope in 1957, Benskin’s was the main brewery in Watford, as many – if not all – of those reading this will already know.

What I didn’t know, however, was that from Christmas 1930 onwards, the brewery produced an impressive in house magazine, copies of which exist in Watford Library.

Called “The Pennant”, it contained information about Benskin pubs, jokes, features and much more, and I’ll be reproducing some of the best bits in my last two Nostalgia columns this week and next. Hope you enjoy them.

The Pennant’s first edition included a foreword from Benskin’s chairman Col. W. H. Briggs, who welcomed it.

“The success of a business such as ours is largely based upon the mutual goodwill, energy and zeal of every individual connected with it,” he wrote. 'Co-operation is dependent upon our knowledge and understanding of one another.

“The appearance of our House Magazine, the record of matters of interest to everyone associated with the company, from shareholders, the staff and employees, to the licensees of our houses and their customers, should do much to foster this essential co-operation.”

The first editor was R.J. Kilby and the publication was managed by a committee who, the chairman said, “do not aim at too high a standard of literature.”

He continued: “No one need feel nervous about contributing any form of article, letter, drawing or photograph which might prove of interest.

“The object for which ‘The Pennant’ has been founded has the entire approval of the directors. I trust it will prove another link in the chain which binds together all of those who are connected with Benskin’s Watford Brewery Ltd.”

Notice that in those days, Benskin’s was always spelled with an apostrophe, so I shall continue that way (although these days most people, sadly, don’t seem to bother with it).

The idea for a magazine for Benskin’s had been knocking about for some time, the editor revealed in his introduction, before encouraging employees to send in contributions – “any type of contribution which may prove of interest from fiction to accounts of sports. Criticisms and suggestions, together with the initiation of discussion, are particularly invited.”

And the contributions flooded in, many of them superb.

So, the first article addresses the first question I had on picking up the magazine: “Why The Pennant?”

An article headed The Origin of our Trade Mark by Mrs W.H. Briggs, who I can only assume was Col William H. Briggs’ wife Doris, declares: “The name of this magazine brings back to me an incident in my youth, many years ago, and it is strange that what then seemed to me a trifling matter should stand out in my memory now, and answer the question ‘Why The Pennant?’

“It brings back a vivid impression of a conversation with, and a little job of work I did for, my father, Thomas Benskin. He was saying: 'This new company will need a trade mark. What shall it be?'

"In those days I shared his enthusiasm for yachting and spent all my holidays afloat with him. An enamel brooch he gave me of a Thames Yacht burgee that I was wearing gave us the idea for a trade mark. ‘Something simple like Bass’s pyramid’; ‘A flag flying would be a good thing.’

“I remember my relief not to have to draw a cannon with wheels and spokes etc. In those days it was the Cannon Brewery, but fortunately for me there was another Cannon Brewery and a replica of my brooch only took a few minutes to draw.

“The little drawing made to please my father has lived and prospered, and I feel I should be among the first to wish prosperity to the magazine that has taken it for its title.”

The first article was called Round About the Houses and, perhaps not surprisingly, contained trivial information about Benskin pubs.

“Anyone wishing for a good game of darts should call at the Punch Bowl, Redbourn, and challenge the landlady,” is typical of the information presented. Here are some more:

Work in connection with the new open-air zoo, adjacent to the Chequers, Whipsnade, is proceeding rapidly, and it is hoped to have a greater portion of it open for next summer. The company is shortly building a new public house, designed to be in keeping with its surroundings.

We believe there is a Freemasons’ Arms where prizes are offered for the location of cobwebs.

Who was it who nearly paid the extreme penalty for leaving a lighted cigarette on the counter at the County Arms?

Dog lovers who are out for a drive in the neighbourhood of Aston Clinton should call at the Bell Hotel and see the prizewinning Irish Setters bred by the proprietor Mr Gladding.

Who could resist?

A few pages on and we arrive at the section headed Wit and Humour. Now I must confess I found very little to smile at in these jokes – I’ve mentioned in this column before that reading old jokes pages suggests humour has moved on considerably in the past 80 years.

Some of them are those “an Englishman, an Irishman and a Scotsman went into a pub...” jokes so popular at the time but no longer considered acceptable. Of the others, the best I could find was this one: “Finding himself stranded in the country one night, a motorist had to put up at a rather ancient-looking country inn. On coming down to breakfast the next morning, the host remarked proudly: ‘The Duke of Wellington once slept in that very same bed that you had last night, sir.’ ‘Did he, by Jove,” said his guest, and then added as he tenderly rubbed his aching limbs: ‘No wonder they called him the Iron Duke.’”

