The Calne Blue Plaque Trail is a fascinating walk around the centre of the town in the Heritage Quarter visiting ten points of interest, which act as a reminder of the town’s past, including the site of the Harris bacon factory, the wool trade workshop, the wharf (end of the canal) and Castle House.
For over 100 years, three generations of the Buckeridge family ran a shop, set on the corner of Market Hill.
Albert Wilkinson Buckeridge set up the family business in 1876. A business that began as a grocer’s shop and a wine and spirit merchants. Buckeridge’s was a successful enterprise, with a warehouse at the back of the shop and a bottling plant, just up the steps (that now carry the family name) on Castle Street. Deliveries of beer and wine would arrive at the bottling plant in large containers. The contents would then be transferred into smaller bottles and labelled. It’s not difficult to imagine these steps in near constant use, bringing stock from the bottling plant down to the shop below.
The business was advertised as a ‘Wholesale & Retail Wine and Spirit Merchants’. Along with this, they were also known for their cheeses.
After the First World War, Albert’s son, Launcelot John, took over running the business until just after the Second World War, when Launcelot's sons, David, Paul, and Ted went into partnership and ran the business together. Their products included Guinness, with Buckeridge’s being one of the few licensed to bottle this drink under their own name.
In the 1960s, supermarkets began to appear. To remain competitive, the brothers decided to specialise in cheese. By 1975 they’d added ‘Cheese, Continental Foods, Cigarettes, Tobacco and Smoking Accessories’ into their advertising.
Buckeridge’s 1986 price list included brands that are still well known today; Bells and Teachers whisky, Captain Morgan and Bacardi rum, with Gordons’s gin, Smirnoff vodka, and many others.
The brothers decided to sell up and retire in 1988, when the shop became Unwin’s, followed by The New Wine Shop several years later.
For 112 years, the Buckeridge family business, at this important location, played a crucial part in Calne's history. So, it seems only right that these steps are known for the family that would have used this route so very often, moving goods from the bottling plant down to their shop and warehouse below.
Buckeridge's bottling plant was in Castle street at the top of Buckeridge steps.
The premises were far from ideal for the handling of large casks, or bottled goods but a considerable volume of bottling was carried on right up until the end.
Bulmer’s and Whiteway’s cider, Guinness and Truman’s light and brown ale were delivered in hogsheads, casks of just over 50 gallons. They were just dropped from the lorries onto a sack and then rolled down the hill into the bottling shed. It was hard and dangerous work. I remember a hogshead of Guinness splitting as it hit the road and 50 gallons running straight down the drain!
Guinness was bottled into half pint bottles. A gravity filler filled 4 bottles at a time. They were put in and out of the filler, crown corked, and labelled by hand. 2 hogsheads per week were bottled and at over 69 dozen bottles per hogshead it was a lot of work. The bottled Guinness was then conditioned for 4 weeks at a constant temperature before it was ready to drink.
Truman’s beers were not bottle conditioned and were packed in one pint screw bottles. These were stacked in a pasteuriser and heated to 140 F for 20 minutes to halt the fermentation process. Cider was packed in quart (2 pint) bottles which made for a quicker process.
The bottles were returnable in those days and the bottle washing plant was always exciting to me as a child. It was a very old fashioned, labour intensive system. One of the staff, Bill Knight had a very developed sense of smell. He could detect a bottle that had been used for petrol or weedkiller and remove it from the system before it polluted anything.. The main hazard in the bottle wash was wasps. They enjoyed what was left in the bottles but became angry when plunged into hot water. I had my first sting there when I was about 5.
As the 1960’s drew to a close the volumes grew and a small bottling plant was no longer viable. The last product bottled in Castle Street was Monte Cristo, Cyprus sherry.
Bottling ended in 1970 and the business and the buildings were sold in 1988.
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