The papers of the Wrexham Lager Beer Company Limited date from its registration in 1881 until its final closure in 2000. It should be noted that as an archive, the papers are far from complete, which is probably due to its complex corporate history.
At first the company found it difficult to establish itself and was soon put into liquidation. In late 1886, under the directorship of Robert Ferdinand Graesser, the company was back trading. Despite his expertise, the production problems and poor sales continued. The company went into voluntary liquidation on 30 September 1892. By July 1900 a consortium headed by the same Robert F. Graesser had acquired the company assets and was back in business producing beer under the 'Ace of Clubs' brand. In 1949 Ind Coope and Allsopp acquired the company. A new brew house was commissioned in 1958 and the national brand of 'Skol' lager was introduced. In 1961 Ind Coope merged with Tetley Walker and Ansells, which in time became Allied Breweries. Following reorganization of Allied Breweries in 1978, the Wrexham Lager Beer Company was reconstituted as an independent subsidiary of Allied Breweries (UK) Ltd. and changed its name to Wrexham Lager Brewery Co. Ltd. in March 1988. In 1992, when Allied Breweries merged with the Danish Carlsberg group, the resulting company became Carlsberg-Tetley. They ran the Wrexham Lager brewery until it closed in 2000.
The majority of these papers relate to business and financial planning, promotional activity and corporate image from the 1970s-1980s. Administrative records include Memoranda and Articles of Association, registration of the company name, the acquisition, and liquidation of the company during the early years. Financial records are limited, but include an account book, 1893-1900, and accounts ledger, 1942-1951. There are a number of files of financial budget and forward planning with analysis of figures, 1980s-1990s. Particularly interesting is the complete series of Brewing books, (1958-1976), and details of specifications of the brewing process and the products, 1953-[1980s]. The Property and Estate papers include mortgages (1922-1954), tenancy agreements and sale of premises, the growth and development of the brewery site and plant, (1970s-1980s). There are also several series of photographs from 1970s-1980s. The archive includes notes and papers compiled 1959-1995, that relate to the history of brewing. The group of Wrexham Lager histories (1980s-1994) was brought together from various sources, (authors and dates often unknown) to produce material for the company�s centenary celebrations in 1982. Much of what was written cannot be substantiated from the original materials found within the collection. There is a large group of public relations material, including newspaper cuttings, photographs, and logos, along with papers relating to the changes in corporate identity. The production of the 'Skol' and later 'XXXX' brands that undoubtedly saved the brewery during the 1970s-1980s, but it is the return to the Wrexham Lager brand name (c.1980), with its aggressive marketing, and new corporate image that is best reflected amongst these papers. There are no papers relating to the demise and closure of the Wrexham brewery in 2000.
The colliery and trade unionism
Thursday, December 3, 2009
The Emlyn Colliery and Brickworks collection not only reflects the technology and business processes behind anthracite mining, but is also a comprehensive resource for social aspects, and particularly the manpower behind it. The collection has an impressive amount of records relating to employees of the company, including weekly wage cards, employment cards, medical and compensation cards and contract books. Collectively, they are useful in showing the mining companies� wage scales, pension schemes etc. As individuals� records they would be enlightening for the family historian whose ancestor was at anytime employed at Emlyn.
Staff and employment records are not always considered historically important within a business collection. Whilst cataloguing these records in the Emlyn collection, I have been surprised at how much important background information they provide to crucial events in the company�s history. A clear example of this are the weekly wage cards, pay sheets, and price lists, which could be viewed in relation to the 1934 stoppage. The stoppage lasted for two months, and was organised by Arthur Horner, executive committee member (and later president) of the South Wales Miners� Federation (SWMF), and a founding member of the Communist Party. The strike was a battle between the SWMF and company unionism. One of the main grievances of the striking miners� was the companies alleged dishonouring of price lists, and minimum wages.
The collection holds a box of papers containing correspondence, reports, newspaper cuttings etc concerning the 1934 stoppage. There are letters between the colliery owner, G E Aeron Thomas, and the Miners� Federation; anonymously written reports on Arthur Horner, and his influence on the stoppage; employee reports of their experience at meetings; and verbatim accounts of discussions at a meeting held in Aug 1934, following the end of the strike. Although inevitably a lot of the papers are obviously biased against Horner and the stoppage (portraying him as a manipulative dictator, looking to further his own political ends), it is actually a rather inclusive set of records for both sides. In particular, an anonymous report from a meeting where Horner and Evans (a Federation leader) were speaking, although written with an obvious anti-Horner bias, shows the range of feelings amongst the miners. It describes how men between 35 and 60 years were fed up with the strike, worrying about lack of pay, their own homes, and the bad feelings between employer and employees. Conversely, younger men aged between16 to 25 were;
��Horner and Evans mad. Their God undoubtedly, whatever they said was right. The profits that the Thomas�s family had been making on their backs and robbing them of the fruits of their labour.�
These papers provide evidence of both the employees�, and owners�, experiences of trade unionism in the anthracite colliery.
