A Brewer's Dray is a waggon used by breweries to transport barrels of beer to their pubs. At one time they were drawn by horses but later motorised drays came to be used.
This one belongs to Stockport brewers, Frederic Robinson Ltd., and these photographs were taken in 2010 when Stockport was celebrating the 750th anniversary of its market.
The two and a half ton, 27 horse power vehicle was manufactured by Thorneycroft and first registered in Somerset in 1927. It had an average speed of 20-25 mph and fuel consumption was 6 mpg.
Robinson's acquired the vehicle in 1980 from the Irwell Street Metal Co.Ltd. of Ramsbottom and had it restored by Ollerton Engineering Services of Salmesbury Bottoms and painted in the livery carried by similar waggons owned by Robinson's at the beginning of the 20th century.
Back in the 1950s the vehicle was still down in Somerset. It belonged then to Mr A E Chedzoy from Martock, whose business was that of mobile ironmonger-cum-oil-merchant. The photograph above is used here courtesy of David Gibbs. Read about its earlier life in his article
Mr Chedzoy's Oil Boy first published in
A Miscellany of Merriott Memories (1989) and now available on the
Merriot Local History Group website.
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