Neil, a native of Sawley, has been a Victorian bottle collector and historian since 1978 when he found his first antique bottle on the former Lock Lane ash tip. What follows is an edited version of Neil’s article which was originally published in the Trent Valley Bottle Collectors’ Club magazine in April 2021.

Two once-famous names in fizzy drinks are now fading from local history: Carters of Sawley and Taylors of Long Eaton. Once large local businesses these two companies were the legacy of a long tradition of mineral water manufacturers in the Local District, and whilst Edward Carter, who purchased the small Sawley based Jubilee Works Lemonade factory from Francis Barber in 1905 would probably marvel at the huge Refresco plant now at Kegworth; the history of ‘pop’ in Long Eaton went back a lot further.

The first-known aerated water company to operate from Long Eaton was that of Horace Bromhead and Arthur Mann. The partners opened a factory known as the White Cross works, Orchard Street in late 1879. The venture was begun in conjunction with the internal stoppered bottle patentee, Alfred King of Nottingham. The Bromhead and Mann partnership was short lived; it was dissolved in November 1883 when Bromhead retired and then the business traded under the sole name of Frank Mann, Long Eaton. To this day many of Frank Mann’s Kings Patent (wooden internal valve bottles) have been found bearing a small embossed triangle trade mark with Frank Mann Long Eaton to the front and Kings Patent Bottle on the rear. The triangle significance in not known. The firm was not inconsiderable in size as the inventory of the works was to prove.

By 1886 Mann no longer had an interest in mineral water manufacture and declined business. On 24 June 1886 the auction took place of The plant of a Long Eaton Mineral Water Manufacturer by auctioneers Morris and Place of Bridlesmith Gate Nottingham . The inventory continued: The plant comprises a 2h.p. engine, a vertical boiler and well pump, soda water pump, solution pan, nine gallon cylinder, gasometer, generator, filter, water tank, bottle brushing, washing and rinsing machines, all the pulleys and shafting, a steam syrup pan, 2 filling machines, 360 dozen bottles and stoppers in cases, 15 empty cases, eight dozen new bottles, five syrup jars, syrup pan, filtering bags scales and weights, stools, buckets, tubs, syrup stands, fruit presses and other numerous effects. The above will first be offered as one lot as a going concern, and if not so sold will then be divided. To an enterprising man it offers a favourable opportunity for a small outlay of capital of making a really good business, being the only works of the kind in this improving district. The plant may be viewed upon application to Mr Frank Mann, Long Eaton .The company was subsequently sold to the successful bidder, 21 year old Mr William Wright of The Grove, Shardlow, son of local Auctioneer, William Wright snr, a lace trade entrepreneur.

Wright grew the business on Orchard Street; indeed rather than continue with the old internal wooden stoppered bottles used by Mann, Wright now bottled into Codd bottles, a bottle now sweeping the aerated water world, with Hiram Codd’s internal glass marble as a stopper. (Still used in India as Goli Sodam, and ‘Ramune’ a Japanese soda bottle which is still available today in supermarkets).

With his first supply of Codd’s, Wrights chose an embossed trade mark of a cross inside a shield, after the White Cross Works and this can be seen on a rare card advert for Wright. Wright also bottled in Hamiltons, (egg shaped soda bottles) small and large, ½ pint aqua and Green beers, and a spectacular golden amber soda syphon (broken examples only recorded).

On 20th March 1889, Wright made a decision which would immortalise him in the world of bottle collectors. Wright attended the second Nottingham and District Mineral Water Manufacturers’ Association general meeting held at the Flying Horse Hotel, Nottingham, the meeting hosted by Mr S. Cleaver, the Leicester mineral water manufacturer. Cleaver (the Vice President) introduced to the meeting Mr Simon Jude, the secretary to the Alliance of Mineral Water Manufacturers Association, and also Mr S. H. Cox, of the Manchester and District Association, who explained the constitution of the AMWMA, then explained ways of protecting members’ property, in particular their bottles, boxes and trademarks.

Attending the meeting were many well-known local manufacturers who were shown the latest 1888 Catalogue of the Barnsley bottle and case makers, Dan Rylands. Wright must have been impressed with what he saw. Dan Rylands, was keen to bye-pass many of Hiram Codds’ earlier patents, and those Codd had devised when in partnership with his late father Ben Rylands. Dan had devised new-fangled ideas of his own, notably his Acme and Reliance variants of the Codd bottle, but even more so his latest idea, his anti-theft coloured lip option of his bottles.

Rylands catalogue read ‘One of the greatest grievances of a large mineral water or soda manufacturer at the present day is the continual loss of bottles, quantities of which are either stolen or resold by hawkers, or accidentally mixed with those of other manufacturers of the same town. We have therefore obtained a patent for colouring certain portions of any bottle, by which means a mineral water manufacturer can detect his bottles at a considerable distance, without the trouble of having to look whether his name is engraved on the bottle. To accomplish this object, we make the mouth [lip] of the bottle any of the colours mentioned below, the remaining portion of the bottle being of ordinary pale glass. Of course we shall be at liberty to make any colour for different makers, but on no account shall we use the same colour for two makers in any one district. The usual colours available are blue, amber and green , for the price for the coloured mouths being 2 shillings per gross in addition to the ordinary price.’

