Bass was born in Burton upon Trent in 1799, the son of Michael Thomas Bass (senior) who had expanded the Bass brewery founded by his father William Bass in 1777 and made it a major exporter to Russia. His mother, Sarah Hoskins, was the daughter of Abraham Hoskins, a prominent lawyer of Burton.

Bass attended the grammar school in Burton upon Trent and finished his schooling in Nottingham. At the age of 18, he joined the family business as an apprentice when business was not going well because the Napoleonic Wars had disrupted trade with Russia. However, the sales of India Pale Ale in India and southeast Asia were taking off by the 1820s.

Bass took over control of the company in 1827 and continued the export focus on Asia. By 1832-33, the company was exporting 5,000 barrels of beer representing 40% of its output in that year

The coming of the railway to Burton upon Trent in 1839 helped the growth of the business by reducing transport costs. The company had four agents in the 1830s in London, Liverpool, Stoke-on-Trent and Birmingham. By the 1880s, this had grown to 21 in the United Kingdom and another in Paris. The export trade was supplied by the agencies in London and Liverpool.

Under Bass’s leadership, company production and sales had grown enormously. Production of ale had grown to 340,000 barrels in 1860 and to almost a million barrels in the late 1870s. By 1881, the company had three breweries and 26 malthouses covering 145 acres (0.59 km2) in Burton upon Trent. The company was Britain’s biggest brewery and was one of its best known companies.

Bass was first elected as the member for Derby in 1848 and served until 1883. His obituary in the Brewers Journal stated that he was known more “in the House of Commons for his regular attendance than for any feats of oratory.” He focussed on being a national advocate for the brewing industry against efforts by nonconformists within the Liberal Party to legislate against alcohol.

Bass was an orthodox Liberal supporting free trade, low taxes and improving living standards for the working class. He promoted legislation to abolish imprisonment for small debtors. His legislation against organ grinders on the grounds that they were street nuisances was less successful.

He was known as a philanthropist both in Burton upon Trent and Derby. His obituarists claimed that his contributions totalled £80,000 and that he had given Derby a new library, School of Art, recreation ground, and swimming baths.

Bass represented Derby until the final years of his life. William Ewart Gladstone offered Bass a peerage which he declined preferring to stay in the House of Commons.

In brief: Michael Arthur Bass, 1st Baron Burton KCVO was born in Burton upon Trent in 1837. He was a Brewer, Liberal Party politician and philanthropist and became Sir Michael Bass, 1st Baronet in 1882, but was always best known as simply, Lord Burton.

Bass was the elder son of Michael Thomas Bass and the great-grandson of William Bass who moved to Burton upon Trent from London in 1777 to found the brewery firm of Bass & Company.

His mother was Eliza Jane, daughter of Samuel Arden. Bass was educated at Burton Grammar School, Harrow and Trinity College, Cambridge. He was a Director of the family firm of Bass, Ratcliff, Gretton and Co from 1863, and Chairman of the Directors upon his father’s death in 1884. He also sat as a Member of Parliament for Stafford from 1865 to 1868, for East Staffordshire from 1868 to 1885 and for Burton from 1885 to 1886. As a brewer, it was uncomfortable to be a Liberal MP as there was a strong temperance element to the Liberal party at the time.

In 1882 he was created a Baronet, of Stafford in the County of Stafford, chiefly in honour of his father who was then still alive and who had declined every honour offered to him. Four years later, in 1886, he was raised to the peerage as Baron Burton, of Rangemore and of Burton-on-Trent in the County of Stafford, with remainder to heirs male. In 1897 he was created Baron Burton, of Burton-on-Trent and of Rangemore in the County of Stafford, with remainder, in default of male issue, to his daughter and her male issue. In 1904 he was further honoured when he was made a Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order.

Lord Burton married Harriett Georgina, daughter of Edward Thornewill, in 1869. He died in February 1909, aged 71. He was succeeded in the baronetcy according to the special remainder by his nephew William while the barony of 1886 became extinct. The peerage of 1897 passed according to the special remainder to his daughter Nellie Lisa. Lady Burton died in 1931.

King Edward VII visited Rangemore, the town and Bass Brewery in February 1902 and stayed with Lord Burton at the family home, Rangemore Hall.

Like his father, Michael Arthur Bass was a generous benefactor to Burton, making many fine contributions to the town, including the Ferry Bridge and, a few years later, the causeway, St. Chad’s church and St Paul’s Institute and Liberal Club, which was later to become Burton Town Hall

A bronze statue of Lord Burton, sculpted by F. W. Pomeroy, was erected in front of the Burton Town Hall in 1911.

Hamar Bass was the second son of Michael Thomas Bass and his wife Eliza Jane Arden. He was brother of Lord Burton and also a Director of the family firm of Bass, Ratcliff, Gretton and Co. One sister Emily married Sir William Plowden, MP for Wolverhampton West, and the other married Sir George Chetwode being the mother of Field Marshall Philip Chetwode.

Hamar Bass was MP for Tamworth from 1878 to 1885. He was then MP for West Staffordshire from 1885 until his death aged 56 in 1898 from a complex form of rheumatism.

Hamar Bass married Louisa Bagot (1853-1942), daughter of William Bagot, 3rd Baron Bagot, in 1879. They lived at Byrkley Lodge and Needwood House, Burton, and also at 145 Piccadilly, London. Louisa subsequently married Rev Bernard Shaw. He was a breeder at the Byrkley Stud and his horse “Love Wisely” won the Ascot Gold Cup in 1896. He was also for 12 years master of the Meynell Hunt.

