Tin of beer? We can do!
QUESTION What was the first canned beer to be sold in Britain? This revolutionary technology began life in south Wales. That was when, in 1935, Felinfoel Brewery in Llanelli, Carmarthenshire, became the first brewery to offer a canned beer that would keep its contents fresh, whatever style of beer it may be.
Earlier that year, the Gottfried Krueger Brewing Company of New Jersey, in the U.s., had become the first brewery in the world to sell beer in cans, but its product involved creating a pasteurised drink to suit the metal containers.
Felinfoel was the first to solve the problem of beer reacting with the tin container and leaving a metallic taste — they applied a thin layer of wax to the inside of the can.
The 10oz cans of pale ale were conical and sealed with a standard bottle top (known as a crown cork).
The Welsh newspaper, the Western Mail, reported: ‘One of the most impressive features of the process was its simplicity and speed. Girls, who in the past have handled many thousands of bottles, adapted themselves to new conditions with apparent ease and, once started, the cans were filled and corked with unbroken regularity.’
The Felinfoel Brewery, home of Double Dragon Ale, is the oldest in Wales. its first proprietor, David John, owned iron and tinplate works around Llanelli when, in the mid-1830s, he bought the King’s head, an important coaching inn, opposite his home in the village of Felinfoel.
Following the Rebecca Riots (1839-43), where hard-pressed farmers destroyed the county toll gates, John dropped the word ‘King’ and changed the name to The Union inn.
The inn brewed its own beer. This proved popular and Felinfoel ales were being sold across south Wales.
As demand increased, John realised the need for a purpose-built brewery. in 1878, opposite the pub, in the grounds of his house, Pantglas, he built the imposing stone brewery astride the River Lliedi, where beer is still brewed today.
As well as being brewers, the family remained Llanelli tinplate masters, an industry that had suffered during the Great Depression, but the family revived its brewing and tinplate business with the canning plant.
Jonathan Bucknall, Swansea.
QUESTION I came across an Anglican church dedicated to St Margaret the Queen. What is known about her?
ThE Church of st Margaret The Queen stands in the grounds of Buxted Park in East sussex. Built in 1250, the unusual dedication is to Margaret, Queen of scotland. The splendid Jacobean pulpit and the chancel ceiling are decorated with marguerite daisies as a nod to the name Margaret.
The dedication is explained by the fact that Pope innocent iV canonised st. Margaret in 1250 in recognition of her holiness, fidelity to the Roman Catholic Church, work for ecclesiastical reform and charity.
Other interesting features are the hopdecorated plaster ceiling, said to have been donated by a former rector in 1600 to celebrate a good harvest. There is a vestment chest almost as old as the church and in the churchyard a yew tree thought to be 2,000 years old.
Pauline Ireland, Canterbury, Kent. sT MARGARET was a queen of scotland, but hungarian-born and of the royal West saxon line of England.
her father was the English prince Edward the Exile, son of King Edmund ironside and nephew of King Edward the Confessor, who was banished from the country by Knut (Canute) upon the latter’s seizure of the English throne and overthrow of ironside.
As a boy, Edward the Exile was packed off to Knut’s native Denmark and from there was moved to hungary, where he grew up and married Agatha, a hungarian princess.
Margaret was born to the couple in 1045. Two more children followed, Christina and Edgar the Atheling.
As the childless Edward the Confessor grew older, the English succession became more of an issue.
Ealdred, the intrepid Bishop of Worcester, was sent to hungary to bring back the exiled family, since Edward and his son Edgar were next in line to the English throne.
Prince Edward only returned with great reluctance to a country he could not remember, and died in 1057, directly upon arrival and before he had even met the king. Edgar the Atheling was now seen as King Edward’s successor.
An occasional attendee at the English court at this time was Malcolm ‘Canmore’, the rightful heir to the scottish throne, but who had fled his native land upon the usurpation of Macbeth.
The same year, with English support, he defeated and killed Macbeth at Lumphanan and ascended the throne.
some time after the Battle of hastings, and following a time in captivity, the rightful king of England, Edgar the Atheling, sought refuge in scotland with his sister, Margaret, who had married the widowed King Malcolm iii ‘Canmore’ in 1069 at Dunfermline, his capital.
Margaret founded the Church of the holy Trinity, Dunfermline, in 1070. The ruins of a tower, probably built by Malcolm, remain in the town, as does st Margaret’s Cave, reputedly used by her for her private devotions.
Their daughter, Edith, later married the Norman henry i, son of William the Conqueror, with the result that an unbroken line of descent exists from the first West saxon chieftain, Cerdic, in AD495 to Elizabeth ii.
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