Daniell & Sons Breweries Ltd.

The Daniell family started brewing at West Bergholt, near Colchester in Essex, in the late 18th century. Thomas Daniell developed the business at Spreading Oak farm from the 1820s. When he bought the freehold in 1840 it had a malt-house with a kiln, a grinding house, a brewery and 24 acres of land. Although he was a substantial farmer, in 1848 Daniell was described as a brewer, maltster, brickmaker, and coal merchant.

One of Thomas Daniell's sons had joined him in business by 1872, and other sons ran the Castle Brewery in Colchester and the Donyland Brewery in Rowhedge. In 1877 the three Daniells' breweries combined as Daniell & Sons Ltd, becoming Daniell & Sons Breweries Ltd by 1890. The brewery employed at least ten brewers and maltsters in 1851, but it expanded in the following decades and production switched entirely to West Bergholt in 1892. The workforce had grown to over forty by 1900.


In 1958 Daniell & Sons Breweries Ltd was taken over by Truman, Hanbury, Buxton & Co. Ltd. The brewing operations were moved to London and the West Bergholt facilities were used as a distribution depot and bottling factory. Truman, Hanbury, Buxton & Co. Ltd. closed down in 1988. A year later the West Bergholt Brewery buildings were converted into flats and houses.

By Mark Matlach

Jeremiah Rotherham & Company Ltd. (J. R. & Co. Ltd.)

Jeremiah Rotherham & Co. Ltd. was a retail and wholesale draper in Shoreditch, London. The shop in Shoreditch High Street evolved into a department store that sold a wide range of textile products, carpets, silks, ribbons, and artificial flowers. The store was bombed and destroyed during the Second World War.

Jeremiah Rotherham & Co., Shoreditch High Street, 1894

By Mark Matlach

In the era of 2d commercial overprints, the Rotherham patterns had very subtle differences in font and spacing:

Courage & Co.

Courage is a British brewery that is currently a brand of Wells & Young's Brewery and is officially called Courage Brands Ltd.

Courage & Co. was established by John Courage at the Anchor Brewhouse in Bermondsey, London in 1787. John did not live long to develop his new business as he died suddenly in 1793 at the age of 36. His wife Harriot took over the running of the business, but died herself just a few years later in 1797. The brewery passed on to the Courages' son John and was to remain in the hands of the Courage family for the next 150 years.

John Courage

In 1955, Courage merged with Barclay, Perkins & Co. Ltd., and, 5 years later, with Simmonds' Brewery to create Courage, Barclay, Simmonds & Co. Ltd. This was simplified to Courage Ltd. in 1970 and the company was taken over by the Imperial Tobacco Group Ltd. 2 years later. A huge brewery at Worton Grange, Berkshire, was opened in 1978. In 1986 Courage was sold on to the Fosters' Brewing Group who in turn sold the company to Scottish & Newcastle in 1995, creating Scottish Courage as its brewing arm. In January 2007 the rights for the production, marketing, and sales of the Courage brands were sold to Wells & Young. The Anchor Brewhouse building still stands today, although it has been converted into luxury flats.

By Mark Matlach

Bradbury Greatorex & Co. Ltd.

Bradbury Greatorex & Co. was a textiles wholesaler that was established by John Bradbury and Jeremiah Greatorex in 1815.

The company had a large warehouse near St Paul's Cathedral in London. In 1898 the firm was converted into a public limited company. At this time, Bradbury Greatorex & Co. Ltd. had a capital value of £400,000 and was the seventh largest textiles merchant in London. The business was taken over by Courtaulds Limited in 1968 and the warehouse was sold.

By Mark Matlach

Bradbury Greatorex used commercial overprints at least into the mid-1940s:

James Dilworth & Son

James Dillworth & Son was a textiles wholesaler and yarn agent based in Manchester.

In 1807, aged 17, James Dilworth became an apprentice in a cotton manufacturing company in Preston called Birley & Hornby. Dilworth proved to have an aptitude for the textiles business and he quickly rose to an important position in the firm.

In 1820 Dilworth decided to go into business for himself as a yarn commission agent in Preston. Dilworth would visit Manchester on the two market days in each week, and on the intervening days he attended the markets at Blackburn and Chorley. His business proved to be so successful that in 1837 he opened a warehouse at St. Ann's Street, Manchester, at the same time continuing with his operation in Preston. In 1838 James Dilworth admitted his son, John, into partnership and his firm took the name James Dilworth & Son.

In 1842 James Dilworth & Son closed down the Preston side of their business and concentrated their efforts solely on textile wholesaling in Manchester. James Dilworth died in 1854 and his son 4 years later. Subsequently two brothers named Jesse and Walter Haworth took control of the company, and successfully ran the business until the First World War.

By Mark Matlach

This pattern is also known on SG 219.

Rownson, Drew & Clydesdale Ltd.

Rownson, Drew & Clydesdale was an engineering and manufacturing company that specialised in making elevators, conveyors, and mechanical handling equipment. The company was formed in 1821 by Joseph Rownson and Henry Drew and a factory was established in Kings Cross, London. Rownsons installed specialised handling equipment at many UK ports. In 1909 the company manufactured the "Donald" elevator, which was used to carry bananas to and from ships' holds. In the 1920s, Rownsons diversified into package handling and warehousing. These activities were put on hold by the Second World War as the company began producing gravity roller conveyors, some of which went into ordnance factories. The end of the war saw a move into conveyor systems for large dairies.

Advertisement 1951

Baggage handling equipment for airports was Rownson's next key product. Installations were made in many of the major airports of the world. A system to handle both incoming and outgoing baggage, totalling more than 1000 feet of conveyor and handling 1800 items of baggage per hour, was put into Cairo airport in 1964. Rownsons merged with William Douglas & Sons in 1966, to form Douglas-Rownson Ltd. The new company moved to a huge new factory in Basingstoke and in 1975 Rownson's Kings Cross factory was closed down. The company is now part of Baker Perkins Ltd.

By Mark Matlach

Rownson, Drew & Clydesdale Ltd. might have used commercial overprints for many years, but I can confirm their use for only a relatively short period:

Waterlow & Sons Limited

Waterlow & Sons was a major worldwide printing company and was one of Britain's largest printers of bank notes, postage stamps, and other material.

James Waterlow founded the company in 1810 in London. Waterlow adopted the idea of employing lithography and printing as a substitute for copying where a large number of copies of legal documents were required, thus effecting a saving of both time and expense. The business grew steadily in importance and Waterlow's five sons were taken into partnership.

Following the death of James Waterlow in 1876, the business was converted into a limited liability company. By the 1920s Waterlow & Sons Ltd. was one of Britain's largest printers of bank notes, postage stamps, stocks, cheques, and bond certificates. The works of the company comprised of six factories in London, one at Watford and one at Dunstable. The bulk of Waterlows' work was the designing and executing of commercial printing of every kind. Posters, catalogues, booklets, travel guides, and engraved labels were all produced in huge quantities.


Waterlow & Sons Ltd. was acquired by Purnell & Sons Ltd. in 1960. Subsequently, Waterlows' part of the business, which printed bank notes and stamps, was sold to De La Rue & Co Ltd. Following further mergers, what remained of Waterlows became part of a new printing conglomerate called the Polester Group in 1998. Waterlows was a dormant company until it went into voluntary liquidation in 2004 and its history ends on 20th January 2009 with the dissolution of the company. The Waterlow name does, however, continue to live on as a result of specialist parts of the business having been sold over the years.

By Mark Matlach

Although Waterlow and sons used commercial overprints for more than 40 years, their overprints are difficult to find.