Sugar Loaves ....
Those on public view are at the Folk Museum, Cambridge, and the Castle Museum, York.
Please let me know of any others.
There's a glass sugar loaf cover at the excellent Radstock Museum, Somerset.

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Plantations .... " I sold, last year, an 18th century mortgage [document] on several sugar plantations in Antigua. The sum involved was a staggering £10,000 and I hate to think what that would be in today's money." - a Monmouthshire Bookseller, 2001.

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Whitechapel .... Alie St, Leman St, Mansell St, Prescott St - named after 4 sons-in- law or grandsons of Goodman, the owner of the area [Goodman's Field, Goodman's Stile]. - from 'The Reminiscences of Doctor John Sebastian Hemcken'. (2)

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Deed .... 1815 ... between Daniel Austin & John Glennie, sugar refiners of Dock St, and Creditors.

It would appear that Austin & Glennie were in "great debt", and needed to sell property. The deed lists the messuages in Whitechapel and St Georges in the East, and gives names of tenants, however, more importantly for us it also lists their creditors, many familiar names in the sugar trade are included.......
C Dettmar
George Dettmar & Son
Dewes & Henlock
Frieck & Creed
Hincken & Co
H Holtzmeyer
D Martineau & Sons
John Martineau & Co
Major Rohde & Co
W & R Samler
Fred Waymouth
Henry Witte & Partners (3)

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Essex census returns .... The numbers returned as working in sugar refining in Essex, were .....

In 1881, there were 503 persons - 498 men & 5 women.
In 1891, there were 740 persons - 731 men & 9 women.
In 1901, there were 961 persons - 936 men & 25 women.

..... the vast majority in the refineries of Messrs Lyle and Tate. (4)

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Eggs .... From the 19 Feb 1690 Chancery proceedings regarding Whitson Ct Sugar House, Bristol; Webb v Pope & Whiting .....

"... Joan [Webb] had the money and was often consulted about the Sugar House, both in the laying of pipes and the buying of eggs, 'without which the refining of sugar was impossible' ... during the frosty weather of 1686 by sending out into the countryside messengers for them and paying one penny a piece for the eggs." (5)

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Packaging .... 1803 ... Meeting of Bristol Sugar Refiners ... It was declared that a resolution to make a charge on packages did not eminate from an individual house, but was the general voice ... (13 in total).
There was an indignant protest meeting of the Grocers of Wolverhampton, who resolved that they would not purchase from any of the Bristol sugar houses who had signed the resolution. The Birmingham Grocers did the same the following week.
- from Felix Farley's Bristol Journal. 14 Jan 1803. (6)

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Charles Dickens .... In 'On Duty with Inspector Field', Dickens describes accompanying the inspector on a tour of public houses and hostelries to the east of the City, and says ... "...I hardly know how such places could be better regulated. Not that I call the company very select, or the dancing very graceful - even so graceful as that of the German Sugar Bakers, whose assembly, by the Minories, we stopped to visit - but there is watchful maintenance of order in every house, and swift expulsion where need is." (7)

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Costs .... In a listing of mid-eighteenth century London businesses, the start-up costs of £1000-£5000 for a Sugarbaker were 5th out of 36, with only Merchant, Brewer, Mercer, and Soap-boiler costing more. (8)

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Holland .... "In those same thirteen years [1615-28] the WIC [The Dutch West India Company] captured a total of 547 Spanish and Portuguese vessels. Foremost among the booty, ... , were some forty thousand chests of Brazil sugar, valued at eight million guilders." .... "During the 1630s the VOC [The United Dutch East India Company] shipped over one million pounds of Chinese sugar from Taiwan to Europe." .... "The number of sugar refineries in Holland increased during the 1650s by about half. By 1662 some fifty sugar refineries were operative at Amsterdam, about half of the total for the whole of Europe. Another dozen or so were located at Rotterdam, Middelberg, Delft, and Gouda. But in the 1660s the Dutch sugar boom broke. ... the number of sugar refineries at Amsterdam slumped from fifty to thirty four." .... "By 1751 there were around ninety sugar refineries at Amsterdam alone, another thirty at Rotterdam, and more at Middelberg and Dordrecht." (9)