Staff and employment records are not always considered historically important within a business collection. Whilst cataloguing these records in the Emlyn collection, I have been surprised at how much important background information they provide to crucial events in the company�s history. A clear example of this are the weekly wage cards, pay sheets, and price lists, which could be viewed in relation to the 1934 stoppage. The stoppage lasted for two months, and was organised by Arthur Horner, executive committee member (and later president) of the South Wales Miners� Federation (SWMF), and a founding member of the Communist Party. The strike was a battle between the SWMF and company unionism. One of the main grievances of the striking miners� was the companies alleged dishonouring of price lists, and minimum wages.
The collection holds a box of papers containing correspondence, reports, newspaper cuttings etc concerning the 1934 stoppage. There are letters between the colliery owner, G E Aeron Thomas, and the Miners� Federation; anonymously written reports on Arthur Horner, and his influence on the stoppage; employee reports of their experience at meetings; and verbatim accounts of discussions at a meeting held in Aug 1934, following the end of the strike. Although inevitably a lot of the papers are obviously biased against Horner and the stoppage (portraying him as a manipulative dictator, looking to further his own political ends), it is actually a rather inclusive set of records for both sides. In particular, an anonymous report from a meeting where Horner and Evans (a Federation leader) were speaking, although written with an obvious anti-Horner bias, shows the range of feelings amongst the miners. It describes how men between 35 and 60 years were fed up with the strike, worrying about lack of pay, their own homes, and the bad feelings between employer and employees. Conversely, younger men aged between16 to 25 were;
��Horner and Evans mad. Their God undoubtedly, whatever they said was right. The profits that the Thomas�s family had been making on their backs and robbing them of the fruits of their labour.�
These papers provide evidence of both the employees�, and owners�, experiences of trade unionism in the anthracite colliery.
Employment Situation Bleak
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
One person who I can always count on for a sober assessment of the social and economic conditions people with a disability find themselves in is Joseph Shapiro. Author of Nothing About Us Without Us, Shapiro often makes astute points about the economic plight of people with a disability. When I was driving yesterday I heard Shapiro on NPR commenting about an ever present and worsening problem for people with a disability--employment or more accurately rampant unemployment.
In October the national unemployment rate hit 10.2% Economists and the mass media freaked out. The grim unemployment figures made headlines nation wide. The national news led off its programing with stories about what this means to the country and the Obama administration. When I saw these reports I yawned, bored in the extreme. Was I being selfish? I suppose but what I immediately thought of when I heard about the national unemployment rate was the fact that the Office of Disability Employment Policy at the U.S. Department of Labor Surveys estimates that 21 million out of 26 million people with a disability are not even in the work force. 21 million people do not simply give up. The vast majority of these people want to work but after years and even a decade of looking came to the only logical conclusion: people with a disability face an uphill struggle to enter the work force. One could even make the case the struggle to find work is hopeless. Here I am not referring to a job of choice but any job at all. Combine the overwhelming odds against finding employment with the fact many people with a disability rely on government health care in which there is a disincentive to work (they lose health care if they earn too much). The net result is that the vast majority of people with a disability are only marginally attached to the work force in this country. This creates not only economic hardship, a loss of self worth, but further isolates people with a disability socially. Like it or not, we often judge others by what they do for a living and economic resources dictate one's lifestyle.
I wish I had a solution to the unemployment problem people with a disability routinely encounter. If I did I would not be marginally employed as I am now. My marginalization is directly related my disability yet also has much to do with the fact I am in a field, anthropology, that, like many other social sciences, is no longer valued in the form of tenure track positions. Universities have learned from large corporations and scaled back the number of people they hire full time (benefits are a pipe dream). Hence about half of all college professors are part timers like me and I consider myself a highly educated day laborer. But unlike my peers I encounter significant obstacles--social, economic, and architectural. The result is jobs are harder to find and employers do not want to hire people with a disability. Based on my observations and personal experience people with a disability are not represented in the work force. I rarely if ever encounter a person with a disability and I make it a point to ask students I teach if they have ever had a professor that used a wheelchair. Not once in the last 15 years has a student answered yes. This is a real problem and the utter absence of people with a disability in the professorial work force signifies something more significant is taking place. The same can be said for dozens of other professions.
