Robin Longbottom on how the drinks industry rose to prominence in the town

IN the 1950s and 60s, fizzy drinks were generally distributed in large quart bottles and were available from the profusion of corner shops and small grocers that existed in those days.

The bottles were made of thick, heavy glass with a black screw-in stopper that was sealed with an orange rubber washer.

Technically the bottles remained the property of the mineral water company and to encourage their return, a small charge of tuppence, or thruppence, was added to the price of the product. The charge was redeemable when the empty bottle was returned.

Commonly known as 'pop', fizzy drinks are carbonated water mixed with flavoured syrup. The Yorkshireman, Joseph Priestley, who was born at Birstall and is more famous for the discovery of oxygen, found a method to make water fizzy in 1767 when he infused it with carbon dioxide. The fizzy water turned out to be a refreshing drink, and he published a paper on how to make it in 1772.

However, it was not until the middle of the 19th century, when strong glass and stoneware bottles were mass produced, that the commercial opportunity to manufacture pop presented itself. One of the first men in the Keighley area to make a successful business out of mineral water was John Taylor. He had come to Oakworth from Huddersfield in about 1860 to take up the post of village policeman but by 1868 he had resigned and turned to making ginger beer and soda water at his home in Lane Ends. Ginger beer was made by a completely different process to soda water and was a fermented beverage using yeast, which created the sparkle. Stoneware bottles were used for ginger beer and glass for soda, and both were sealed with corks that were secured by wire, not dissimilar to that on a modern champagne cork.

By the 1880s the manufacture of mineral waters and ginger beer had developed into a small, but important, industry in Keighley. James Smith, a power loom weaver at Lane Ends in Cowling, turned to making mineral waters in the 1870s at his cottage in Garden Terrace. He was so successful that within a few years he moved to Beechcliffe in Keighley where he built large commercial premises at Arctic Street. He was to become the biggest manufacturer in the district and produced “all kinds of high-class mineral waters, such as lemonade, soda water, hop bitters, ginger beer and stone ginger beer, champagne cider etc”. In a testimonial he wrote “to ensure absolute purity…all the water used is pure spring water, drawn from the firm’s own well, which is on the premises.” To maximise production, he used the latest steam-powered machines for “filling and stoppering bottles” developed by the likes of Bratby & Hinchcliffe Ltd of Ancoats, who produced the “swing stopper".

Another enterprising Cowling man, Smith Hoyle, set up manufacturing premises in Victoria Road, Ingrow, in the 1880s. This too had its own well and steam-powered machinery. Hoyle may well have learned the trade from James Smith but was not able to survive on manufacturing mineral waters alone. He also bottled beer, porter and stout which arrived in casks from breweries in Burton on Trent and Dublin. The bottles were all clearly labelled with the name of the brewer and the words “bottled by Smith Hoyle”.

James Taylor’s business was continued by his son after his death but ceased production after the end of the Second World War. The site is now a children’s play area.

Hoyle’s continued manufacturing lemonade, orangeade, cream soda and dandelion and burdock into the early 1970s. Their pop wagons were once a familiar sight making their rounds in the town and surrounding villages. The business was eventually sold to Ben Shaw’s of Huddersfield.