Cleeves and Henry Palmer bought the Old Brewery in Bridport, West Dorset, in 1896. A small staff- headed up by a brewery manager on a salary of £108 a year - producing Bitter Beer for sale at ls/6d a gallon and developing a small wine and spirits business, the brewery turned a profit of between £500 and £ 1000 a year. Today; four generations and over 200 years later, Palmers Brewery is a thriving business. With a staff of 45 people producing a range of superb, award-winning beers, selling its wares through a wine store and a network of pubs all over the south-west of England.

The Old Brewery produced its first beer in 1794. Orginally built in a meadow on the edge of town by Samuel Gundry VI, a member of another prominent local family who had made its money through textiles, there was a pleasing symmetry to the nascent business - Samuel paid the workers for their labours in his textile factory and the workers, in turn, paid him for his beer. Since then the brewery has become something of an institution, providing refreshment to the people of the West Country and others during four wars, the coming of the railway, the depression, the 'motoring age the 1960s, decimalisation and the arrival of Information Technology;

This book tells the story of the brewery. In an age of globalisation, this is a truly English story -of tradition, of community, of commerce and of survival. This long-standing family business, in the hands of the Palmers for well over 100 years, makes the most English of drinks in one of the most English corners of the country - it may not be the stuff of headlines but it is a fascinating slice of reality

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