When Brewing was Nationalised

Discovered an interesting and relevant piece of history whilst disturbing the soil at the top of the embankment in preparation for reinstating our southern boundary fence - a screw top from a beer bottle, embossed with a large letter C surrounded by the lettering:

CARLISLE STATE MAGMT. BREWERY:

It is an amazing story which dates from World War 1.  Below is the story from Wikipedia - a very quirky British thing in Carlisle - rather like Hull's own telephone company with defiantly white boxes:

The State Management Scheme was the nationalisation of the brewing, distribution and sale of liquor in three districts of the United Kingdom from 1916 until 1973. The main focus of the scheme, now commonly known as the Carlisle Experiment, was Carlisle and the surrounding district close to the armament factories at Gretna, founded in 1916 to supply explosives and shells to the British Army in the First World War. However, there were three schemes in total: Carlisle and Gretna, Cromarty Firth, and Enfield. In 1921 Carlisle and Gretna was split into two separate areas. Carlisle was the larger part and supplied some beer to Gretna. In 1922 the Enfield scheme ended and its public houses were sold back to private enterprise.

The scheme was privatised by Edward Heath's Conservative Government in 1971 and its assets were sold at auction in six lots, mostly to established brewing interests.

A central pillar of the scheme was the ethos of disinterested management: public house managers had no incentive to sell liquor, which supported the aim of reducing drunkenness and its effects on the arms industry. From 1916 to 1919 the scheme had a "no treating" policy, forbidding the buying of rounds of drinks.

It is unsurprising to find  evidence of drinking in a working railway environment.  Nowadays strictly prohibited for railway staff, drinking beer was very much part of railway culture in steam days.  It was almost encouraged among engine crews with staff bars at terminal stations and large engine sheds.  There is an old chestnut about a traveller taking to task an engine crew for being the worse for drink.  The standard reply used to be especially valid on a route like Settle-Carlisle "Would you like to drive one of these things in all weathers when sober?"

Carlisle's amber output clearly travelled as far as Settle.