Ale City by Roger Protz

£15.99
Available
Product Ref. (e.g. ISBN, SKU)
9781398125117
Published:
15 Aug 2025
Format:
Paperback
Number of pages:
96 pages
Dimensions:
234x165mm
Weight:
0.000kgs
Author:
Roger Protz explores St Albans' local pubs and brewing heritage in this lavishly illustrated guide.
St Albans is a city rich in history, with its origins in the Iron Age and known as Verulamium following the Roman conquest in ad 43. Much of that history is enshrined in its amazing pubs, which include old coaching inns, a pub where soldiers fighting in the Wars of the Roses relaxed with ale, and Ye Olde Fighting Cocks, dating from the seventeenth century and possibly even earlier. Pubs connected to the railway age opened in the nineteenth century and there have been further additions in both the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. These include the Farriers Arms, where the longest surviving branch of the Campaign for Real Ale was formed in the 1970s. Today, St Albans has fifty pubs, more per square mile than any other town or city in Britain. Commercial brewing was established in the city during the seventeenth century, with the Kinder family opening the St Albans Brewery on Chequer Street. Their history and that of more recently founded breweries are documented here. Roger Protz has lived, worked - and drunk - in St Albans for fifty years. Packed with anecdotes and fascinating facts, this lavishly illustrated guide details the city's pubs and brewing heritage.

About the Author: Roger Protz is one of the world's leading beer writers, tasters and historians. He has written more than twenty books including the best-selling 300 Beers to Try Before You Die and The Family Brewers of Britain. He edited twenty-four editions of the annual CAMRA Good Beer Guide.

More Information
Number of pages 96

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