Simonds the brewer survives

Pam Crawford wonders how many readers remember the Simonds brewery in Reading, from getreading:

I, for one, do. As you will see I now live in Malta and, reading the Maltese papers, spotted an advert for staff at the brewers over here. I was taken back to my childhood and just had to write and enquire as to whether the Simonds was part of the Reading one. Imagine my surprise on receiving the following letter from the company letter attached.

"I refer to your letter regarding Simonds of Reading. The Simonds in Simonds Farsons Cisk pic does indeed refer to the same company H & G Simonds of Reading that you know. Simonds had been shipping large quantities of beer to Malta since 1880 to meet the strong demand of the British Garrison stationed in Malta at the time.

Farsons merged with H & G Simonds in 1929 to become ‘Simonds Farsons Limited’. It later merged with another company to become the company they are today (Simonds Farsons Cisk). Of course there is a long and interesting history recorded that refers to the era before the companies merged as well as after they combined interests. Unfortunately it is too long to be recorded here, however some additional information is available on www.farsons.com."..

Talk about a blast from the past. It conjured up all sorts of memories such as of the lovely shire horses that used to pull the wagons that delivered the beer and the smell of hops when they were brewing. I have cousins who still live in Reading and Oxfordshire area who often send pictures from your paper that they think might be of interest, one such was the recent Elgar Road one...