Hardy & Hanson’s breweries at Kimberley

The Hanson brewery was founded in 1847 and the Hardy brewery in 1832. The two companies were on opposite sides of Brewery Street. Hardy’s Kimberley Brewery Ltd was registered in May 1897 and Hansons Ltd in November of the same year. The companies merged in 1930 and brewing was concentrated in the Kimberley brewery from 1932, but the two companies traded separately. I suspect the labels of the separate companies changed little over the years and were in use up until the 1950s when both companies names appeared on the rectangular labels. The name Hardy and Hansons Ltd was not adopted until 1972 and it remained independent and extremely well respected until 2006 when it was bought by Greene King and rationalisation followed soon after.