(For a short biography of the founder of Gilmours click here.)
The firm started sometime between the end of March 1851 when the census indicates that the family had yet to arrive in Sheffield and 1854-55 when the first trade directory bearing the name was published. The entry reads ‘Duncan Gilmour & Co. wine and spirit merchants 56-58 Queen Street’. It should be recorded here that later printed sources have often dated the origins of the firm to the 1830’s but as the founder was not born until 1816 this must be attributed to confusing the actual event with reports of when Duncan Gilmour left Scotland in his mid-teens.
The Sheffield Independent in an obituary published on the 12th January 1889 states that Duncan Gilmour ‘came to Sheffield, taking the public house in Queen Street known as The Murray’s Arms. He there began to trade in wholesale quantities, and business prospered to such an extent that gradually he took premises in other parts of the town……’ The obituary goes on to say that the firm currently had several branches and one hotel and central offices in Dixon Lane.
A much later source* notes that the move to Dixon Lane took place in 1860 and that they were then already brewing at the Furnival Brewery and by 1884 brewing at the Dixon Lane Brewery. In October 1891 Duncan Gilmour and Company was registered as a limited liability company to acquire other businesses in brewing and the wine and spirit trade and in 1892 they bought the United Breweries Ltd and Windsor Brewery both in Liverpool. A detailed listing of their substantial acquisitions from 1891 up to the 1950’s can be found in Richmond & Turton’s- The Brewing Industry: A Guide to Historical Records* which was published in 1990 by Manchester University Press for the British Archives Council and from which I have taken these facts. This article also records that the company was acquired by Joshua Tetley & Son Ltd in 1954 when it owned 148 licensed houses in Sheffield and 350 licensed houses and the Windsor Brewery in Liverpool. (An article printed in Yorkshire Industry and Commerce in 1893 gives quite an interesting and rather more expansive description of the activities of the firm. A photographic reproduction of this piece is available - click here .) It should also be noted that the National Register of Archives at www.nationalarchives.gov.uk shows four available sets of records for the firm of Duncan Gilmour & Co. Ltd brewers Sheffield, Yorkshire under the reference GB/NNAF/B14607.
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