State Management Scheme
Encyclopedia
The State Management Scheme (known locally as 'The Scheme') saw the UK government
Government of the United Kingdom
Her Majesty's Government is the central government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The Government is led by the Prime Minister, who selects all the remaining Ministers...

 take over and run the brewing, distribution and sale of liquor in three regions of the UK from 1916 until 1973.

The main centre was the Carlisle and District scheme, which was near to the armament factories
HM Factory, Gretna
His Majesty's Factory, Gretna, or H.M. Factory, Gretna as it was usually known, was a UK government World War I Cordite factory, adjacent to the Solway Firth, near Gretna, Dumfries and Galloway...

 that were founded in 1916 supplying explosive and shells to the British Army during the First World War.

There were initially three schemes, Carlisle & Gretna
Gretna
-Places:In Scotland:*Gretna, Scotland in Dumfries and Galloway*Gretna GreenIn Canada:*Gretna, ManitobaIn the United States:*Gretna, Florida*Gretna, Louisiana*Gretna, Nebraska*Mount Gretna, Pennsylvania*Mount Gretna Heights, Pennsylvania...

, Cromarty Firth
Cromarty Firth
The Cromarty Firth of Cromarty') is an arm of the North Sea in Scotland. It is the middle of the three sea lochs at the head of the Moray Firth: to the north lies the Dornoch Firth, and to the south the Beauly Firth....

 and Enfield. In 1921 Carlisle and Gretna were split into two separate areas, Carlisle was the large part and supplied some beer to Gretna. Then in 1922 Enfield was ended and the public houses sold back to private enterprise. The Cromarty Firth scheme did not do any brewing.

The Scheme was denationalised by Heath's 1971
Edward Heath
Sir Edward Richard George "Ted" Heath, KG, MBE, PC was a British Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and as Leader of the Conservative Party ....

 Conservative
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...

 Government and assets sold off at auction in roughly six lots, mostly to established major brewing interests.

Ethos

A central pillar of the Scheme was the ethos of disinterested management; managers of pubs had no incentive to sell liquor, this supported the aim of reducing drunkenness and its effects on the arms industry.

The Scheme also had a 'No Treating' policy which forbade the buying of rounds
Round of drinks
A round of drinks is a set of alcoholic beverages purchased by one person in a group for that complete group. The purchaser buys the round of drinks as a single order at the bar. In many places it is customary for people to take turns buying rounds....

 which operated from 1916 to 1919.

Architecture

Significant to the scheme was the extensive redevelopment; refurbishment of existing pubs, much demolition and replacement of substandard premises, most of these were designed by the Scheme's chief architect Harry Redfern
Harry Redfern
Henry 'Harry' Redfern was a British architect.Redfern designed work in Oxford, Cambridge, Abingdon and Carlisle. At the University of Cambridge he was architect of the chemical, metallurgical, physical and biological laboratories, and restored portions of Christ's College, Cambridge and Magdalene...

 and in his New Model Inn
New Model Inn
New Model Inns were a style of English Public House championed notably by Harry Redfern under the State Management Scheme with all but one of the fourteen particular examples in the building programme of the 'Scheme' being built in the Carlisle district....

 style which influenced the design of public house
Public house
A public house, informally known as a pub, is a drinking establishment fundamental to the culture of Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. There are approximately 53,500 public houses in the United Kingdom. This number has been declining every year, so that nearly half of the smaller...

s in the rest of the UK.

Further reading

  • The Carlisle State Management Scheme: Its Ethos and Architecture, Olive Seabury, Bookcase Carlisle 2007, ISBN 978-1-904147-30-5

  • A City Under The Influence - The story of half a century of state pubs, John Hunt, Lakescene 1971, ISBN 978-0950212005
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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