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Silvertown - Henry Tate & Sons .... In 1881 a photograph was taken of [some of ?] the refinery's workforce. Those in the photo are ... D. Blair, J. Stewart, J. Culville, T. May, T. Peacock, R. Lafferty, J. Shaw, G. Stark, W. Bass, W. Grainger, ? Flett, A.Reid, J. McCloy, O. Bringes, W. Scott, H. Nolte, R. McCarthy, T. Christy, J. Aitken, D. Mcall, W. D. Wall, ? McKenzie, H. Preece, ? Morris, W. McKissack, R. Mills, R. Downey, W. McNeill, M. McDonald, R. F. Wall, L. Johnston, A. McIlwraith, J. Allen, ? Nicholls, J. Lochead, A Harrison, D. Clacher, Geo. Tate, J. P. Muir, J. Blake, D. Girdwood, W. Hannah, ? Arnold, R Morgan. - with thanks to Ronald Crawford.

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The Big Freeze .... In the worst winter of the 19thC, when much of London froze and came to a halt - "the East London Water Company congratulated itself, in The Times [28 Jan 1814], for having kept up the supply of water to the sugar refineries, but other industries were presumably less fortunate, ...". (10)

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Insurance .... From 1775-87, the Sun Fire Office, and Royal Exchange Assurance, insured 131 sugar refineries. (11)

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The Rope .... Michael Schopman recalls being told that his grandfather always had a rope under the bed, in case of fire. For many years this meant nothing to him, but now the significance has become clear ... his grandfather was brought up amongst the sugar refineries in Whitechapel, and his great grandfather, a German, worked in one.

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The Cart ... An alternative use for a Tate's box ...

... and yet another ...

The Box .... From a pamphlet describing a small N Buckinghamshire town, early 20C ... "The trotting of horses in those days was a far more pleasing sign than the present motor car or motor cycle with its poisonous fumes. What a common sight it was to see a box of a well known sugar firm, mounted on wheels, pushed along the streets with the necessary shovel to pick up the manure and deposit same on the garden." (12)

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A New Refinery .... Today, 6 Jun 2002, I was offered the opportunity to bid for the privilege of opening a new refinery. The e-mail read ..."To all Sugar Refiners. A prospective sugar refinery project in southern Philippines is available. Estimated project cost is US$300 Million. Please reply for more details. First come first served."
I wonder what the start-up cost of 12 Church St was nearly 200 yrs earlier ?

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Utah's First Sugar Project .... In the 1840s, the leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints decided to produce refined sugar from home-grown sugar beet. The process was researched, equipment purchased from Liverpool and dispatched to St Louis, and then taken by ox train the 1200mls to Salt Lake City. Delays and the loss of the most knowledgeable individuals contributed to the failure of the project, but years later they were to succeed. For more detail see the Vernon case study.

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Privy Seal .... If you request document "Acc 850" at the London Metropolitan Archives, you will be presented with a small, 10"x8", blue cardboard attaché case. On opening, you will be surprised to see, not a document but, a large, heavy, wax tablet, 6" diameter x ¾" thick, engraved with a royal scene. On investigation you will find braided cords leaving the seal to the document safely folded beneath, with the script immediatly above the point of attachment reading "By Writ of the Privy Seal". The document itself is dated 8 April in the 8th Year of the Reign of George IV [1828], and appears to register an invention by Morton William Laurence, Sugar Refiner of Leman Street, London ... but what he invented, it does not say !!