I have repeatedly been told that employers fear making work place accommodations will be costly, require expensive technology, or worry the person with a disability is not capable of doing a given job. These misconceptions are hard to eradicate. Department of Labor figures estimate that 56% of accommodations cost nothing and if any money is involved the cost is less than $600. I for one have never had an institution make any work place accommodation in spite of the fact they were required to do so. For example, when I teach if the table is too low I take an eraser and stick it under the legs of the table. Problem solved. But what happens if I want to use the bathroom? I am often out of luck as I know to not even ask because the answer is always a resounding no. In contrast to many others with a disability, I have been able to scrabble a series of dead end jobs together and, with the support of my family, somehow make ends meet. I do not take my struggles to heart as I know much is going on well beyond my individual qualifications. There is a social, economic and institutional bias that makes entry into the work force exceedingly difficult and impossible for some. This is grossly wrong and I do not know how to force society to change. All I can do is go to work, demonstrate that I am a valuable employee and a competent if not dedicated teacher. In shot, I do my best every day. Most days this seems to be inadequate at best for I know there are millions of people with a disability that would love to have the chances and opportunities that I have had. I am a lucky man and can only hope with time others like me will get a chance to demonstrate their abilities as well.
In October the national unemployment rate hit 10.2% Economists and the mass media freaked out. The grim unemployment figures made headlines nation wide. The national news led off its programing with stories about what this means to the country and the Obama administration. When I saw these reports I yawned, bored in the extreme. Was I being selfish? I suppose but what I immediately thought of when I heard about the national unemployment rate was the fact that the Office of Disability Employment Policy at the U.S. Department of Labor Surveys estimates that 21 million out of 26 million people with a disability are not even in the work force. 21 million people do not simply give up. The vast majority of these people want to work but after years and even a decade of looking came to the only logical conclusion: people with a disability face an uphill struggle to enter the work force. One could even make the case the struggle to find work is hopeless. Here I am not referring to a job of choice but any job at all. Combine the overwhelming odds against finding employment with the fact many people with a disability rely on government health care in which there is a disincentive to work (they lose health care if they earn too much). The net result is that the vast majority of people with a disability are only marginally attached to the work force in this country. This creates not only economic hardship, a loss of self worth, but further isolates people with a disability socially. Like it or not, we often judge others by what they do for a living and economic resources dictate one's lifestyle.
I wish I had a solution to the unemployment problem people with a disability routinely encounter. If I did I would not be marginally employed as I am now. My marginalization is directly related my disability yet also has much to do with the fact I am in a field, anthropology, that, like many other social sciences, is no longer valued in the form of tenure track positions. Universities have learned from large corporations and scaled back the number of people they hire full time (benefits are a pipe dream). Hence about half of all college professors are part timers like me and I consider myself a highly educated day laborer. But unlike my peers I encounter significant obstacles--social, economic, and architectural. The result is jobs are harder to find and employers do not want to hire people with a disability. Based on my observations and personal experience people with a disability are not represented in the work force. I rarely if ever encounter a person with a disability and I make it a point to ask students I teach if they have ever had a professor that used a wheelchair. Not once in the last 15 years has a student answered yes. This is a real problem and the utter absence of people with a disability in the professorial work force signifies something more significant is taking place. The same can be said for dozens of other professions.
I have repeatedly been told that employers fear making work place accommodations will be costly, require expensive technology, or worry the person with a disability is not capable of doing a given job. These misconceptions are hard to eradicate. Department of Labor figures estimate that 56% of accommodations cost nothing and if any money is involved the cost is less than $600. I for one have never had an institution make any work place accommodation in spite of the fact they were required to do so. For example, when I teach if the table is too low I take an eraser and stick it under the legs of the table. Problem solved. But what happens if I want to use the bathroom? I am often out of luck as I know to not even ask because the answer is always a resounding no. In contrast to many others with a disability, I have been able to scrabble a series of dead end jobs together and, with the support of my family, somehow make ends meet. I do not take my struggles to heart as I know much is going on well beyond my individual qualifications. There is a social, economic and institutional bias that makes entry into the work force exceedingly difficult and impossible for some. This is grossly wrong and I do not know how to force society to change. All I can do is go to work, demonstrate that I am a valuable employee and a competent if not dedicated teacher. In shot, I do my best every day. Most days this seems to be inadequate at best for I know there are millions of people with a disability that would love to have the chances and opportunities that I have had. I am a lucky man and can only hope with time others like me will get a chance to demonstrate their abilities as well.
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