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Smith & Nephew – Cods Liver and Nivea

By on May 2, 2009 in Our Yorkshire, Yorkshire Business and Money, Yorkshire History and Heritage

elastoplast
T J Smith opened a chemist shop in Hull in 1856 as a 30 year old member of the newly formed British Pharmaceutical Society. An early product was the Dark brown, fishy smelling Cod Liver Oil made from Hull fish . Indeed he sold this and a progressively refined version from Newfoundland and Norway to Guys Hospital and Great Ormond Street Childrens Hospital in London. A small part of the early business was supplying bandages and wound dressings.

By 1896 and in poor health he invited his 22 year old nephew Horatio Nelson Smith (named after TJ’s father)  to join the company and it became T J Smith and Nephew until it becoming a limited company in 1907.  Having outgrown its premises in North Churchside it moved to Neptune Street and shifted its production away from cod liver oil in favor of bandages. Horatio signed a contract with the Turkish government in 1911 after the outbreak of the war with Bulgaria when numbers employed reached 54 and this grew rapidly during the 1914-18 war when a manufacturing plant was also opened in Canada. Health and Safety legislation helped save the company through the depression requiring companies to stock First Aid materials.

Health Care Products

Innovative products have been at the forefront of Smith + Nephew’s business since the start. Elastoplast often thought of as generic adhesive backed sticking plaster was an S&N trademarked product. They were also pioneers of Gypsonia a ready to use Plaster of Paris bandage. A new manufacturing line was later known for producing cellulose sanitary towels, which had been developed to cope with the scarcity of cotton S&N sold them under the trade name Lilia, which had originally referred to an industrial cellulose towel product. S&N’s good fortune is illustrated by Nivea brand moisturizing cream. Overseas rights for the Nivea brand of moisturizing cream passed to Smith & Nephew with the acquisition of Herts Pharmaceuticals Ltd. in 1951. Soon it contributed almost as much as Elastoplast bandages to S&N’s consumer sales. In 1992, Beiersdorf bought back the rights for what was estimated to be the largest toiletry brand in the world. Smith & Nephew continued to earn a 17 percent royalty on U.K. Nivea sales without having to spend any money on advertising. In the 1960s, the brand was extended with “Nivea Lotions” and an upscale skin care line known as “Nivea Visage” .

Currently Smith + Nephew employ 12,000 people in over 30 countries and are internationally renown for hip and knee  Orthopedic replacements and Advanced wound management amongst other modern Healthcare products.

A great Yorkshire company that is doing a good and necessary job.

Photo of Knee Inplants being manufactured curtesy of Smith + Nephewknee-manufacturing-plant

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Morley Churches & History

By on April 28, 2009 in Our Yorkshire, Yorkshire History and Heritage

morley-milepost

A trip around Morley, which is 4 miles from Leeds, will take you to a place that was affluent long before Leeds was on the map. Outside the sadly dilapidated and unused church of St Mary’s in the Wood is a helpful sign that starts the history trail from Domesday to Doomsday for some of the local Churches. The Wapentake of Morley was formed in the time of King Alfred comprising four parishes Birstall, Bradford, Calverly and Halifax.

st-marys

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The town is built on seven hills Scatcherd Hill, Dawson Hill, Daisy Hill, Chapel Hill, Hunger Hill, Troy Hill and Banks Hill and got it’s name from ‘The Moor in the Wood’. The town has been a settlement for over a thousand years and was mentioned in the Domesday Book. Morley became a borough in 1886 after intense development following the Industrial Revolution and finally became a district of Leeds in 1974 (not a great year for Yorkshire reorganisations).

Victorian Morley

The Industrial revolution worked well for Morley and the town’s Municipal Coat of Arms features the symbolic principal industries of Coal mining, Cloth manufacture and Quarrying. Sir Titus Salt the mill owner and industrialist was born in Morley. The affluence of the 19th Century can be deduced from the now re-purposed churches below

Zoar Baptists
‘The Zoar Particular Baptists’ Commercial Street also called Zora Chapel is now the Labour Rooms.

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Terry’s of York

By on April 25, 2009 in Food and Drink, Yorkshire Business and Money, Yorkshire Facts - Interesting and Unusual, Yorkshire History and Heritage

