Alan N. Mead October 2011

SUGAR, BRISTOL and ISAMBARD KINGDOM BRUNEL Alan N. Mead October 2011 SUGAR, BRISTOL and ISAMBARD KINGDOM BRUNEL Paper Presented to the BRITISH SOCIETY of SUGAR TECHNOLOGISTS in BRISTOL on Thursday 13th October 2011 INTRODUCTION The 2011 ATM being held in Bristol, on board the SS Great Britain and in a Sugar House converted into a hotel, it was considered appropriate that there should be a paper relating the two and I was volunteered to prepare and present same. Sugar processing being very ‘heavy engineering’ orientated; I was confident that I could find a link between sugar and Isambard Kingdom Brunel. The HISTORY of SUGAR in GREAT BRITAIN A significant percentage of the population today think only of Liverpool, Greenock and London as being the primary homes of the Sugar Refinery industry in Great Britain. Sugar refining first started in Britain in London the mid 16th century, with two of the early sugar houses, as they were then known, being found in Bristol very early in the 17th century. Sugar houses were variously referred to as sugar refiners, sugar bakers and sugar processors, it now being difficult to identify how many were true refiners as we know today. John Stow, the historian and map-maker of London around 1720, noted that: "About the year 1544 refining of sugar was first used in England. There were but 2 sugar-houses; and the profit was little, by reason there were so many sugarbakers in Antwerp and thence better and cheaper than it could be afforded in London." Liverpool - while there is evidence that a couple of ships brought back one or two cargoes of sugar to Liverpool in 1665, the first sugar refinery was not established until 1667; that being by Allyn Smith. Further refineries were established soon after by Richard Cleveland and Daniel Danvers by 1673; a total of 82 sugar houses are recorded as having been established in Liverpool. Page 2 of 22 The import of sugar to Liverpool increased significantly and rapidly: In 1704 760 tons 1711 1,120 tons 1785 16,600 tons 1810 46,000 tons In Britain, it was ships from Bristol and London which in the mid 17th century were first to take up the slave trade; the ‘triangle of trade’, manufactured goods to Africa; slaves to the West Indies and America; sugar, rum, cotton and mahogany to Britain. Liverpool's first slave ship sailed in 1709, but by 1720 it had outstripped its rivals. This also brought about a dramatic increase in the population, estimated to be 7,000 in 1708, rising to 30,000 by 1766, 80,000 by 1800 and 376,000 by 1851. Sir Henry Tate 1819 – 1899 Became the 1st Baronet Tate of Park Hill (Streatham) in 1898. Died leaving assets of £1,263,565 5s 5d Painting by Hubert Von Herkomer in 1897 It was not until 1809 that John Wright established his refinery, in which Henry Tate became a partner in 1859 and who, in 1869, after the death of John Wright, renamed it Henry Tate & Sons. Other prominent ‘sugar’ names of that era in Liverpool include Fairrie, MacFie and Sankey; Fairrie and MacFie also being very prominent names in Greenock. Henry Tate established Liverpool’s Love Lane Refinery in 1873 followed by London’s Thames Refinery in 1878; soon becoming very successful, thanks largely to his patenting of a means of cutting sugar into dice-sized cubes. Sir Henry Tate died in 1899, leaving assets of The Love Lane Refinery shut down in 1981 and Thames Refinery now being part of the American Sugar Refineries group. Page 3 of 22 ‘Ancient and Modern’ Views of Liverpool’s Love Lane Refinery Greenock - at that time called Port of Glasgow, saw its first sugar refinery built by Mark Kuhll in 1765 at the bottom of Sugarhouse Lane, adjoining the West Burn (West stream to the Sassenachs); in total, 119 sugar houses are recorded for Greenock. Abram Lyle 1820–1891 Died leaving assets of £ £42,540 0s 0d Artist and date unknown WESTBURN REFINERY 1930s CLOTH SACK Page 4 of 22 It was in 1831 that Thomas Young erected the first of the Glebe sugar refineries, later to be bought by a consortium of five people, including Abram Lyle. Another refinery, later to be known as Westburn was built close by in 1852 and operated until 1997. After the death of the principal partner, John Kerr, in 1872, Abram Lyle sold his shares and looked for a site for a new refinery. This picture of the Greenock Refineries - viewed from the South and looking out across the Clyde and possibly viewed through rose tinted glasses - was published 1891, but is believed to be much older. It is said that the weather can be forecasted from this spot; if you can see across the Clyde from here, then it will rain shortly; if you can’t, then it is already persistently raining (or words to that effect). In 1883 Abram Lyle & Sons started melting sugar at Plaistow Wharf Refinery; having brought 400 families from Greenock to provide the skilled workforce necessary. However, it made a loss of £30,000 in its first year, and on several occasions the workforce were asked to delay drawing their wages. It soon became successful, dominating the market with its flagship brand of Golden Syrup. London – The first recorded sugar houses in London were sited in Mincing Lane; five starting in 1554 but all ceasing operating within their first year; only a further seven commenced operating before 1700. In total, over 1500 have operated in London since then; the majority starting in the first half of the eighteenth century but many of them also not surviving a single year. Charles Smith and Robert Tyers operated a liquid sugar refinery at 203 Thames Street from at least 1838-53. Page 5 of 22 THAMES STREET, LONDON Picture drawn by Thomas H Shepherd and engraved by J E Roberts circa 1830 Each of the six buildings shown in this picture, apart from the church, St Mary Somerset, was at some time between 1780 and 1853 a sugar refinery. The one on the extreme left, numbered 207, with the crane was owned by Richard Quelch in 1768, Laborde & Son in 1780, and Frieake & Co in 1794 through to 1813. The building on the extreme right, numbered 203 was a liquid sugar refinery owned by Charles Smith and Robert Tyers from at least 1838-53. Page 6 of 22 Height: 20" / 51 cm Diameter: 13" / 33 cm Weight: 28 lbs / 12.5 kg Capacity: 6¾ gallon / 30 litres Made by Fulham Stone Pottery Date, ~ 1838 The stoneware flagon contained ‘Capillaire’; a water-clear syrup originally flavoured with dried maidenhair fern though later with orange-flower water, much used by confectioners and also as a cordial. When full, it would have weighed at least 50 kg. The concept of liquid sugar is not therefore new; even though the marketing may have changed a little. Britain – in addition to Bristol, Greenock, Liverpool and London, their have been sugar houses in Aberdeen, Chester, Cork, Dundee, Earlestown, Edinburgh, Leith, Exeter, Gloucester, Goole, Hull, Ipswich, Lancaster, Manchester, Newcastle-under- Lyme, Newcastle upon Tyne, Plymouth, Preston, Sheffield, Southampton, Stockton on Tees, Warrington, Whitehaven and York. The Beet Industry - Franz Karl Achard began selectively breeding sugar beet in 1784 and under the patronage of Frederick William III of Prussia, he opened the world's first beet sugar factory in 1801, in Silesia; at various times in history being part of Germany, Poland, Czech Republic and Slovakia. In 1807 the British began a blockade of France, preventing the import of cane sugar from the Caribbean and, partly in response; in 1812 Frenchman Benjamin Delessert devised a process of sugar extraction suitable for commercial industrial application. By the end of the Napoleonic Wars, over 300 sugar beet mills operated in France and central Europe. Sugar beet was not grown on a large scale in the United Kingdom until the mid- 1920s when, following war-time shortages of imported cane sugar, 17 processing factories were built; one factory had, however, been built by the Dutch at Cantley in Norfolk in 1912. There are now only 4 beet factories remaining in Britain; Cantley, Wissington, Bury and Newark all operated by British Sugar. SUGAR in BRISTOL Bristol’s first sugar house was set up in 1612 by Robert Aldworth who was the richest of the Bristol merchants of that period. The tomb, in St Peter’s Church, of Robert Aldworth who died in 1634, and his Wife Martha. Painted by Edward Cashin in 1825. Five sugar loaves can be seen, carved . at the bottom right hand corner Page 7 of 22 He was a Bristol born English merchant and philanthropist who became the Mayor of Bristol in 1609; much of his wealth, although often used for generous purposes, was acquired through the trade and exploitation of slaves. His tomb in St Peter’s Church (now derelict) had sugar loaves carved on the base. The raw sugar that he imported into Bristol came from the islands of Madeira and the Azores; sugar was not imported into Bristol from the Caribbean slave plantations until 1653. The second sugar house in Bristol was established in 1653 at the Great House on St Augustine’s Back (on the site of the present Colston Hall); the main investors were John Knight, his cousin Sir John Knight and Shershaw Cary. There are records of there having been 164 sugar houses in the city by the end of the 19th century. Sugar became a very important part of the city’s 18th century wealth and there were many merchants involved in importing sugar from the Caribbean.

Load more