Welcome
Thank you for visiting our website.
At the Burton & District Branch of the Birmingham and Midland Society for Genealogy and Heraldry we hold branch meetings regularly, where our members enjoy a varied and interesting programme.
One of our summer meetings is often away from our normal base so that we can visit a different venue of interest to Family Historians.
The last meeting of the year also takes a different format and is a week earlier than normal to avoid a clash with members Christmas activities.
Visitors are always welcome to attend our meetings.
Please browse the menu pages on the left to discover more about our Society and feel free to get in touch with us if you have a question.
Background information about the pictures at the top of the page.
The illustration used in the heading of this website is of the extensive Goat Maltings in Clarence Street opened by Peter-Walker & Co. Ltd. in 1883. Peter Walker was a member of a Scottish brewing family that settled in Liverpool. His brother founded the Walker Art Gallery.
In 1860 Peter bought the small Willow Brewery in Willow Road, Wrexham, and developed it into the largest brewery in the town. He served as Mayor of Wrexham in 1866 and 1867 but after his disappointment at not being elected for a third term in 1881 he decided to move his business to Burton on Trent in Staffordshire. He laid the foundation stone for his new brewery in February 1882 but died just two months later.
The Goat on the weather vane is a Welsh goat - a reminder of the company's origins in Wrexham.
Peter Walker was an inventor who patented the Burton Union system (though there is some doubt as to whether he actually was the inventor). The company originally operated as Peter Walker and Son in Liverpool and Warrington.
His eldest son, Sir Andrew Barclay Walker, merged his own operations and expanded the Burton-on-Trent brewery after his father's death. Sir Andrew pioneered many of the innovations in brewing production, beer distribution & pub management. The company merged with Cain's in 1921 and was acquired by the Aston-based Atkinson's Brewery in 1925, eventually being absorbed into Allied Breweries. The Goat Maltings finally closed in 1967.