terrys-of-york

What do an apothecary, confectioner and citrus peel importer have in common? When one of them was Joseph Terry you may make the connection to Terry and Berry the forerunner to Terry’s of York. Joseph Terry married into the partnership that had worked from 1767 and brought his Apothecary skills to the business with a factory in Brearley Yard and a shop next to the Mansion House.
Early products included candied peel, marmalade and medicated lozenges as wel as cakes and confections. In the early 19th century the conversation lozenges bore messages a bit like modern day Love Hearts such as ‘Can you Polka’ and the racy ‘Do you flirt’. After the arrival of the railway to York Terry was selling his Coltsfoot Rock, Jujubes, Gum balls and Acid drops to many towns throughout the country. (Price 52/- per cwt Mmmm a sweet price).
Joseph Terry died in 1850 but his 3 sons including Joseph jnr took the business forward building a Chocolate factory in Clementhorpe in 1887. The business grew through two world wars and remained in family ownership and management until 1960. It then passed through various corporate hands including Forte, Colgate Palmolive, United Biscuits, Philip Morris, Kraft and Suchards.
The family were civic minded and Joseph Terry jnr was Lord Mayor of York during Queen Victoria’s Jubilee. The war office recognised the value of chocolate for the troops before the first world war as being of benefit ‘…..on the march, at manoeuvers or any occasion when staying power is needed’. Between the wars new products were created including Spartan and All Gold.
Sadly in 2004 the production at York was stopped and transferred to Europe bringing an end to a proud Yorkshire food manufacturing operation.

Other products you may remember include Neapolitans, Twighlight, Waifa, and York Fruits. I am not sure this product below was quite the success of the Chocolate Orange that goes right back to the companies origins as peel importers. In fact I never saw a Chocolate Banana or the Chocolate Apple for that matter.
chocolate-banana
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Worsbrough Mill and Canal

By on April 21, 2009 in Our Yorkshire, Yorkshire History and Heritage, Yorkshire Trips and Places

new-picture-23

3 miles south of Barnsley, Worsbrough was noted in the Doomsday book for its Corn Mill. Now with a population under 10,000 it is a village over looking the Worsbrough Valley. At Worsbrough Country Park you can see the milling process in Worsbrough Mills 17th & 19th century buildings. From the grain arriving from the farm, the cleaning of the wheat, the actual grinding of the grain, through to the separation of white and wholemeal flour. And then the flour is available to purchase.
Go to Worsbrough Contry Park and watch, learn and ask questions about the traditional flour milling processes. Monday 4th May 2009, Monday 25th May 2009, Sunday 28th June 2009, Sunday 26th July 2009, Monday 31st August 2009, Sunday 27th September 2009 11am – 2.30pm FREE
Worsborough is the historic spelling in use when the milll was commercially active. The place name is usually spelt “Worsbrough” today.
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Cockersdale and Keith Marsden Doin’ the Manch

By on April 20, 2009 in Our Yorkshire, Wit and Humour, Yorkshire Folk, Yorkshire History and Heritage

Doin’ the manch is the title and first song on a re-released album of songs from the pen and fertile mind of Keith Marsden. Hopefully this song is playing as a tribute to Keith who died in 1991. The Manch is Manchester Road in Bradford which contained a record number of pubs most of which get mentioned by Keith in his humorous manner. There was also a serious side to Keiths songs about social conditions in the Yorkshire mines and mills and Cockerdale still sing many of them on the 3 CD’s and in live performances. The live show entitled ‘Picking Sooty Blackberries ‘ is pure Keith but Cockersdale performed ‘Lest we Forget’ the songs of Rudyard Kipling and Peter Bellamy at the Whitby Festival 2008.

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Yorkshire Ridings Society

By on April 17, 2009 in Our Yorkshire, Yorkshire History and Heritage

yorkshire-flag

The Ridings are still with us but a little support from Yorkshire folk will keep them fresh and in the minds of this and future generations. The ‘Yorkshire Ridings Society’ is doing just that from every angle of the Yorkshire Ridings (I tried to avoid saying corner). The society also created Yorkshire Day celebrated on 1st August every year and for those reasons and the £5 membership it seem worth joining. More information on the Society can be found on the web site and in the article below reproduced with their permission.

Yorkshire Ridings Society A Brief History

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Black Bess and Dick Turpin

By on April 14, 2009 in Our Yorkshire, Yorkshire History and Heritage

black-bess1

Is this the horse that brought Dick Turpin to York? As a noted horse thief and highwayman it is probable that dastardly Dick had many other horses to get him to York and the trip from London to York in 16 hours is part of the legend that has built up around Dick Turpin. It is thought more likely that it was a Yorkshire highwayman John Nevison, “Swift Nick”, born and raised at Wortley village near Sheffield and also a well-known highwayman in the time of Charles II about 50 years before Turpin, who rode from Gad’s Hill Kent 190 miles to York in about 15 hours. However, to accomplish this feat, Nevison had to use more than one horse.

black-bess-turpin

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Harry Ramsden’s Past and Present

By on April 12, 2009 in Food and Drink, Our Yorkshire, Yorkshire Business and Money, Yorkshire History and Heritage

harrys

Caught in Whitby, fried at Guiseley and eaten out of newspaper our Yorkshire fish and chips, mushy peas and all were part of our staple diet. The real Harry Ramsden’s of our youth is no more, no longer a chandeliered temple, no longer a unique experience but a ‘brand a plastic food emporia‘ with no queues and little ambiance. Who cares that there are 170 outlets all over the world from Jedda to Edinburgh or that you can buy tinned mushy peas and a Morphy Richards fish fryer packaged under Harry Ramsden’s name. We just want great value Fish ‘n F’nurks in a gradely plaice ( I mean place).

