Celebration beer bottle collection

1981 Royal Wedding Beer Bottles

Only about four years after the Queen's Silver Jubilee there was another cause for national celebration and a very good excuse to make and sell some more celebration beers - the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer on 29th July 1981. Because of the relatively short time between the two events, many of the brewers which had missed the silver jubilee were able to get their act together and produce a Royal Wedding brew.

At the same time there had been an explosion of small brewers and single pub brewers, and these were particularly keen to produce a Royal Wedding brew. Because of this the number of Royal Wedding beer bottles produced was, according to the Association of Bottled Beer Collectors, 147. A small number of brewers produced one-pint and half-pint celebration bottles, and one brewery made a specially printed four pint plastic container as a take away.

This was a very interesting time for real beer fans. After going downhill for many years there was a big increase in single pub beer outlets, and many brewed their own beer or bottled another brewers. The Village Blacksmith in Woolwich was an example of this. Mr Winnington, the proprietor, was a keen collector and he managed to persuade the Tisbury brewery to let him bottle their beer and label it as Royal Wedding Special for the pub. He showed me his bath upstairs where he washed the bottles by hand. I don't know what the EC would make of it all now. Its stories like this that make beer collecting so fascinating.

Some breweries made a special Royal Wedding brew, but didn't bottle any, prefering instead to produce a cask beer. What a shame! Amongst these were Raven (Brighton), Grinstead (East Grinstead), Old Chidham (Chichester) and Yates & Jackson.

Listed below are the Royal Wedding bottled beers that I own - I have 71. The Penrhos brewery issued both half pint and one pint bottles, but I have only the half pint. In addition, I have an unsigned virgin label from the Three Tuns in Bishop's Castle.

	Brewer	Origin
	Adnams	Southwold, Suffolk
	Albert Arms	Public house, Esher, Surrey
	Ann Street	St.Helier, Jersey. (Mary Ann)
	Arkell	Kingsdown
	Banks	Wolverhampton
	Bass	Strong lager, Burton on Trent
	Belhaven	Dunbar, Scotland
	Berni Inns	Restaurant chain based at Bristol, bottles not for take away.
	Bourne Valley	Andover, Hampshire
	Brains	Cardiff, Wales
	Bruces	Fox and Furkin, Frog and Furkin, Goose and Furkin pubs
	Buckley	Llanelli, Wales
	Cameron	Hartlepool, Durham
	Charles Wells	Bedford
	Chiltern	Aylesbury, Buckingham
	Courage	National brewer
	Devenish	Redruth
	Dolphin	Poole
	Elgood's	Wisbech, Cambridgeshire
	Everards	Burton-on-Trent
	Felinfoel	Cans from Llanelli, South Wales
	Fullers	London
	Gale	Portsmouth, Hampshire
	Gibbs Mew	Salisbury, Wiltshire
	Godson	London
	Greene King	Bury St.Edmunds, Suffolk
	Guernsey	St.Peter Port, Guernsey
	Gwynedd	Anglesea, Wales
	Hall Woodhouse	Blandford Forum, Dorset
	Harveys	Lewes, East Sussex
	Hawthorne	Gloucester
	Higsons	Liverpool
	Home	Daybrook, Nottingham
	Hook Norton	Banbury, Oxfordshire
	Ind Coope	Allied Breweries (UK) Ltd
	Jennings	Cockermouth, Cumbria
	King & Barnes	Horsham
	Lees	Manchester
	Litchborough	Daventry
	Lloyds	Ingleby, Derbyshire
	Maclay	Alloah
	Marstons	Burton-on-Trent
	Miner's Arms	Priddy, Wells, Somerset
	Morlands	Abingdon
	Morrell	Oxford
	North Country	Hull
	Okell	Falcon Brewery, Douglas, Isle of Man
	Old Chidham	Chichester, West Sussex. (Bottled by Gale.)
	Oldham	Oldham
	Paine	Huntingdon
	Penrhos	Kington, Hertfordshire. Also a 1 pint bottle.
	Penruddocke Arms	Dinton, Wiltshire. (Bottled by Wadworth.)
	Prince of Wales	Public house, Hammer Vale, Hampshire. (Bottled by Gale.)
	Ringwood	Hampshire
	Robinson's	Stockport
	St.Austell	Cornwall
	Shepherd Neame	Faversham, Kent
	John Smiths	Tadcaster, Yorkshire
	Samuel Smiths	Tadcaster, Yorkshire
	Tetley	Leeds
	Theakston	Masham
	Three Tuns	Public house, Bishop's Castle, brewed on the premises.
	Thwaites	Blackburn
Tolly Cobbold	Ipswich, Suffolk
Two Brewers	London off-licences
Ushers	Wiltshire
Watneys	Mortlake Brewery, London, SW14. Individually boxed.
Whitbread	Not for retail sale - presentation of six to landlords for complimentary distribution.
Wilsons	Newton Heath, Manchester
Young	London
Village Blacksmith	Public house, Greenwich, London. Brewed by Tisbury brewery.