Routledge Gales: A Study in Brewing, Business and Family History (Routledge Revivals)

This title was first published in 2000: This volume tells the fascinating story of the origins, development, growth and survival of a small country brewery in Hampshire. Employing and analyzing a wealth of original documentation, it examines the local environment both before establishment of the brewery and during the 150 years of its existence. While the performance of Gales Brewery is examined in the context of the British brewing industry as a whole, the thread of family involvement is woven throughout the volume. The contribution of contrasting individual entrepreneurs is examined in absorbing detail, from the half century of domination by George Alexander Gale to the subsequent century of contribution by the Bowyer family. Gales is exceptional in being one of the very few family breweries to survive the mania of mergers and takeovers in the brewing industry. This very readable book will be of considerable interest to business, economic, family and local historians. Review '..a firm that is as attractive to the business historian as its beer doubtless is to its customers.' Business History '...a serious and sustained academic study in a field where good histories of firms are rare. That it records in detail the history of a small county brewery - of which there were hundreds in the late-nineteenth century - and one which remarkably still exists is especially valuable.' The Agricultural History Review