Mortlake1949

would love to talk to anyone with memories of Mortlake and particularly the brewery as I am writing a local history.

Peter Dobbie

My dad was the publican in "The Jolly Gardeners" ( a Youngs pub) on the Lower Richmond road from 1946 until 1966 and the majority of his customers were employees of Watney's brewery. My sister and I used to time ourselves for school in the morning by waiting for the brewery siren to sound at 7.30am for the start of the working day and then it used to go again at 5.00pm for closure. As children we used to like walking along the tow path outside the brewery, smelling the malt & hops and watching the sluice gates discharge effluent into the river. One of the brewery employees also worked part time for Mr Sanders Watney in Watney's stables and we were very fortunate that this man took us on a tour of the stables where we were allowed to stroke & feed the dray horses. There was a dalmatian dog, named Pongo, belonging to Mr Sanders Watney and he used to run between the horses under the drays. Mr Watney lived in a house on Thames Bank, opposite the finishing post for the University Boat Race, and we were once invited to stand on his lawn to watch the race.