Young's

Young's (Young & Co.'s Brewery P.L.C.) is a British pub chain operating nearly 220 pubs.

The company was founded as a brewery in 1831 by Charles Young and Anthony Bainbridge when they purchased the Ram Brewery in Wandsworth. The company closed the Ram Brewery in 2006, and the brewing operation was transferred to a new company, Wells & Young's Brewing Company Ltd, which was a joint brewing venture with Charles Wells Brewery. Young's held 40% of the shares in the new company until the sale of its stake to Charles Wells was announced in August 2011. There is a rolling contract for Young's to take beers produced by Wells & Young's. Until its closure in 2006, the company's Ram Brewery in Wandsworth was claimed to be Britain's oldest brewing site in continuous operation, with a history dating back to the 1550s when a Humphrey Langridge, "beer-brewer at Wandsworth", leased the Ram pub.

History

A Ram pub on Young's brewery site was recorded from a survey around 1550 which details the owner as Elizabeth Ridon, who leased out the premises. The first indication of brewing at the Ram are from 1576 when a Humphrey Langridge, "beer-brewer at Wandsworth" (then a village in Surrey), had his house broken into, and the thief was tried at the local assize court; this Humphrey Langridge is also recorded as being landlord of "the Rame" in 1581, and so it is surmised by Young's historian that Langridge would have been brewing at the Ram in 1576. The site of this inn is today the Brewery Tap. Records from 1675 show that the brewery was run by the Draper family, and in the 18th century, the Trittons purchased the brewery. It was purchased by Charles Allen Young and Anthony Fothergill Bainbridge in 1831. Since then it has been associated with the Young family, and until 2006 the last chairman of Young & Co belonging to the Young's family was John Young, the great-great-grandson of the founder.