The food is OK, the chandeliers are still there in Guiseley and it has had a lick o’paint but the happy consumers have so many other chippy choices and the whole Ramsdens experience is diminished. It is best summed up by Sir Findo Gask ‘ I avoid Harry Ramsden’s like the plague. The name remains but all that was outstanding about the original Guiseley chippie has long, long gone.’
So regrettably I have little more to say about the current state of affairs but will offer my view of when things started to go wrong.

Battered History

The business was started by Harry Ramsden in 1928 in a wooden hut at White Cross, Guiseley. The Hut is still there but the amusement arcade in the car park is long gone. In 1931 Harry moved into a ‘fish and chip palace’ modeled after the Ritz, complete with fitted carpets, oak paneled walls and chandeliers. It held the Guinness World Record for the largest fish and chip shop in the world, seating 250 people, serving nearly a million customers a year (10,000 people in one day on its birthday in 1952).
I grew up in Bradford a few miles away from the original Ramsdens in Guiseley and went for an occasional treat with my parents. To them and other locals, going to Ramsdens was an event, a day out, or at least a treat at the end to a day out in the Dales or Ilkley. The coach trips used to call in at all times of day and there was a vast number of coaches in the car park every weekend. I guessed it was a favourite end to a mystery trip from so many mill towns or local clubs. As coach trips and holiday makers moved further afield there were still queues at Harry’s at most time day or night. I think they deliberately made us queue outside under the canopy to act as an advert for passers by.

Corporate Greed Ate my Fish
I remember a time in the 1960′s when the company supplying wet fish, I think it was Ross Foods, wanted to protect its best customer and Harry must have wanted to retire or his family wanted the cash. Anyway they bought in and the independece was lost. Through the 1970′s things seemed to be fine until in 1988, The Harry Ramsden’s Company plc was floated on the London Stock Exchange when all the investors and bankers got a taste for Fish & Chips but made a mush of more than the Peas.
10 years later Granada added the brand to their motorway service stations and ‘Little Chef’ empire, not an upmarket move for Harry Ramsden’s. Along came Compass for a while then more recently it was sold to a company in Sweden who also own Findus- time to get their Fish Finger Out.

harryramsdens

‘One of these buildings is Harry Ramsdens but which?’ submitted by Mike Ripley

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Shipley & Leeds – Liverpool Canal

By on April 7, 2009 in Our Yorkshire, Yorkshire History and Heritage, Yorkshire Trips and Places
Dockfield Basin

Dockfield Basin

There is always something interesting to see alongside a canal and this old mill chimney is as you enter the Shipley section from Leeds. The view is from opposite the towpath at a boat turning circle at Dockfields and there is a wonderful old packhorse bridge (junction bridge 208) on the left sadly in need of a bit of TLC. As this junction should be the start of the reopened link to Bradford, when they get cracking, the new canal side appartments will doubtless rise in value (but not aesthetic appearance).

The Canal of the Roses – History

From the Leeds Liverpool Canal Society records comes this short history. Do not read it if you have a nervous disposition about Lancastrian perfidy.

‘In the middle of the 1700′s, Yorkshire was a well established woollen manufacturing area, while Lancashire’s industries were still in their infancy. Consequently it was in Yorkshire that the canal was first proposed. In the 1760′s the merchants there were keen to improve the supply of lime and limestone from the Craven district. This they used to improve the fertilisation of agricultural land and to provide a mortar which allowed them to increase the size and height of buildings used for weaving. They also hoped to expand the market for their cloth by gaining access, via Liverpool, to the growing colonial markets in Africa and America. The route they chose was up the Aire valley to Gargrave, then through Padiham, Whalley and Leyland to Liverpool. They would thus have a fairly direct route to Liverpool as well as reaching the limestone country around Craven.
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Yarn Spinner Yorkshire Tours

By on April 3, 2009 in Yorkshire Business and Money, Yorkshire History and Heritage, Yorkshire Trips and Places

yarn-spinner

Yarn Spinner Tours developed Ghost Walks and Victorian Tours as a way of sharing knowledge and enthusiasm for getting people involved. They have now grown to offer a wider range of tours all over Yorkshire. Listen to tales of the dark and macabre as our ´ghost´ guides you around the streets of Leeds to some of the most haunted buildings in the land. You will hear tales about ghosts, poisonings, witches and murders!
Alternatively journey back in time to experience life in Victorian Bradford. Walk through the City Centre, with Yarn Spinners costumed guide, and follow in the footsteps of Victorians as they went about their daily lives, gaining a real insight into the conditions they endured. Learn of the illustrious characters that lived in and visited the town, as well as how Bradford became the most important industrial town in the British Empire.

A detailed calendar of events is available at Yarn Spinners Give them a try and let us know how you get on.

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