There were two cordial businesses here in the 1920s but within 10 years only Marshall’s Cordials remained, as Sayers had been taken over by F and E Thomas, Inverell.
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William Marshall, Mark’s son continued the business until he sold to Arthur ‘Scottie’ Howitt, when things were at a low ebb in 1945.
Mark was well known in poultry breeding circles as one of the greatest authorities on English Game birds.
He wrote The King of Fowls and the illustrations were said to have been coloured with food dyes: “Because of Mr Marshall’s great interest in this field the New England District has become known as the finest game fowl producing area in Australia.
“People from all over Australia wrote to him asking about various aspects of poultry raising and requesting details of the correct procedures.
“Some of his overseas correspondents even sent feathers asking him for a comment on the fowl to which they belonged…’ From Mark Marshall’s obituary Glen Innes Examiner 1 July 1955.
Scottie continued filling the very old glass marble stoppered bottles, embossed with the WM Marshall block for two years.
He then passed them on to Mrs Gerke of Emmaville as she had an SH bottle machine “turn over rack type”, useless without the necessary marble bottles.
Scottie brewed ginger and hop beer, a tricky business in New England where sudden changes in temperature could flatten or blow up the yeast content.
By the early 1950s big concerns were driving the small man out of business and Scottie closed.
J A Spier and Thomas C Gillies began brewing beer in 1883 at 56 East Street (later renamed Church Street).
Within a year the owner of the Armidale Brewery, Peter Simpson had bought them out.
Unfortunately he went out of business in both towns in 1886 and Thomas Gilles reopened the brewery the following year.
By 1889 Francis Dixon Kite and Co were the owners, but bankruptcy in 1893 caused their closure and Francis later became a shearing contractor at Narrabri.
Henry Floyd, who had worked as a cooper there for six years, re-opened the business in 1893, but it closed permanently the following year.
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