Local Authors

Raising the bar on Tavistock’s pub history

Local historian Alex Mettler has been visiting the pubs of Tavistock for decades, all in the cause of historical research, more than occasionally accompanied by a pint of the local brew. Those academic and liquid fuelled forays haven’t been in vain as Alex has just published his magnum opus - Devon Country Town Brewers & Public Houses: Tavistock 1752-2020, a 548-page labour of love which tracks the rise and fall of 87 public houses and two common brewers in the parish, from the mid-18th century to the present day. The book has been funded jointly by Tavistock Heritage Trust and Tavistock Local History Society, and traces the history of Tavistock’s ‘locals’ and how they evolved from coaching inns, humble alehouses and back street tap houses to today’s 21st century hostelries and gastro pubs. This fascinating history looks at how from the eighteenth century the good oldfashioned, licensed victualler of a bygone age was slowly replaced by common brewers brewing in bulk for sale to public houses. It chronicles the life and times of the innkeepers and steps inside the doors of some wonderfully named pubs that are no more, such as the Hare and Hounds and the Three Compasses. It considers how Tavistock’s brewers had to fight off competition from Plymouth and Cornwall, the temperance lobby and the sometimes unwelcome involvement of local magistrates and Dukes of Bedford.

Said Alex: “Now the book is finished I will not be calling last orders on my research trips. As every good historian knows, there are always new avenues to explore and new brews to sample.” The book is available at Guildhall Visitor Information Centre, Book Stop, Tavistock Heritage Trust and Tavistock Local History Society. Softback £24.99, hardback £34.99

From the eighteenth century on brewing victuallers in England were gradually replaced by common brewers, brewing in bulk for sale to public houses licensed for on-premises consumption or, in some cases, for off-sales for home consumption. Tavistock’ s first common brewery was established in 1798 with a second following some 60 years later, these breweries supplying some 33 public houses at the peak in the 1860s. Breweries and public houses have ever been the butt of licensing laws, fiscal control and entrepreneurial opportunity and this book traces the rise and fall of some 87 differently named public houses and two common brewers from 1752 to the present day, at the same time looking at the commercial opportunities and threats from other breweries in neighbouring Plymouth, Cornwall and elsewhere and also at the influence of the House of Bedford. D E V O N C OU N T R Y T OW N B R E W E R S AND P U B L I C H OU S E S T A V I S T O C K 1 7 5 2 T O 2 0 2 0 A L E X M E T T L E R TAVISTOCK 1752 TO 2020 ANDPUBLICHOUSES D EVONCOUNTRY TOWNBREW E R S

ALEX METTLER

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