At the bar from October 2019 is Paterson’s, the third beer of our six cask series celebrating 170 years of Joseph Holt.
Paterson’s takes us back to 1928 and generation 3 of the brewery. After the death of his father at the age of 78, the reins of the company were handed over to the second Edward Holt. It was somewhat of a bittersweet moment for the family as Sir Edward Holt’s eldest son, Captain Joseph Holt, was originally primed to take over the brewery before his untimely death in 1915 at the World War One.
Instead it would be his brother Edward who would take over and lead the company for the next 40 years.
Paterson’s is full bodied, high strength bitter. The brew has been dry hopped with Goldings, a traditional English hop variety, giving a slightly spicy, floral and earthy aroma.
The good levels of maltiness in Paterson’s gives the beer a strong base to cope with the higher alcohol and bitterness content, resulting in a well-balanced, suppable bitter.
The Story Behind Paterson’s
After the long and distinguished career of his father, Sir Edward Holt, Edward Holt the second took over the brewery in April 1928. He’d already been in the family business since 1904 having initially learned the ropes at Glasgow maltsters Hugh Baird. Like his father, he was an able brewer and active in the community.
One of the original Sir Edward Holt’s major legacies was the substantial work he put into cancer research, providing much of the early funding and equipment for the Manchester Radium Institute, as well as direction through this chairmanship in 1921. His son and third generation brewer very much carried on this legacy. Facing capacity issues, the Institute joined forces with the Christie Hospital and relocated to a bigger site in Withington in 1932.
The new Christie Hospital and Holt Radium Institute continued its pioneering role in cancer treatment and the development of new technologies and therapies. The leading doctor at the helm of the centre was Dr Ralston Paterson, from where our new beer takes its name.
Read up on the early history of Joseph Holt on our interactive timeline
Dr Ralston Paterson – the first Director
Dr Paterson was the first Director of the Institute and was a world leading authority in the treatment of cancer by radiotherapy in the 1930s. He built a team of excellent physicists and clinicians who turned the hospital into a world recognised centre for cancer treatment, developing the ‘Manchester Method’. The centre set the first international-recognised standards for radiation treatment in 1932.
Just as the life-saving work of the hospital and research centre has continued, so has Holts’ support for it. Using his parents’ firm foundations, the second Sir Edward and his wife Lady Margaret played an increasingly active in the Institute’s management with Edward serving as chairman of the board until it became part of the National Health Service in 1948.
In 1962 and upon Dr Paterson’s retirement, the Holt Radium Institute was renamed the Paterson Institute for Cancer Research – which you’ll now know as the Cancer Research UK Institute.
Sir Edward Holt died in Cheshire on 3rd November 1968. He was 85 and had been working at the brewery for 64 years, right up to his death. By then an Emeritus Professor, Dr Paterson described Sir Edward as a “tower of strength politically in the early and vulnerable days when radiotherapy was developing” and as having “the vision to see where change and progress seemed advantageous”.
As you sip your way through this high strength Bitter, raise your glass to both the pioneer of radiotherapy, Dr Ralston Paterson, and the leader of Joseph Holt who played his role in making it possible, the second Sir Edward Holt.
