Alfred Barnard

Alfred Barnard 1886

Alfred Barnard (born May 8, 1837 in Thaxted , Essex , † late May 1918 in South Croydon , now London ) was a British author and journalist.

Life

Alfred Barnard's parents Abraham and Mary Barnard ran a grocery and cloth business in Thaxted. Together they had eight children, seven sons and a daughter, of whom Alfred was the second youngest son. At the age of 22, Alfred Barnard married Fanny Ruffle of the same age in neighboring Great Sampford . Barnard was registered as a cloth merchant in Kensington , London at the time . The couple had three children over the years, Theodora Mary (March 1861), Edith Maud (July 1865) and Harold Alfred (March 1869). Using records and census data, various places of residence can be identified within what is now London's city limits. Barnard was registered in Islington , St Pancras and in the area around Cavendish Square in London's West End, first as a soap merchant, then as a general trader and finally as a gentleman . The census data from 1871 show Barnard as a wine merchant in Kingston upon Thames . This is the earliest evidence of activity in the alcohol and spirits trade.

In 1881 the family lived in Camberwell . Around this time Barnard began working as a journalist for Harper's Weekly Gazette , a specialist magazine for the wine and liquor trade. Since the journal did not disclose the names of its authors on principle, no exact entry date can be determined. At the censorship dates in 1891 and 1901, Alfred Barnard is registered as a journalist living in South Norwood . His son Harold appears as a journalist in 1901 and probably also joined Harper's Weekly Gazette around this time. In 1902 the publishing house was converted into a limited company and Barnard became majority shareholders along with the previous owners Herbert Harper and John Bishop . Harold Barnard acted as manager. In the years that followed, the macroeconomic situation stagnated and then deteriorated, causing Harper's Weekly Gazette sales to drop and the company to run into financial difficulties. In 1910, a year after the death of Barnard's son Harold, the publisher was insolvent and was sold to the main creditor, a printing company. Barnard had been registered as a retired journalist in Wallington and South Croydon for the next several years . Both places offer a simpler social environment than his previous places of residence, from which one can deduce a social decline as a result of the company bankruptcy. His eldest daughter Theodora Mary died in 1911; his wife Fanny in 1914. Alfred Barnard passed away at the end of May 1918 at the age of 81. He was probably buried in Croydon Cemetery .

Publications

The Whiskey Distilleries of the United Kingdom

In what is probably his most famous work, The Whiskey Distilleries of the United Kingdom , Barnard takes a trip to the 161 nationally important whiskey distilleries in Scotland , Ireland and England . This publication established Barnard's success as an author and is still considered the standard work of whiskey literature today. It is reprinted unchanged at irregular intervals. A German translation has also been available in stores since 2012 ( ISBN 978-3-86991-497-8 ).

Scottish distilleries

Drawing of the Lagavulin distillery on Islay

Barnard originally planned his trip to the Orkney Islands , starting with the Highland Park , Scapa and Stromness distilleries . Due to the bad weather conditions, however, he abandoned the plan to travel by ship and instead took the train to Glasgow . There he visited the Port-Dundas distillery, which has been closed since 2010, as the first of 129 in Scotland. This was followed by other distilleries in and around Glasgow, which are part of what is now the Lowlands whiskey region . As a seventh stop, Barnard visited Auchentoshan, the first still active distillery on his journey. After Barnard always traveled from Glasgow to the twelfth distillery, Gleniffer , he moved his quarters to Campbeltown on the Kintyre Peninsula , which at that time had the largest number of whiskey distilleries in one location. During his stay of several weeks, Barnard visited all 21 active businesses in the city from Hazelburn to Springside before he transferred to the Hebridean island of Islay and described the nine distilleries there. His journey continued via Isle of Jura on Jura following the Scottish west coast in a northerly direction with side trips to Tobermory on the Isle of Mull and Talisker on Skye to finally reach Fort William . After describing the local Ben Nevis distillery , Barnard returned to London because of urgent obligations and did not return to Scotland until winter, where he continued his tour of the Highland Park distillery on the Orkneys. This was followed by Barnard the east coast of Scotland to the south, some time held in the Whiskey Region Speyside on, eventually reaching about Aberdeen traveling Edinburgh . His last visit was to the distilleries in the south of Scotland and then continued his journey to the Glentarras distillery near Langholm in Dublin , Ireland .

Irish distilleries

Drawing of the Monasterevan distillery in Monasterevin

Starting with the Bow Street distillery , where the Jameson brand was produced, Barnard first describes the six establishments in Dublin. He then followed the railway line across the Monasterevan and Tullamore distilleries westward to Galway . He then travels via Limerick to Cork , where three distilleries were in operation at the time. After visiting individual factories in Bandon , Birr and Wexford in the south of Ireland, Barnard drove via Dublin to the northern part of the island to describe the last eleven distilleries. There he visited the Avoniel distillery in Belfast , the only company to which he was denied access. The journey through Ireland is probably characterized by longer stays in the respective places due to the less frequent trains, which is expressed in more detailed descriptions of the surroundings and historical events than is the case in Scotland. In addition to the explanation of the special features of the landscape and the mentality of the Irish, reports on the civil war for the independence of Ireland as well as on Irish sacred buildings dominate.

English distilleries

Finally, Barnard describes the four English distilleries of that time. He starts in Liverpool with the Vauxhall and Bank Hall distilleries. He then traveled to the Bristol Distillery in Bristol and finally to Lea Valley in London .

The Noted Breweries of Great Britain and Ireland

Equipment at the Bass Brewery in Burton-upon-Trent

Barnard's four-volume treatise The Noted Breweries of Great Britain and Ireland on British and Irish breweries followed between 1889 and 1891 . The four volumes comprise a total of around 2000 pages. They were first published between 1889 and 1891 by the publisher Sir Joseph Causton & Sons .

Works

• The Whiskey Distilleries of the United Kingdom (1887)
• The Noted Breweries of Great Britain and Ireland, Volume 1 (1889)
• The Noted Breweries of Great Britain and Ireland, Volume 2 (1889)
• Willie Brewd a Peck o 'Maut (1889)
• The Noted Breweries of Great Britain and Ireland, Volume 3 (1890)
• The Noted Breweries of Great Britain and Ireland, Volume 4 (1891)
• Orchards and Gardens ancient and modern (1895)
• Dalmore (1898)
• How to Blend Scotch Whiskey (around 1901)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Biographical information ( Memento from February 6, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
2. ^ A. Barnard: The United Kingdom whiskey distilleries , Monsenstein and Vannerdat, Münster, 2012, pp. 15-20. ISBN 978-3-86991-497-8 .

Web links

Commons : Alfred Barnard  - collection of images, videos and audio files