13/08/2026
A 2 Gallon Flagon outside it's previous home; 109, High Street in Marlborough, Wiltshire after returning from Cornwall on a 175 mile trip in 24 hours.
Dixon Brothers - A story of a family, which isn't simply black and white, despite the paper it was printed on!
Origin: https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/wilts/vol12/pp199-229
In 1833 Stephen Brown, had a brewery in the High Street which by 1843 had passed to Dixon & Co. (Ref: W.R.O. 871/106)
Brewing was one of the chief trades of Marlborough in 1865 when S. B. & H. P. Dixon and Reed & Co. each had a brewery in the High Street. (Ref: Harrod's Directory Wilts - 1865)
109, High Street, Marlborough had been leased to Arthur Montgomery Adams by 1897 and Adams died 1917. Marlborough Brewery and 8 public houses offered for auction 19 September 1917 but eventually sold privately to Usher's Wiltshire Brewery Ltd. (Lucy's Marlborough Dir. (1897); W.R.O. 871/88, f. 71 and v.; W.A.S.)
No brewing took place in the town in 1923. (Ref: Kelly's Directory Wilts 1923)
So to delve deeper into this, without a visit to The Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre in Chippenham:
Jane Perkins Dixon was born in 1834. She was the daughter of Robert and Anne Masters Dixon. Christening Date: 18 July 1834 and Christening Place: St Mary, Marlborough, Wiltshire, England. UK Census Date 1851: Recorded in the household of her uncle Stephen Dixon in Pewsey, Wiltshire, England at Aged 16. This census had Stephen Dixon - Age 40, Birth Year (Estimated) 1811 and occupation Solicitor. (Ref: https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Dixon-8832 )
This is where I have conflicting names and ages but around the same general location:
S. B. Dixon (Stephen Brown Dixon) born 6 Aug 1839, was a 19th- and early 20th-century Wiltshire solicitor, brewer, and local antiquarian. He was closely tied to Marlborough and Pewsey, operating a family brewery on High Street, practicing law, and contributing historical and archaeological research to Marlborough College lectures and local natural history magazines. Died 9 Mar 1921 (aged 81), buried in Pewsey. - https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/295363470/stephen-brown-dixon
We know there was a Brother - Henry Puckridge Dixon, born approximately 1838.
This gives us Stephen Brown & Henry Puckridge Dixon for 1865.
An invoice to the executors of the estate of Thomas Smith of Easton Royal, Wiltshire, from Dixon Brothers, brewers and wine-merchants of Marlborough, printed in black on cream paper, hand-written in black, lilac Inland Revenue stamp affixed, dated 30th September 1878 (Stephen at the time would be age 39)
6 Oct 1885 - Henry Puckridge Dixon and Charles Arthur Dixon sold the brewery and pubs for £5,000 in partnership to Robert Chaloner Critchley Long.
"Long has entered into a contract dated the sixth day of October one thousand eight hundred and eighty-five with Henry Puckridge Dixon and Charles Arthur Dixon for the purchase from them of certain freehold and leasehold ... known as the Marlborough Brewery at Marlborough in the county of Wilts, together with certain freehold public houses held in connection therewith and their goodwill business of a brewer and wine and spirit merchant carried on at the Marlborough Brewery for the price of five thousand pounds..." ( Ref: https://www.rulon.com/pages/books/59653/articles-of-partnership-made-and-entered-into-the-twentieth-day-of-january-one-thousand-eight )
Copy of the will of the late Charles Arthur Dixon, brewer of Marlborough, leaving his estate, including Southcott House, Pewsey to his brother Henry Puckridge Dixon and appointing him as his sole executor, dated 12th January 1874 and witnesses James B Horton of Marlborough, clerk to Dixon Bros. Charles died in 1914.
