Elizabeth Shaw

History of Ewbanks

In 1810, the business was founded by Thomas Firth as Firth Confectioners and was Pontefract's second liquorice factory, making Pontefract cakes. The business changed hands first to David Longstaffe, before coming under the partnership of Robert Ewbank and W. F. Horsell. The company moved to the larger Eagle Liquorice Works in 1887, but the partnership broke up in 1892 leaving Ewbanks solely in charge. The company became incorporated in 1912. The factory was damaged by incendiary bombs during World War II, with a replacement being opened in 1948. The business was purchased by Hollands of Southport in January 1961 for £72,600. The Eagle Liquorice Works were closed in 1965 after becoming part of Cavenham Confectionery.

History of S. Parkinson & Sons

Doncaster's famous product was butterscotch, which is reputedly invented by Parkinsons in 1848. The company was founded by Samuel Parkinson, a grocer located on the High Street in Doncaster. The company first moved production to Station Road in 1905. The company advertised the butterscotch as Royal Doncaster Butterscotch or the Queen's Sweetmeat. The company was purchased from the Parkinson family by Samuel Balmforth in 1892, before the business was incorporated in 1912 and moved to new premises in Wheatley. At the time the company produced baking powder in addition to its liquorice products. By 1956 the company employed over 500 people and had expanded their range to Parkinsons Boiled Sweets. In 1961 the company was purchased by Hollands of Southport.

History of Yeatman & Co

Israel Edward Woolf established Yeatman & Co from 119 New Bond Street, Stepney in 1857 selling Yeast powder, later opening a factory in Denmark Street and by 1884 they had diversified into Baking Powders; different flours; Callsayme Bitters; Lime-juice Cordial; Custard Powder; Egg Powders; Curry Powder; Flavouring Essences; Disinfecting Powder and Insect Powder. In 1899, Nursing Record & Hospital World stated that Yeatman's ginger marmalade and coffee extract tasted more of coffee than rivals' products. In 1898 the company was incorporated and had added further products to its range including soups, jams, jellies and sweets. Yeatman's Delicious Jelly Tablets were exported to Australasia, and the company produced the first sweets for Marks & Spencer. Their factories in Stepney were destroyed by fire during the Blitz, and with government assistance, Yeatman's opened a new factory in Watford, where they made a more restricted line of canned and bottled fruit, fruit squashes, sweets (under the Goodies and Selesta brands), and their best-remembered product, Sunny Spread. The business was sold to James Goldsmith's newly acquired business Carsons Ltd in 1964, and subsequently integrated into his Cavenham Foods business, with production being transferred and the factory being sold to Goldsmith's former company, Mothercare.

History of H J Packer & Carsons

The business was founded in 1881 by Edward Packer, in Armoury Square, Bristol. Packer was joined by his sister and brother. In 1884, the family took on, H. J. Burrows, thus becoming H. J. Packer & Co but a year later the partnership was dissolved, and Burrows became the sole owner of the business. However, within a year Burrows had sold the business for £950 to Caleb Bruce Cole.

The business sales increased greatly from 1894; so in 1901, the company moved to a new purposefully designed factory in Greenbank. The move coincided with continued growth and between 1903 and 1912, sales had grown by 250%, helped by Two ounces per penny quality chocolates aimed at children and popular lines like Packers Chocolate Mixers. In 1908 the company expanded by buying Glasgow-based high-end chocolate manufacturer Carsons, as well as the creation of the new brand Bonds of Bristol to sell luxury chocolate products made at Greenbank. Carsons Glasgow factory was closed, and production was moved to a new factory in Shortwood, near Mangotsfield, Gloucestershire. The company by the early 1920s was Britain's 4th largest chocolate manufacturer and employed over 2000 employees, introducing new lines like Milk Crispets. Carsons Chocolate was taken by Sir Ernest Shackleton and his team on their expeditions.

However the company's fortunes declined by the start of World War II, and by 1955 the company relaunched the Packers brand, bringing out new products including Summit chocolate bars and penny sweets like White Mice and Sweet cigarettes. By 1961, Carsons' production was moved to Greenbank. Carsons was the biggest British manufacturer of chocolate liqueurs sold under the Famous Brands name, and in 1962 H J Packer was renamed under Carsons Ltd. However the company was still not profitable and by 1963 it lost £39,000.

The company fell prey of James Goldsmith, and became one of the founding businesses of his conglomerate Cavenham Foods in 1964.

History of Walters Palm Toffee

Walters Palm Toffee was established by Nathan Baraf Walters, a naturalised Romanian immigrant, as a toffee factory in Poplar, London in 1887. The company's main product was so named as such as it used Palm butter in its manufacturing. The company moved to a larger factory in Acton, London during 1926, and was incorporated in 1928. By 1935 the company employed around 800 people, but the factory was destroyed by fire later that year but was rebuilt. In 1957, Nathan Walters died and left the business to four Jewish charities, a will that his four sons contested unsuccessfully. By 1960 the company was losing money, and a friendly takeover by J A & P Holland was secured.

After the factory closed in 2006 successfully argued against the initial developer's plan for redevelopment of into flats and houses. The building, in the eyes of local residents, represented part of the industrial heritage of Bristol. The opposition to this redevelopment was supported by George Ferguson, whose vision had earlier turned a defunct tobacco factory in Bedminster into one of Bristol's leading artistic and creative venues, called the Tobacco Factory. However, as of 2012, the building was still standing empty, following the failure of all the parties involved in the plan to deliver a second, acceptable and workable solution for the future use of the building and site. More information is held on an archived community group website for the chocolate factory. By late 2013 the building had reverted to the Clydesdale Bank and developments were being planned by the Generator Group. In August 2014, Generator South West submitted a plan for open spaces around a development of flats and housing.

As of 2016 there had been many problems surrounding the development of this site, namely that developers Generator South West "have asked to be excused from the legal obligation that between 30 and 40 per cent of any development be social housing, on the basis that the extra costs of restoring old, historic buildings makes the plan economically unviable."

Community action group ACORN were one of the groups campaigning against this back-tracking on the provision of social housing due to the continuing housing crisis in Bristol and severe lack of social or affordable housing being built. Developers Generator Group worked with Bristol City Council to ensure that 36 shared ownership homes were created alongside the private housing. The first homes to be built for occupation in 2021 were shared ownership. Information about the plan for the 1950s factory block that remains undeveloped, can be found by searching the documents on the city council planning archive