The Hiltons, Mares, and Neames

1819 - 1912

When Julius Shepherd died in 1819, his substantial £40,000 estate was divided between his six children, meaning that his chosen successor to the Shepherd Neame brewery, his youngest son, Henry, had to buy out his siblings.

Henry struggled under this family debt in a time of static demand and restricted investment but he did manage to add seven more public houses to the brewery portfolio as well as modernising the range of products with bitters, table beers, stouts and porters.

When Henry Shepherd retired in 1844 he sold the business to his youngest son, Henry Jr, and his son-in-law, Charles Jones Hilton. The Shepherd & Hilton partnership lasted four years before Charles left to take over the Faversham Cement Works.

In 1848 Henry Jr took on John Henry Mares of Maidstone as a partner and, after a rocky 10 years, their business was buoyed by the arrival, in 1858, of the railway from London and the onward connections to the coast. Over the next six years, the pair ploughed £10,000 into renovating the brewery with a new brewhouse and stores.

Just as his dedication, and investment, was bearing fruit in 1864, John Henry Mares died and was replaced by his brother-in-law, Percy Beale Neame. The strategy that was already in place continued to yield great success and investment continued with a cask washing building, additional Court Road offices, a new tun room, and extra storage space being built.

When Henry Shepherd Jr died in 1875, Percy Beale Neame borrowed from friends and family in order to buy out the Shepherd’s share of the business becoming the sole proprietor of the Shepherd Neame brewery. Percy’s sons, Harry, Arthur, and Alick joined him at the business 20 years later, bringing with them a beer bottling process, a wine and spirits department, and, most effectively, a focus on supplying the growing number of working men’s clubs, which would come to account for as much as 60% of brewery production sales by 1921.