Julian Hopper's Sentinel S4 No. 9208 of 1935, sponsored by Faversham, Kent, brewers Shepherd Neame.

Taking advantage of a fine February day I arranged to meet Julian Hopper to take some photographs of his 1935 Sentinel S4 steam waggon. Julian had just finished his regular winter maintenance on the waggon and had only completed the fitting of a new set of tyres a couple of days before we were due to meet. We’d been given permission to take our pictures at Chatham Historic Dockyard where the old buildings provided a suitable backdrop for the Sentinel.
Despite a very cold wind blowing in off the River Medway it was a pleasant sunny morning when I met not just Julian but three generations of the Hopper family.
Julian would be driving, his father Roy was fireman and third person in the cab - and very probably in charge of everything - was Julian’s young son Isaac sporting a very smart set of blue overalls.
The Sentinel in its bright red livery of the Shepherd Neame brewery is a familiar sight on the roads around Chatham and attends many rallies and events during the course of a season. It also appears regularly on the HCVS-organised London to Brighton Run which is held in May.

Although not owned by Shepherd Neame, the waggon makes a fine advertisement for a brewer of such longstanding.

The association with the Kent brewery began in 1993 when the company was considering buying their own steam waggon for promotional purposes. Julian and the Sentinel were returning from a trip to Holland and called in at the Faversham brewery. The brewery managers were given a ride in the S4 and having seen the degree of skill and expertise that would be required to run and maintain a steam lorry quickly decided against buying their own. They opted instead for a sponsorship arrangement with Julian and this successful partnership continues today.
The origins of the brewery can be traced back to 1698 when the Mayor of Faversham, Capt. Richard Marsh, started his brewery over an artesian well in Court Street, known as North Street then. Faversham was a busy port at this time and already had a long brewing tradition which started in the 12th century. Records show that Capt. Marsh soon became the most significant brewer in the town and when he died in 1727 the business was run firstly by his wife and then by their daughter who sadly died at the early age of 24 in 1741. Following her death, ownership of the brewery passed to Samuel Shepherd who was a maltster and a member of a prominent land-owning family.
As the business expanded he was joined by his sons Julius and John and as well as running the brewery they began to buy pubs, some of which are still owned by the brewery today.