Back in 1907, when Motor Transport was just two years old, it got quite excited about this photograph. Not because the petrol-powered Dennis Bros 3-ton dray was particularly unusual, but because Wm Hancock & Co was one of the UK’s first brewers to use motor transport instead of horses to deliver its beer. I have to confess that I got rather excited about the picture for another reason – back in my university days I used to consume gallons of this stuff.
One-hundred years on and both Hancock’s beers and Dennis trucks still kind of exist today – albeit in somewhat different guises. Hancock’s branded beers are still brewed by Coors Brewers at their Burton plant under license from Interbrew UK, while Dennis Eagle trucks was purchased by Spanish municipal specialist Ros Roca earlier this year.