When the third John Dyson died in 1867 the brewery was sold at auction to retired London hotelier Joseph Benskin and Watford draper William Bradley for £34,000.

His third son Thomas Benskin became a partner in 1884, bringing to the company James Panton of the Wareham Brewery in Dorset, reputed to be the first person to study scientific brewing at University College, London.

Benskins rose to become the only regional brewer Hertfordshire ever produced, and during its life its estate included pubs, beer houses and off-licences not only in its home county, but as far afield as Sussex, Essex, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Kent and Greater London.

Despite the closure of the Cannon Brewery site, and its subsequent demolition in 1979, the brand was again revived and applied to a number of pubs in the Allied estate during the early 1980s.

As a result of further mergers and acquisitions over the intervening years, ownership of the Benskins trademarks currently rests with Carlsberg International AS, Denmark.

[6] The pub, notable for its external tiling advertising "Benskins Celebrated Watford Ale & Stout" still extant, re-opened briefly between 2012 and 2014 under new ownership; however, it was sold on again during 2015.

Before its demolition, the wider brewery site was used as a filming location for the "Heroes" episode of the British TV drama series The Professionals.

During the construction of the Wellspring Centre for Watford Community Church, a 15-metre deep industrial well was discovered, likely to have been the brewery's primary source of water drawn from the River Colne.