His son William succeeded in his uncle’s baronetcy of Stafford according to special remainder. Hamar Bass’s daughter Sibell Lucia married Major Berkeley John Talbot Levett, Scots Guard, son of Theophilus Levett of Wychnor Park, Staffordshire. Berkeley Levett served as one of the Gentlemen Ushers to the Royal Family from 1919 to 1937.

Select page to view:

• Recording
• Restoration
• Colourization
• Bibliography
• Acknowledgements
• Copyright Issues

One of the roles of this website is to capture some of Burton’s history as it has survived into the twenty-first century, and to raise the awareness of the history that lies behind it.

Whilst I am keen to record things as they are, graphic tools allow lamp-posts, bus stops, street signs, telephone wires, TV aerials, satellite dishes and other modern items to be removed such that the buildings can be enjoyed in their true glory.

One of the pleasures of preparing this website is rescuing photographs, images, documents etc., before they disappear such that they can be permanently recorded due to the amazing capabilities of modern image editing software. In many cases, the restore is actually much better than the original would have been.

This example shows a 1903 photograph which was used as the source of a postcard at the time. Though the picture tells a story, it was clearly taken using fairly primitive equipment but it can be fully brought back to life.

Below is one of the last available photographs of the Old Trent Bridge which was closed in 1846 after the ‘new’ one was built parallel to it.

This below example shows Burton’s first Railway Station which was demolished in 1883 after a replacement station had been built further down the line.

So – if you have any images of Burton upon Trent that would be of interest, don’t be put off by their condition.

Many books have been invaluable in providing background information for this website.

Acknowledgements to the following:

AbeBooks
for an excellent service in sourcing out-of-print books

Arthur Roe, local history enthusiast
for assistance with a number of oddments

Christine Thompson, Headmistress of Abbot Beyne school
for making archive material available and donating a copy of ‘Deus Nobiscum’ book

Colin Owen, retired author
for general help and assistance, and for sending me a signed copy of his book

David Swinscoe, historian
for information on removal of  image of St Modwen

Dr Paul Hegarty of Molson Coors
for help with Bass content.

Dr Robin Trotter, local historian
for his assistance with Saint Modwen’s church history

eBay
for proving to be an amazing resource of books, postcards, documents, photos…

Father Paul Farthing, Vicar
for his assistance with Saint Paul’s church and surrounding history

Gaye King, local historian
for Byrkley Park history

Geoffrey Thursfield, local historian
for a number of assistances and images

John Nutt
for help with Bladon Castle history

Ken Bell, retired corporation employee
for help with Burton Corporation transport

Les Simpson, local history enthusiast
for assistance with schools history

Marilyn and Ian Gilliver of Saint Peter’s Church
for their help and for even letting me wind the tower clock up!

P.M. White and J.W. Storer, author and tramway enthusiast
for help with Burton & Ashby Tramway history

Pam Charlton of Legal & Democratic Services
for help with Civic History and Town Hall

Richard Stone, local author
for a number of assistances and photographs

Robin Clay, Thornewill / Clay descendant
for various help and many images

Robert Cox, local author and fireman
for his assistance with Burton Fire Brigade history

Simon Kent, Deputy Justices Clerk
for help with Magistrates Court history

Stuart Haywood, local history enthusiast
for various assistances and his enthusiasm

… but disappointment from:

Freda Shepherd and Jenny Griffin of Burton High School Old Girls Association
for being outstandingly unhelpful

Burton Library
for denying web-usage of a large archive of donated local photographs

Burton Mail
for declining to assist

Burton Police Force
for declining to assist

Marstons Brewery
for declining to assist

The Magic Attic
for denying web-usage of a large archive of donated local photographs

Three Queens Hotel
for declining to assist

Burton Library
Burton Library has a very large collection of archival material. Most of it is comprised of collections that were freely donated to a PUBLIC archive in the hope that they would provide the best PUBLIC access. The majority were transferred from the library in Union Street to the ‘new’ library when it was opened in 1976 with no-one knowing quite what to do with them.

I, and other local historians and authors, have been denied access on the basis that many are now of unknown ownership so the copyright MAY belong to someone. Firstly however, most of the material is out of copyright simply by age since my main interest is prior to 1915. Secondly, in the worst case, it would anyway only mean payment of a nominal copyright fee or retraction of the image. They are not of high monetary value… they are simply photos of Burton!

A quick inspection of a randomly chosen box revealed large collections of incredible photos of Burton upon Trent decorated for the King George V Coronation in 1911. For many, this is within grandparent era, making them still very relevant.

The Magic Attic
The Magic Attic at Swadlincote similarly boasts over 22,000 donated historic local photos. Again however, I have been denied permission to feature any of them on this website on the basis that I may reduce revenue of image sales. With around 10,000 pageviews per month, more astute would probably be reference links to The Magic Attic, informing that “Full quality images and thousands more like it available from them”.

General
In both cases, collections have been freely donated (for example, JS Simnett) with instruction that images should be made available for local projects as long as:
a) They were non-commercial.
b) A website did not make hi-resolution images suitable for printing available.

The website is prepared on a completely non-profit basis (in fact, a not insignificant cost to myself). Images are strictly controlled to web-quality, which would not be suitable for printed media. The sole intention of the website is to raise local awareness and provide a quality, informative record of Burton’s local history.

These issues are slowly but very surely becoming the death of this website as I move to less resistive projects. It is a fraction of what it would have been with co-operation.

The website currently enjoys around 10000 pageviews per month (around 30000 images). It is a criminal shame that so many more images will remain locked away with hardly anyone ever seeing them as the originators would have wished, until they have deteriotated to the point where they will be thrown away, most of them unrecorded.

Paget Family

Select page to view:

• Sir William Paget (1506 – 1563)
• Henry William Paget (1768 – 1854)
• Henry Cyril Paget (1875 – 1905)