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Davenports

Hello Dale, Ada was the 7th Daughter b. 1878 of Joseph Davenport b.1832 d.1910.
She married William Robert Walker Murray , Solicitor.
Her Brother Baron John is my 2nd Cousin 3x removed. Sounds distant but we share the same 4 x Great Grandfather Robert Davenport b.1765.
so you and I are related albeit distant.

I have done a large amount of family research and would love to hear from you.Thank you. Clive D.
Hello Dale, Ada was the 7th Daughter b. 1878 of Joseph Davenport b.1832 d.1910.
She married William Robert Walker Murray , Solicitor.
Her Brother Baron John is my 2nd Cousin 3x removed. Sounds distant but we share the same 4 x Great Grandfather Robert Davenport b.1765.
so you and I are related albeit distant.

I have done a large amount of family research and would love to hear from you.Thank you. Clive D.
I am the secretary for central edgbaston bowls club which Baron John Davenport was a member we have some interesting history of how he and other members supported the troops injured at the Soome 1916 .
 
I spent some of my apprenticeship working at the Davenports brewery. The bottling lines were in the main entrance to the old building and the brewing happened behind that in a factory that had been built later.

I can guess why they closed it down as it wasn't a very efficient place to carry out brewing and the bigger lorry's, that were starting to be used in the 1980s, struggled to get in and out of the site at times.
 
John Davenport and his sons had a small malting business at the beginning of the 19th and by 1846 it was growing quite rapidly till in 1897 it became a limited company
It was not until 1901 when Baron John Davenport took active control over the management that rapid changes were made and he was the one that had his eye on the home delivery trade rather than the public house trade and using the slogan Beer at Home he started the home delivery trade
In 1919 to 1936 the Brewery was completely rebuilt and they sunk a bore hole over 700 feet through the earth which took 5 years to sink till the found the purest water they could find to make the beer. A note I should add that the Brewery received two direct hits with 1,000 Ib bombs during WW2 and both failed to go off causing only minor damage
Photo shows the delivery trucks out side the front of the building in Bath Row
I am the secretary of the Central Edgbaston Bowls Club and John Davenport was a member for many years at the time we held fun days for the injured troops every month . when we gave the troops and the nurses a chance to relax for a day with free cakes and drinks plus a small present to leave with. John Davenport was there on 12th July 1916 when we had a day for the injured Troops from the Somme .this is a rare picture of him with the troops [ hes the one with the pipe and bowler ]
 

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I have just come across this thread having made a reference to Davenports on another thread so I am posting this link.

I apologise if this link has been given before as i said I have just come across it. If you go to the link you will find some of the vintage Beer At Home cinema and TV adverts. Also there are a couple of archive films giving the Davenports story.
 
Good to see they consistently won medals at the Brewers Exhibition over many years. And love the telegram address “Beer Birmingham” ! Viv.
 
My grandfather John Dale known as Jack used to let me stencil the wooden beer crates with the name of the Brewery which they belonged to on the sides when I popped in on a Saturday morning in Watery Lane. He made them for quite a few of the Birmingham based breweries. Most Saturdays he would give me a fiver a large white note. He would then say go and see your nan before you go the match. I only remember the Mitchell and Butler stencil but I know there were more than one brewery he did them for. Granddad Dale was a chain smoker, I think he only used one match a day. Imagine trying to get business insurance nowadays being a chain smoker in a timber mill. I think he was 93 years old when he died.
 
I used to work at the white lion in the early 1970s as a bar maid in the evenings and all day Saturday and sunday, I'm sure the celler was haunted I use to hear weird noises when I used to do stock taking. The theatre people would drink in the lounge and at the back the local people from the flats opposite would drink they had a competitive darts team also.behind the bar was a small outdoor which was always busy on a Friday and Saturday nights.
 
I remember my Dad having Davenports Beer . It was delivered to the house , that would of been 50,s or 60,s
 
My memories of Davenport's beer don't go back very far - only about 25 years ago, just before they were taken over by the Wem Brewery, as I remember, which in turn was swallowed up by Greenall Whitley, all in the mid-1980s. There were two nice pubs, one in Horsefair I believe, and the other probably in Inge Street or Thorp Street, a sort of theatrical place, which left a nice impression on my memory.
Going back earlier, I remember the brewery in full steam in 1957 when I had a little industrial accident and had to use the Accident Hospital almost opposite.
Peter
the Australia Bar was on Hurst street and that was a Davenports pub. My dad was a relief manager in their managed houses from 1976 to 1978 so we got to see lots of their pubs from Bristol to Loughbrough, Kenilworth to Shardlow. As a ten year old I couldn't wait for mum to drive us across to whatever pub he was managing that week or for longer stays in the summer holidays
 
My Nan used to have a beer at home delivery, it was a wooden crate which held 12 bottles - she lived in south Worcestershire but I guess it would have been from Davenports.
She enjoyed a beer in the evening before she went to bed!
 
My great grandmother used the beer at home service weekly and always ordered several bottles of sherry at Christmas to give as gifts - probably to make sure there was a tipple in the house when she visited!
Smart lady! We have some friends who like to entertain but somehow never get around to buying any wine. That became our house gift, a bottle or red and bottle of white :cool: Self-preservation.
 
When I was young I used to play on the front of Davenports and watch the bottles being filled through the window. We lived at 3/21 Pigott street.
 
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