Tour The City Of Leeds

My thirteen year association with Leeds began as a student at the university in the autumn of 1970. The city, the administrative centre of the old West Riding of Yorkshire, built its reputation as a wool centre, branching into ready made clothing in the nineteenth century.

The major brewery in the city is now Carlsberg Tetley, but I have no interest in their beermats. In these pages I am going to feature companies who were long gone even when the local government reforms of the early 1970's abolished the Ridings and Leeds became part of West Yorkshire.

Number one in the top row, I think dating long before World War Two, is my oldest Melbourne mat; and number two (with the printer's name Regicor) is also a pre-war issue. Number three is made of pliadek. The fourth (with the printers name Tresises) is from the late 1950's.

After its acquisition of Russell & Wrangham of Malton in 1958, the company changed its name to the Melbourne Brewery (Leeds) Ltd. Two years later the company and its 245 public houses was acquired by Joshua Tetley of Leeds and closed. The beermats in row two reflect these changes. The "Regal" mat still mentions the "Leeds and Wakefield Breweries", but the other two label designs are from the "Melbourne Brewery". Imperial, featured on the fourth mat which has the Melbourne Courtier on its other side, was a Russell & Wrangham beer and this item must have been issued post-takeover for use in their old trading area. Tetley soon sold Russells but retained the Imperial brand for their North Eastern estate.

The Melbourne brewery became a Minster soft drinks factory which had been demolished by 1974. There were many traces of the old brewery left in Leeds twenty years ago, the most striking being floor mosaics of the courtier in the entrance halls of the Haddon Hall and Cramner Bank pubs.