Kentish Express Ashford & District
You could say this eclectic collection is trés niche!
Richard Percival owns Britain’s biggest collection of beer trays. Curated over four decades, he doesn’t intend to stop at 1,500 items any time soon.
Richard is just 80 pieces of brewing history away from completing his impressive collection of beer trays and 10 of his most wanted are from Kent.
His hobby has garnered a healthy interest from all quarters, not least millions of viewers after several TV appearances, including BBC One’s Antiques Road Trip.
Richard’s hobby stems from another passion of his, Notts County football club.
He began by picking up trays for a fellow supporter before falling for them himself.
He said: “At first my family thought I was stark raving mad and were particularly embarrassed when I used to ask publicans for spare trays. I would always start my banter with the words ‘I have an unusual hobby...’ you could feel them cringe. These days my family accepts my passion is preserving brewery history and my wife has even encouraged a few items to be displayed in the kitchen. Frankly my friends continue to take the mickey but deep down they’re impressed too.”
Lockdown has given the 58-year-old retired business consultant the opportunity to do some digging.
“Like most of the British nation I am currently at home and looking for things to occupy my time,” he said, adding: “In years gone by I was a prolific writer to newspapers all over the country. I was constantly trying to trace brewery trays missing from my collection. Sometimes I struck gold but mainly I hit a blank.”
Richard’s plan to scour the Garden of England while the British Open was played at
Sandwich was scuppered when the historic golf championship fell victim to the pandemic.
So he’s resorted to searching the web from his Rutland home in the hope of tracking down some of the more elusive trays.
That saw his hunt take an unexpected turn. While he was hoping to find Fremlins memorabilia in its former home town of Maidstone, 140 miles away, it turned up 3,094 miles away in New Hampshire, USA.
There it was flogged for £75 at an auction in 2012.
While the holy grail is a tray from Burton-on-Trent-based Thomas Salt & Co Ltd, which distributed beer throughout the UK through the Victorian and Edwardian eras up until 1927, he reckons a more realistic target are the 10 from Kent, only three of which definitely still exist.
They are the US-based Fremlins tray, a 1920s Shepherd Neame design and one from Canterbury-based George Beer & Co Ltd’s Star Brewery which was once spotted by a fellow collector.
He believes trays from the following seven breweries - all with links to Kent - are highly likely to exist:
Flint & Co Ltd (Canterbury) was bought by Dover-based Alfred Leney & Co in 1923 with 350 pubs.
Isherwood, Foster & Stacey
Ltd (Maidstone) was bought by Fremlins in 1929 with 150 pubs. Thompson & Son Ltd (Walmer) bought by London-based Charrington & Co. Ltd in 1950 with 100 pubs.
C.N.Kidd & Son Ltd (Dartford) bought by Courage in 1937 with 65 pubs.
Alfred Leney & Co Ltd (Dover) was bought by Fremlins in 1926.
Gardener & Co Ltd (Ash) ceased brewing in 1954.
Dartford Brewery Co Ltd, which was bought jointly by Style & Winch and Brentford’s Royal Brewery in 1924 with 67 pubs.
Many of these breweries merged with others and were bought by bigger ones over the years making parts of their history invaluable to enthusiasts like Richard.
To find out more about Richard’s collection, visit https://brewerytrays.co.uk and if you can help complete his collection email richard.percival@ hotmail.co.uk
Do you have an unusual hobby or need help completing a collection? Get in touch by emailing emcconnell@thekmgroup.co.uk
If this feature has made you thirst for more beer-related stories, read the Secret Drinker’s pub reviews at www.kentonline.co.uk/secret-drinker.