Wright moved quickly, immediately ordered his next stocks of Acme Reliance Codd bottles from Dan Rylands with a distinctive blue lip. Quinceys’ Leicester company soon followed suit, but in keeping with Rylands promise not to supply any other firms in the district with alike colours, ordering his Reliance patent bottles with a unique bright red lip. The Newark company of Capairns’, being of sufficient distance from Leicester also chose a red lip on his stock. The principal worked and in May 1890, George and Arthur Sleight, of Kirk White Street, Nottingham were fined 25s by Nottingham Magistrates for having sent bottles belonging to Wright (and Parr) in a supply of 4 boxes they had supplied to the Union Inn in Nottingham; they were obviously distinctive.

William Wright traded for three years; he was an active Freemason in the Long Eaton based Fairfield Lodge and the author suspects ill health forced him into selling his business to a Yorkshireman and former sea captain, William John Hopps in 1891 for £700. Wright died only three years later in December 1894. Immediately following his purchase, Hopps invested a further £200 capital in the business and began extending his product ranges, introducing bottled Bass beers and stouts into his selection. In 1893 Hopps opened another branch on nearby Sawley Road (now Tamworth Road) and began advertising himself as a Mineral Water Manufacturer & Beer Bottler. Hopps continued with Wrights current bottle stock, including the blue lipped Codd theme.

Despite the apparent popularity of the blue lip theme, in 1894 Hopps joined the bottle exchange, an organisation where local waifs and stray bottles could be collected and reunited with their owners for a nominal fee. With that move he closed his trading relationship with Dan Rylands, choosing now to buy his bottles from A. Alexander and Co, and adding to his bottles a distinctive East Midlands ‘ A11’ area code to simplify the Bottle Exchange’s work. Hopps also bottled his wares in all cream/grey stone ginger beers, and champagne and regular ½ pint beers.

Sadly, William Hopps’ business began to falter and on 17 July 1895 he offered the business for sale as a going concern. But by the 27 July, unable to find a buyer, Hopps filed for bankruptcy with liabilities of £1,170 8s 8d against assets of £763.12s.11d. Hopps claimed his debt was due to the high interest (40%) he was paying on a loan of £125 to a money lender called Forrester. Hopps, whose home address was 16 Lime Grove, Long Eaton, even sold his wife’s furniture to pay debts, but still appeared before Derby Bankruptcy Court on the 20 August 1895 and declared bankrupt. The plant was offered for sale.

The business was continued by an acquaintance of Hopps, John Henry Bodsworth whom he knew as a fellow sidesman at their local church. Bodsworth moved the bottling business from Orchard Street to a new substantial factory, previously a foundry, which then stood on the junction of Manchester Street and Nelson Street. Although initially known as the ‘Imperial Works’ the factory later became known as the ‘White Cross Works’ to replicate the name of the original Orchard Street factory.

In May 1896 the Long Eaton Advertiser carried the following commentary: OPENING OF NEW MINERAL WATER WORKS IN LONG EATON. We have pleasure in directing attention to the enterprise of Mr J. H. Bodsworth, whom recently purchased the business of Mr W. J. Hopps, mineral water manufacturer, and who has opened new premises in Manchester Street, top of Nelson street, Long Eaton. The change has proved a beneficial one in every respect – the premises, lately used as a foundry by Mr Hollingworth, being spacious and have been admirably fitted up for the purpose. All kinds of Aerated mineral waters are manufactured by machinery of the latest construction. A supply of town water has been laid on with a patent filtering system, and silver lined pipes. Hop bitters and stone ginger beer are specialities produced at the Imperial Works, this being the name selected by the proprietor.

 

In some of his first advertisements to appear in the Long Eaton Advertiser, Bodsworth requested the recall of missing bottles and crates belonging to Mann, Wright, Hopps and also the Castle Donington company of Archer Bros, presumably to re-fill and re-label. Bodsworth began to use Redfearn Codds, but also a standard Rylands Acme Reliance Codds embossed The White Cross Works Long Eaton. After Bodsworth’s death in  July 1897 the company was managed by Mr Halstead who sold the business by auction in June 1899. 

Despite the rapid growth of Long Eaton in the manufacture of lace, the bottling business never took off and the White Cross works was sold by auction on 15 June 1899. The contents were listed – down to the hand barrows and carts, but items of interest were a 4hp vertical boiler, a Meadow Croft steam filler, a Dan Rylands No3 soda plant and a Dan Rylands syrup plant. Presumably these were from the original W.Wright works and bottle stocks. The works were snapped up and purchased in their entirety by a firm which did make headway in aerated water manufacture; Dalgleish and Sons of Bobbers Mill, who promptly renamed the factory the Nervon Works, after their popular ‘Nervon’ tonic drink. On 5 May 1900, Dalgleish advertised for a ‘stout youth’ about 15 years old to wash bottles at their Manchester Street works. They continued making ‘pop’ there until about 1935 when a gas explosion blew the roof off.

Dalgleish became a huge local concern, and by far eclipsed their local rivals, however the company nearly faltered after the great war (1914-1918) as most of its steam lorries and dray horses had been requisitioned for war use. However, investment after the war led Dalgleish to offer their services as a home removal company, by dialling 1599 or 5082.

So ended the 50 year mineral water dynasty, well not exactly, a new firm Taylors, was founded on Bonsall Street and continued until around 1980. In nearby Sawley a small company, F N Barber had been purchased by Edward Carter in 1909. Carters became a huge concern and were the very first company to adopt the PTE bottles used worldwide today. In 1995 Carters moved and now occupy a huge site now known Refresco in Kegworth. For 30 years I believed there were 6 mineral firms in the town I grew up in, but actually they were just one, but under different ownerships. The fact Wrights and Hopps bottles continued to turn up on sites six and seven years after their closure proves, as the enclosed Bodsworth advert shows, they were regularly re-labelled and sold again.