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Night Work - Male Young Persons, 1879 .... The Factory & Workshop Act of 1878 attempted to restrict the use of young labour. In their capacity as "... the only loaf sugar manufacturers in the Country ...", Henry Tate & Sons, James Duncan, and David Martineau & Sons, requested of the Secretary of State special exception from the Act, giving a number of reasons. An Inspector recommended exception in that the lads were to be employed in the process after boiling (where conditions are exceedingly hot) in the new moulding process which has to be continuous. Conditions OK for lads. "Premises of Henry Tate are new, well lighted, well ventilated, and temperate in atmospherical conditions, being entirely separate from Boiling Dept". (13)

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The Smell .... "A gust of wind brings the thick spicy smell of molasses liquor from Tate's. Jenny loves that overpowering Silvertown smell, the sheer weight and history of sugar." (14)

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"A Sugarbaker's Outing" ... Nov 2002 ... The London List has just run a short thread ...
Q. "I remembered a saying of my mother's. She has referred to "a Sugarbaker's Outing", meaning, I think, a rather meagre treat. Has anybody else heard this expression ?"
A. "My Mum used this expression, abbreviated to "sugarbakers" when she went out "window shopping". I always understood it to be a rhyming slang, "sugarbakers roll" = "stroll".
Q. "... but what was a sugarbaker's roll ???"
A. "The sugarbakers refined sugar ; it was generally made into "loaves" about the size of a loaf of bread. For those who could not afford a whole loaf, smaller items were made and naturally referred to as "rolls" !"

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London Today - Old Sugarbaker Names ... We are all well aware of the Tate Gallery on Millbank, and to a lesser extent Lyle Park in Silvertown, but there's also Goodhart Place at Horseferry, Martineau Estate off Cable Street, and I've just noticed Juxon Street in Lambeth. Any more for the list ???

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Letter of Application, c1870s ... A Sugar Refiner applying for a Situation.
Shoreditch, July 19th, 187-.
GENTLEMEN,
Being out of employment at present, and hearing you required a sober, steady, active, and pushing man to superintend your business upstairs, I write to inform you that for years I was head upstairs man at Messrs. -- and Co. You will see by the enclosed copy of a testimonial from them that the duties of filling out the goods up to the stoving, were carried out in such a manner as to convince them I thoroughly understood the business. A reply at your convenience will much oblige,
Yours respectfully,
O.--
Messrs. Sweet and Sharp. (15)

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Partnerships Dissolved ... Two announcements in the London Gazette refering to Bristol firms ...

Bristol, May 28, 1803
Notice is hereby given, that the Partnership between us the undersigned, as Sugar-Refiners, in this City, under the Firm of Gravenor, Mais, and Company, is this Day dissolved by mutual consent. The Debts due to this Partnership are to be received by Messrs. Mais and Thomas, who will pay all demands thereon.
William Gravenor
Chas. Mais
Norman Bond
Josiah Thomas (16)

Bristol, May 15, 1806
Notice is hereby given that the Partnership lately subsisting between us, as Sugar Refiners, in Bristol, under the Firm of Mais and Thomas, was dissolved by mutual Consent on the 25th Day of March last. All debts due to this Concern are to be paid to Mr Mais, who will settle any Demands thereon.
Chas. Mais
Josiah Thomas (17)

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Sugar Bag ... Original calico sugar bag advertising - COLONIAL SUGAR REFINING CO. LTD. - PURE CANE SUGAR - 70lbs - SYDNEY - 1A. ...

( Courtesy of an eBay seller in Australia. )

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English Sugar Duties, 1787 ...

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Glasgow 1725 ... Special provision was made for the sugarhouse workers in Glasgow regarding their town guard fire duties ...

"The magistrates represented that in pursuance of a former Act, daited the 11th December last, they had mett with the proprietors of the sugar houses and had received in from them some proposals, viz. that upon the toun's exeeming their servants from keeping of the toun guard, in respect their labour and work in the sugar houses nessessarilly requires their working in the night time ass well as throw the day, they in liew theirof agree and condescend that the sugar house boyler of each sugar house shall be ready at all times when fire happens in the city, on their being advertised by drum or bell or first alarm therof to attend the magistrates and give their best help and assistance, the toun providing each suggar house with foir slings and stands and buckits, so that on the first occasiounne of fire, shall come to the place with them filled with water and they will observe the orders and directions of the magistrates and others whom they sall apoynt; which being heard by the Council they agree thereto and remit to the Dean of Guild and Decon Conveinar to provide the said slings, stands and buckits."

