beer bottle lorries used for promotional purposes during the 1920s William Worthington (1723–1800) was born at
Orton on the Hill in
Leicestershire, the fourth child of William Worthington (1687–1742),
yeoman farmer, and his wife, Elizabeth. In 1744, he moved to
Burton upon Trent in
Staffordshire where he worked as a
cooper at Joseph Smith's brewery. Largely as a result of this trade, by the time of Worthington's death in 1800, Worthington & Co. ranked among the largest of the provincial breweries. On the death of Worthington in 1825 he was succeeded by his son, also named William (1799–1871). Combined with a decrease on
malt duty in 1823, this led to an oversupply of beer in Burton. The railway network joined Burton in August 1839, which made it much more economical to distribute beer throughout the country. Worthington dissolved the Robinson partnership in 1864, in order for his sons to acquire the business. In 1866 the
Prince of Wales awarded the company the
Royal Warrant. Worthington pioneered
brewing science from 1866 by employing a chemist,
Horace Tabberer Brown, who led the world in separation and cultivation of pure
yeast strains. The company had previously resisted employing a laboratory, for fear that the public would perceive the scientific apparatus as a means of doctoring the beer. In order to differentiate themselves from other brewers, Worthington labelled their beers with alphabetical letters: their Burton Ales were called G, F and D, their light dinner ale was labelled M. Worthington E was an India Pale Ale, a competitor to Bass Pale Ale. By 1880, Worthington's IPA was challenging Bass's sales in the home market. Worthington was the third largest Burton brewer by 1888, behind Bass and Allsopp, with an annual output of 220,000 barrels per annum. From 1886, Worthington began to acquire
public houses, which provided a captive market for their product. When William Henry Worthington (1826–1894) died he left no direct heirs and was the fourth and final generation of the family to manage Worthington & Co. Horace Brown left the company in 1894 following a dispute with co-manager William Manners. By 1900, 73 per cent of the company's
equity was in the hands of William Posnette Manners, who had joined the company in 1862 as a junior
clerk, and under his astute leadership Worthington acquired a reputation for the quality of its bottled
pale ales. The company acquired the
Burton Brewery Company in 1915. Product rationalisation began after the
Second World War and although Worthington occasionally overtook Bass in sales, the decision was taken to prioritise Bass products. Arthur Manners took the chairmanship of Bass in 1947, and was instrumental in driving the company forward. Brewing industry mergers from the late 1950s onwards damaged Worthington sales, as
tied house ownership became increasingly concentrated with brewers intent on promoting their own products. At the same time, bottled beer sales suffered as drinkers in search of consistency opted for the new keg beers instead. In 1965, the original Worthington brewery was closed, although production of the Worthington beers continued, consisting of White Shield, Green Shield (a
filtered version of White Shield) and the draught product, E. Worthington E became the main keg
bitter offered by Bass from 1967, and it had become a leading bitter brand by the 1970s, boosted by the company's network of 11,000 public houses. Worthington E was replaced as Bass' leading keg bitter by
Stones Bitter from 1981. Worthington regained its position as the leading ale brand for Bass from 1997, predominantly through the Creamflow variant. In 2000, Bass was bought by the
Belgian brewer
Interbrew. The
Competition Commission ordered Interbrew to divest itself of a number of its recently acquired brands, and Worthington was bought by the American brewer
Coors, who later became Molson Coors in 2005. In 2004 Coors announced that they would no longer advertise Worthington on a large scale. ==Overview==