History time - has anyone ever heard of E Aldridge & Co.?

[lord groan]

Possibly not strictly for the brewing equipment section but I've had a search online and cannot find out anything about this long gone brewery. I'm asking because I recently remembered finding an old beer bottle donkeys years ago and thought it might be fun to reuse it, last night I dug it out of a box in the loft, found it had what looks like a standard crown cap neck, it had scrubbed up well after all those years buried in my parents back garden,so I thought I'd try and find out what kind of beer it once held.
Nothing I can find online so I wondered if anyone here could help or point me in the right direction!



The embossed label reads (I think)

E Aldridge & Co
SOUTHAMPTON
&
BOURNEMOUTH

and on the base E B & Co Ld
so maybe thats not an "A" it begins with but I cannot fathom how it could be a "B", the second image just about shows it, but I'm no expert.
it holds 1/2 pint and weighs 445g - more than a modern 1pt bottle!

Can anyone help, or point me in the right direction?
Cheers

[Eadweard]

Try the Brewery History Society: http://www.breweryhistory.com/

[Ditch]

Nothing to do with Eldridge Pope, of Dorchester, Dorset, is it?

Isn't Bournemouth in Dorset?

[GrowlingDogBeer]

William Aldridge was a brewer from Southampton. That's about all I can find though.

[Jackthehat]

Bournemouth is now in Dorset, but when this bottle was made it would have been in Hampshire.

It was annexed during the 1974 local government re-organisation, a little like Crimea.

[scotia]

Here is one I found in a dry stane dyke I was rebuilding during the summer






looks like they have moved on to making Rum http://www.alnwickrum.com/brewery-history/

[Heron1952]

Ginger Beer makers!!
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/STONEWARE-GIN ... 1155422752

[lord groan]

Thats great Heron, at least I know the name is correct now, I don't think I'll be doing ginger beer though.
Runwell-Steve - William has gotta be in the same family doesn't he? There must be some local resources I can find, time to chat up people at the reference library maybe.

Does anyone have enough knowledge to have a stab at a date? It's a crown cap, so post 1900 I'd imagine, poor quality moulded glass, full of small bubbles and very thick, presumably to take account of the flaws, incorporating a moulded 'label' so maybe a brewery with only one beer and obviously the ginger beer too, or would the brown glass bottle be a later ginger beer bottle?

Thanks everyone for all the help

[Chrisclayton1]

I have a 2 gallon stoneware jar labelled E. Aldridge Southampton, it's currently (November 2017) for sale on Ebay