The Malt Shovel Tavern is home to a vast collection of breweriana. Walls are adorned with brewery slates, mirrors, framed show cards, enamel signs, trays, jugs, bottles, labels and beer mats etc. All are original and depict mainly closed down breweries, there are also many items relating to Phipps and the Northampton Brewery Company (NBC) both of which used to brew opposite the pub (Carlsberg now has a modern brewery on the site!)
The undoubted ‘star’ of our collection is the Northampton Brewery Company (NBC) star!
Manufactured in 1950 the star has been renovated to the original specification (including replacement neon tubes) and firmly bracketed to the front of the pub. We think that no other such stars exist. This is difficult to believe when you consider that the Northampton Brewery Company owned several hundred pubs and off licences, all of which would have had the star logo. Perhaps their demise was due to the fact that they were constructed from cast aluminium and when the various premises were ‘de-badged’ the stars ended up being ‘cashed in’ at the scrap yard.
The text that accompanies the images is provided with the kind permission of the Brewery History Society and is taken from their publication “A century of British Brewers 1890-1990″ by Norman Barber. (ISBN 1 873966 04 0). We are most grateful to the Society for allowing us to use their descriptions. Why not have a look at their website?