In the 1840s George Butler was registered as brewer. Meanwhile, George Stafford, a brewer from Rutland, was residing in Fleet Street with his wife Jane and daughter Matilda. Stafford moved to the Wilton Brewery circa 1848, Jane died, aged fifty, in November 1849. George remarried Mrs Sarah Masters, who moved in with two of her children to the Wilton Brewery, which was also classed as a beerhouse with George Stafford also as licensee.
By 1867, George is listed as brewer at the Newark St Brewery, and within a couple of years joined together with Edward Masters, George’s step son the chief ale and porter buyer, employing four men. It is conjecture as to whether brewing continued at Wilton St, running separately or together with Newark St Brewery. George is still licensee at Wilton St until 1870.
George Stafford passed the business on to his step son, Edward, in December 1879. By now George was getting on for eighty.
The family would keep their involvement with the brewery as Edwards’s wife, Fanny, would continue on after his death. The history of the Newark St brewery is worth a chapter on its own.
After George Stafford, the license was taken up by Joseph Barratt, then William Arthur Heathcoat, 1873. Joseph Carr, 1875. John Skinner, 1876. James Lord, 1886. Charles Helps, 1886. James Watts (deceased 1892).
Samuel Bryan (deceased 1898). The Wilton was by then owned by Welch Bros.
Samuel Bryan’s wife, Agnes, would take the license after her husband died – with James Bryan until 1930. By now, LBM had purchased the Wilton Arms from Welch Bros in 1920. Albert Carter took over in 1930, with Noel Collins also in the same year. LBM also purchased 4 and 6 Wilton Street in 1935.
Other known licensees are: Douglas Jackson, 1935. George and Helena Lomax circa 1944 -1951. Earnest Gibson, 1951, and the Carvell family circa 1960s.
From LBM to Ansells in 1952.
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