How about this one?: “Diner, in eating house: ‘I say, waiter; this fish is not nearly so nice as the bit I had last week.’ Waiter (perplexedly scratching his head): ‘Well, I can’t understand it, sir. It’s off the same fish...’”

Moving swiftly on... next came Little Jim’s Reminiscences. He wrote: “My earliest impressions go back to 1870 and are connected with a brewery and a brewer’s dray. My maternal grandad, who was then 60 years old and had been a drayman all his life, used to take me with him on his journeys. Those were the days of the two and a half barrel loads. Bottled beers were then unknown.

“The next 15 years brought me into closer touch with public houses and their trade. It didn’t take me long to find out that Benskin’s had better “boats”, cattle, tackle and tenants than any of their rivals.

“Their houses shared an area with Clutterbuck’s, Healey’s, Salter’s, Sedgewick’s and Weller’s, but Benskin’s were always the best. Most of these concerns are today merged in Benskin’s. All for the best, as it does away with useless competition.

“I spent some years in East and North London. The only Benskin House in my neighbourhood was the Bricklayers’ Arms, known as “The Hod and Shovel” and traditionally as a hiding place of one Mr Richard Turpin.

“About 1884, I was working within a stone’s throw of the Benskin’s Brewery. It was being enlarged. Report had it that over a quarter of a million bricks went into the enlargement. This was then considered enormous by the building trade, but time has proved that the management were justified.

“Now and in the future it is up to all concerned with the Pennant to see that it blows straight from the mast in the teeth of the wind. If we all pull together, the progress of the past will be excelled by that of the future.”

Before we leave the subject of Benskin’s past, I found one further interesting fact about one of those breweries mentioned by “Little Jim” and taken over by Benskin’s – namely Sedgewick’s.

According to one source I found, Sedgewick’s (which was sold to Benskin’s in 1923) had its origins in a brewhouse owned by William Smith and was located in Watford High Street in around 1655.

Continuing under family ownership, William Smith’s brewery underwent modest expansion until 1790 when it was sold to George Whittingstall. George instigated more significant expansion of the brewery and tied estate until his death in 1822 when he left the brewery to a cousin, Edmund Fearnley – on condition that he change his name to Edmund Fearnley-Whittingstall.

If that name sounds familiar, it should. It seems Edmund was an ancestor of Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, well-known these days as a celebrity chef.

Anyway, the first issue of The Pennant was a huge success and, according to the second issue, the editor received “many congratulatory letters... from both tenants and staff” about its contents.

Several new features were planned, including drawings by “the famous caricaturist Mr Fred May”. Fred was indeed quite a catch. He worked for The Tatler – sending his first cartoons home from the trenches in 1917 – right up until his death in 1976.

Another new feature was Puzzledom –  with two prizes each of a dozen bottles of Colne Spring Ale “for the most logically expressed solutions to the following problems received  before February 1, 1934.”

There were two puzzles originally, but I feel one is more than enough. Here it is in full so you can have a go yourself. There’s no prize, I’m afraid, but I’ll print the solution next week and award a free pat on the back to anyone who gets it right.

“In a row of houses, Nos 1 to 5, live Mr and Mrs Green, Brown, Smith, Jones and Cook (but not necessarily respectively).

“There are five tradesmen of the same names who call, viz, grocer, coalman, baker, butcher and milkman.

“From the following information, can you work out the name of each tradesman.

“(a) The butcher’s married sister lives at No. 1.
“(b) Mr Jones lives next door but one to the coalman’s namesake.
“(c) The milkman’s namesake has no relations.
“(d) The butcher’s namesake lives at No. 2.
“(e) Mr Jones goes to work with the butcher’s brother-in-law.
“(f) Mr Smith lives next door but one to the milkman’s namesake.
“(g) Mrs Green and Mrs Jones are sisters.
“(h) Mr Brown helps the coalman’s namesake in the garden.
“(i) The baker’s namesake has only one brother-in-law, who lives at No. 3.
“(j) Mr Cook lives next door to the coalman’s namesake.”

The following issue’s explanation of the solution was hugely long (so don’t be worried if, like me, you gave up early on) but I’ll print it in full next week for anyone interested, together with the solution itself. I will tell you now, however, that the prizes were won by Mr F Colmer of Hughenden Road, High Wycombe and Mr R. B. Thorogood, of Potter Street, Northwood Hills. “A consolation prize was also awarded to Master G.C. Heley,” the paper added (no doubt a case of ginger beer, or some such).


Continues next week