Shrewsbury wine merchants celebrating 175 years

Tanners Wines has been a staple on the Shrewsbury landscape for 175 years and has enjoyed a sparkling history.

From its humble beginnings in the mid 1800s, the family run business has gone from strength to strength.

William Tanner was born in 1839 and, in 1872, he took his brother Henry Edward into partnership and founded the firm of W & HE Tanner in Shrewsbury. The business later passed to Alfred Tanner of Shrawardine, a successful breeder and exporter of pedigree Shropshire Sheep and Hereford Cattle. He employed a manager until two of his sons were old enough to take over: Frank, who died in 1960 and Clive who died in 1983.

The firm's cellars were those of the now demolished Victorian Market Hall and its offices were in Shoplatch. The dray horses were kept in the Elephant & Castle yard off Mardol and after making local deliveries, it is said the horses found their own way home unaccompanied at the end of each day.

Nowadays, the firm is based in a black and white building at the foot of Wyle Cop, parts of which date from the 15th century while other parts of the building date from the Tudor, Georgian and Victorian eras. This had previously been the home to Thomas Southam & Son, founded in 1842 and which had an excellent reputation as wine merchants. It was taken over by Tanners in 1936.

Over the years, builders have found a number of items including pots of “Russian Bears’ Grease” which were found when some of the offices, which were once the Unicorn Hotel ballroom, were renovated. Bear's grease was a popular treatment for men with hair loss from at least as early as 1653 until about the First World War. The myth of its effectiveness is based on a belief that as bears are very hairy, their fat would assist hair growth in others.

The firm's stores are built up against the old town walls, remnants of which can still be seen inside the room now used to store thousands of cases of customer’s wine and before 1842 the main passageway area was a coach builders. The individual offices beside the driveway to the rear car park may have been 16th century shops and the original beams can be seen with some decorative carvings in place.

Tanners also acted as beer wholesalers, they bottled beer and manufactured mineral waters. Butts of sherry, pipes of Port, hogshead of claret and burgundy were shipped via London, Bristol or Liverpool and on by rail for resting and bottling in Shrewsbury.

In the olden days, pipes of Port containing 112 gallons came from Oporto in Portugal. Butts of Sherry containing 108 gallons and Hogsheads containing 54 gallons came from Jerez in Spain. Puncheons of Rum came from Demerara and Jamaica.

Wine was delivered to Tanners in casks and the wine bottling was carried out in the main passageway. Another of the rooms, which is now only used during tastings, is the bottom cellar. Here, casks of Claret and Burgundy containing 56 gallons rested for around three weeks before being bottled by hand. In bad years, these cellars would flood, sometimes as far as chest-deep, and today they still flood and on occasion, any empty casks that weren’t lashed down would bob up to the ceiling.

In 1976 it was decided that the business would import all the wines in bottle and wine bottling at Wyle Cop finally ended after 134 years.

Up until the 1960s, respectable wine merchants had no bottles on show and there were no ‘shops’ as such. If a customer wanted to buy wine, they ordered it off a wine list. Customers would come into the front office, which is now Tanners reception and place their order for delivery or, if collecting, would receive a chit which they would take down to the stores. When Richard Tanner opened the first self-select off licence in Shropshire in the 1960s, it was in Mardol and his father Clive insisted it was called ‘The Wine Centre’ to disassociate it from Tanners.

But while the firm today supplies its wines, spirits, beers and ales to restaurants, homes, businesses and pubs not only in Shropshire but across the country, in years gone-by they also ensured that some of the country's wealthiest customers had Tanners' wines at their tables.

Hannah Schwarzer, marketing manager at Tanners said: "We have a collection of very old glass bottles, some as early as 17th century. Some families had their own seals, for example the one belonging to the Earls of Powys was marked with a ‘P’ and a coronet and the Leightons of Loton Park featured a dragon and would send their own bottles here to be filled with wine. This practice continued up till the 1930s."

James Tanner, present chairman and fourth generation added: “Of course it’s lovely to be running one of the oldest wine merchants in Britain, but I always maintain that we are only as good as the wines we sell and the service we give today. That’s why Tanners is actually a very forward looking company, always watching and helping to form new trends in wine drinking, whilst using the best of technology to handle a massive range of wines and tailor them to a very wide range of customers. That’s how we hope to be trading for a very great many years yet.”

In 2001 Tanners opened a new distribution depot at Welshpool, leaving the Old Brewery in Brook Street, Welshpool after almost 90 years. Transport and warehouse operations were moved out of Shrewsbury, thereby allowing the refurbishment of the historic premises on Wyle Cop and to extend the cellars Shop and offices. The firm employs over 100 people.