Before Squash, There Was Barley Water
The Robinsons story behind the modern bottle is older and a bit messier than the neat supermarket label suggests. In 1825, Matthias Robinson is said to have discovered the use of barley crystals and began producing barley water as a health drink. Around the same family history, Mary Ann Robinson is linked with selling homemade fruit juices from her family’s farm in Droylsden, Lancashire, before later helping develop the business after George Robinson left in 1859. Then, in 1862, Robinson and Belville Ltd amalgamated with Keen and Sons to become Keen Robinson and Company. That is not quite a simple “one person invented squash” tale, but British grocery history rarely behaves itself for long.
From Patent Barley to Lemon in the Glass
The early Robinsons business began in the world of Patent Barley and Groats, which sounds more like something from a Victorian pantry than a modern drinks aisle. Still, that barley-water background matters because it gave Robinsons its long association with drinks made to be diluted, refreshed, and kept on hand. The famous Lemon Barley Water came later, in 1930, when Eric Smedley Hodgson developed a drink using Robinsons patent barley crystals with lemon juice and sugar. This 1L Lemon Squash is not being presented as that same origin product, but it sits in the same broad family of British concentrated drinks: practical, pourable, and designed for ordinary kitchens rather than dramatic table service.
Norwich, Wimbledon and the Very British Art of Diluting Things
Robinsons production became closely associated with Carrow, near Norwich, after the company moved manufacturing there in 1925, and products were made there until 2019. The brand also became tied to Wimbledon from 1935, when Robinsons was connected with the Championships as a soft drink supplier, particularly through Lemon Barley Water. That link lasted for decades and helped give the name a place in the British summer imagination: tennis on television, rain delay, strawberries somewhere in the background, and a cold glass of something lemony nearby. Corporate histories enjoy polishing this sort of thing until it shines, but the ordinary appeal is simpler. Robinsons became part of how people cooled a drink down and made water a bit less worthy.
The Modern Bottle and the Familiar Name
The Robinsons name has travelled through several owners, which explains why the brand has the long, slightly tangled paper trail common to many British cupboard staples. J and J Colman acquired Keen Robinson and Company in 1903, bringing Robinsons into the orbit of the Norwich mustard firm. Colman’s later became part of Reckitt and Colman, and in the 1990s the Robinsons brand moved into the Britvic soft drinks world. More recently, Robinsons has sat within the Carlsberg Britvic structure. None of that means the modern bottle was created by each new owner in turn. It simply explains why an old British drinks name now appears in contemporary packaging while still carrying a great deal of household memory.
Why It Still Finds Its Way to Canada
For British expats in Canada, Robinsons Lemon Squash can feel oddly specific. It is not just “a lemon drink”. It is the way it mixes, the colour in the glass, the cupboard-door clunk, the childhood habit of making it too strong when nobody was watching. It is the sort of thing relatives put in parcels because tea and biscuits get all the attention, but squash is what people actually miss on a Tuesday afternoon. A bottle of Robinsons Lemon Squash - 1L is a small piece of British domestic infrastructure, which sounds ridiculous until you run out. Quietly stocked for homesick cupboards by The Great British Shop.
