The Russell’s Pale Ale is my first choice with a local connection. I was born and brought up in North Kent alongside the river Thames, although not actually in Gravesend. By the time I started collecting, Russell’s had been gone over 40 years, taken over by Trumans in 1930 but the parts of the brewery remained serving as their depot. I later found out that my uncle had been born in the boiler house of the brewery and his father was the brewery blacksmith and later a drayman. Again, I think this is a really elegant label and one of which I am inordinately fond!
