BISCUITS

The British became particularly entwined with biscuits as a result of empire and industrialisation.

Class

It was only in the mid-20^thC that factory-made biscuits started to be eaten by working-class people regularly. In large part, this developed from Lipton's buying a biscuit factory.

Peek Freans

Peek Brothers was a tea merchants business. In 1858 James Peek and his relative by marriage the miller George Hender Frean opened a factory in Bermondsey to make ship's biscuits. In 1860 James Carr, a member of the Carlisle biscuit-making family, became a partner in the firm. The following year the Garibaldi was launched. In 1865 the firm the Pearl, a soft sugary biscuit. Its success made them rivals to Huntley & Palmer, which launched a similar style of biscuit a few months later. Peek Frean advertised their wares lavishly. They created the garibaldi and a range that were named after royalty.

In 1867 Peek Frean moved to a larger factory in Drummond Street. In 1874 the Duke of Edinburgh married Grand Duchess Maria of Russia. The following year Peak Frean launched the Marie biscuit. In 1876 there was a major fire in the factory. The commodities spilled out and were baked by the heat to create a vast biscuit. The local dogs feasted upon it. In 1880 Peak Frean became the first London business to have an electricity supply.

In 1902 Pat-A-Cake shortbread was the first mass-produced biscuit that was not a plain Thin Arrowroot. It proved to be a success. Two years later Arthur Carr (1855-1944) became Peek Frean's chairman and managing director. He increased the company's advertising budget.

The company had a policy of encouraged its employees to eat what they were making. This was in order to check that things were not amiss.

The Bourbon biscuit was launched in 1910. The Custard Cream was launched three years later.

By 1917 4000 people worked in the factory, which covered six acres. In 1921 Peek Frean merged with Huntley & Palmer to create Associated Biscuit Manufacturers.

The Vita-Wheat wheat crispbread was launched in 1927. Two years later were invented by J. Rondalin, a Frenchman who added brewer's yeast to Vita-Wheat dough. They were marketed as a cocktail accompaniment.

In the Peek Frean factory the production lines were arranged on racial and insider lines. Posh biscuits were made by inside white women, broken biscuits by outside white women, and Christmas puddings by Jamaican women.

Also made eight million Christmas puddings each year.

In 1982 Nabisco paid 84m for Associated Biscuits.

The Bermondsey factory was closed in 1989. A ban on industrial activity at night may have been a factor. Production was transferred to Wigston in Leicestershire and Liverpool.

In 1990 Peek Frean stopped advertising. Subsequently, the brand was phased out. It continued in Australia and Canada.

In 2004 BSN of France (formerly Danone) sold its U.K. biscuits business to United Biscuits.

Location: Peek Freen Museum, 100 Drummond Road, Bermondsey, SE16 4DG

Mill Street, Dockhead, SE1 2AY. The 1857 factory.

Peek Frean factory, Keeton's Road, SE16 4DB

Website: http://peekfreansmuseum.co.uk

Topicality

Garibaldi, bourbon, savoy, and nice

The Garibaldi¹ - or squashed fly biscuit - is a slim, oblong-shaped biscuit that contains a high proportion of currents.

There is a story that the liberator created the prototype by mistake during a reception that he was attending. He is said to have accidentally sat upon an Eccles cake.

¹. The soccer team Nottingham Forest adopted red shirts in tribute to Garibaldi.

Ship's Biscuits

Ship s biscuits were made only with flour, salt, and water. They were baked so that were very hard. They had to be soaked in a liquid before they could be eaten. There is a fragment of one in the National Maritime Museum. It was baked in 1784. The food historian Polly Russell has opined that its taste now is probably not very different from how it would have been in its year of manufacture.

By 1832 Sir Thomas Grant (1795-1859) had developed steam-powered machines for making ship's biscuits.

Location: The National Maritime Museum, Romney Road, Greenwich, SE10 9NF

Tax

In 2024 biscuits were zero-rated with regard to V.A.T.. If they were covered with chocolate the tax was charged at 20%. However, both bourbons and chocolate chip cookies were not taxed. This was the chocolate was not a covering.

See Also: CAKES Tax; CONFECTIONERY Chocolate

United Biscuits

In 1948 McVitie & Price merged with MacFarlane Lang to form United Biscuits.

In the mid-1950s United Biscuits was making almost 400 varieties of biscuit. A decade later it was focused on just 30.

United Biscuits acquired William Crawford & Sons in 1962. Three years later it bought William MacDonald & Sons, which had launched the Penguin in 1932.

In 1972 Cavenham Foods bought Allied Suppliers. It sold its biscuits business to United Biscuits. The brands included Carr's of Carlisle.

The Huntley & Palmer's factory in Reading was closed. Much of its production was transferred to Bermondsey.

United Biscuits closed the Macfarlane Lang factory in 1980.

In 1985 McVitie's launched the Hobnob.

In 1990 the Huntley & Palmer brand stopped being used.

Danone of France sold Jacob's to United Biscuits in 2004. Four years the Huntley & Palmer brand was sold.

In 2014 all of United Biscuits sweet biscuits were placed under the McVitie s brand. Its savoury ones were put under the Jacob's brand. Crawford's became a value brand.

In 2020 United Biscuits Harlesden plant was the largest biscuit factory in Europe and the second-largest in the world.

Website: www.unitedbiscuits.com

Macfarlane Lang

In 1903 Macfarlane Lang established the Imperial Biscuit Works, a Thames-side factory in Sands End, Fulham. It grew to cover five acres.

Macfarlane Lang opened a new factory at Osterley on a sixty-acre site. The Fulham facility was closed.

Location: Townmead Road, SW6 2NZ

McVitie & Price

McVitie s was founded in the 1850s as a provisions store in Edinburgh. In 1888 the business became McVitie & Price.

In 1902 McVitie & Price opened a factory in Harlesden.

In 1925 the chocolate digestive was invented. Two years later the Jaffa Cake was launched.

Sir Alexander Grant of McVitie invented the digestive biscuits.

Location: 10 Waxlow Road, NW10 7NY

Meredith & Drew

In 1830 William Meredith (1803-1838) opened a bakery in Shadwell. He developed a business that made biscuits for pubs and hotels. His employee William Drew (1813-1867) left the firm and established a similar business that was on Shadwell High Street. The two businesses merged in 1891. The firm was granted a royal warrant three years later.

In 1940 Meredith & Drew's Shadwell factory was destroyed during the Blitz. By then the company had others elsewhere in the U.K.. Subsequently, the company moved its headquarters to Leicestershire.

In 1948 the creation of United Biscuits led to Meredith & Drew losing its place as the largest biscuit maker in Britain. It developed a large own-label biscuit making business.

United Biscuits bought Meredith & Drew in 1967. In the early 1980s the brand was phased out.

David Backhouse 2024