Taking the biscuit

I enjoy history, delving back and unraveling moments gone by. I always loved it at school, useless at geography mind, one word I remember most was meandering, which is what I think my mind did during lessons. the teacher didn´t help, a very tall, thin chap with a huge booming voice, used to terrify me.

Anyway, with MIL´s 90th birthday approaching I have been researching the history of her birth town, Reading, as we plan to make a newpaper for that year.

It was known as the 3 ´b´s, biscuits, beer and bulbs, although a fourth one can be added, bricks.

Biscuits were of course Huntley & Palmers, the brewery, Simmonds and bulbs were Sutton seeds, the fourth was Collier´s bricks.

Chris´s grandmother worked for Huntley´s and it´s been fun sifting through all the various sites finding out all about the company.

I´m sure we can all remember grandmothers buying broken biscuits from the grocers, mine used to say ít´s got to be broken to be eaten´

The company started in 1822 with 16 workers, which had increased in 50 years to 5000. Wages were quite low, especially for women and a pound of broken biscuits were given each week with the pay packet. Although, as with most occupations for women, once they married that was it, out of a job. It wasn´t until the mid-twentieth century that they changed their policy.  It seems the average working week was 54 hours, with a 40 minute break for breakfast and an hour for lunch, the rest of the time you were at your job.

Another Huntley relative supplied the biscuit tins and to begin with they were supplied with paper wrappers until they mastered the art of printing on the metal. Large tins to hold 10lb of biscuits were manufacturered for the grocers to have on their shelves, where they would weigh out your requirement before popping it into brown paper bags.

Decorative tins and novelties were made for special occasions, some of which are really quite sort after today, saving the biscuit tin for another use was quite natural, something I do today.

They became the world´s largest biscuit manufacturer by 1900, opening and winning awards in Paris and supplying the biscuits for Scott´s trip to the South Pole.

The town was known as ´the biscuit town´even the local football team were known as the ´biscuitmen.

The factory even had their own fire brigade and although rules were strict there were some perks, like a wedding cake if you married, and your funeral paid for if you were in service. They even introduced a Christmas gift, ranging from half a crown to one pound.

Around the mid 1920´s they released their first attempt at advertising with sound by producing a gramophone record with the song Reading biscuit town. Then in the 1930´s they advertised on the pirate radio stations Luxembourg and Normandie

Biscuit production in Reading stopped in 1976 when it was moved to Liverpool.

So there we are a little something to ponder when you are dunking your favourite biscuit.

take care

xcx