Extract from the Minutes of The Burgh of Glasgow, 11th December 1725, via; "Proud Record, The Story of the Glasgow Fire Service." Campbell Steven. 1975: Chapter II - Century of Progress, page 17, paragraph 3. (My thanks to Robert H James.)

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The Sugar Association of London, 1928 ... List of Members ...

( From "The Sugar Association of London - Rules & Regulations for Beet & Cane Contracts - 1928" ) [ Established 1882 as the Beetroot Sugar Association ] Go to Map showing London Brokers

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Firemen in a Fix, 1908 ...

"A Motor Car that saved the Situation -
That much-abused class of vehicle, the motor car, accomplished good work at Greenock yesterday.
On their way to an outbreak during the afternoon the Fire Brigade were rounding Campbell Street corner from the main thoroughfare when a hind wheel of the heavy carriage collapsed, throwing a number of the firemen violently to the ground. Fortunately, none of the men were injured.
At this awkward juncture a motor car, in which seated a small party, drove past. The gentleman in charge, recognising the plight of the fire-fighters, promptly invited them to come on board with their hose, and the invitation having been accepted the vehicle was started for the scene of the outbreak at a good speed.
It was, perhaps, due in large measure to the thoughtfulness of the car owner that the fire proved a comparatively trifling one. The scene of the blaze was a large house, situated as 7 Octavia Terrace, and occupied by Mr. Duncan F. Dempster, of Messers. Neil, Dempster & Neil, sugar refiners. Part of the roof was destroyed.
A spark from the kitchen chimney, which had gone on fire, was responsible for the outbreak."

Daily Record and Mail, Monday, 10 August 1908 (My thanks to Robert H James.)

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The Importance of the Sugar Trade to West Indies ...

The opening page of the 1954 handbook of the British West Indies Sugar Association reads ... "The importance of sugar can be illustrated from the trade figures of our territories. For example, in Barbados the sugar industry accounts for 99% of the total exports; in British Guiana 50%; Jamaica 56%; St Kitts 89%. Why such dependence on one industry? The answer is fourfold -
(1) The cultivation of sugar cane maintains soil fertility to a remarkable degree;
(2) The British West Indies are subject to hurricane, and to periodic droughts. Cane resists the ravages of tropical storms far better than any other crop which can be grow in our area; and cane is also drought-resisting, giving crops even in years of severe lack of rain;
(3) The British West Indies as a whole have no fuel or large-scale water power, and the sugar cane bagasse supplies the fuel for operating the factories;
(4) Finally, and of great importance, sugar will maintain more labour - ie. give more employment - per acre than any other crop, except bulb growing in Holland and intensive tomato cultivation.

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Theft & Receiving ...

"1751 April 1. Convicted also [at Kingston, Jamaica, assizes] John Kowff, sugar baker, for feloniously buying, knowing to be stolen 700 lb. of W. India cotton. --- This villain in less than 7 years, by practices of the sort, had raised from nothing above £2,500 and had carried on with impunity 2 sugar-baking houses, without scarcely buying one hogshead of sugar but such as had been stolen."

Gentleman's Magazine. April 1751 issue, page 182. (My thanks to Steve van Dulken)

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Full circle ...

This whole website is about refining sugar ... at last it is slowly being realized that it is best not to !!!

Organic Granulated Cane Sugar
This free-flowing raw cane sugar has been organically farmed to produce a pure unrefined sugar. Made by crushing the cane and crystallising the juice, it still contains the natural goodness of the cane plant with its rich taste and natural aroma.

500g packet - Whitworths Sugars, International House, 1 St Katherine's Way, London E1W 1XB. 2006.

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Refining Monopoly granted - 1619 ...

Patent to Mr Patrik Hamilton, Dominik Bowens merchant in London, and George Fentoun dwelling in the precinct of St Katherine's near London, and to their heirs and assignees, for the space of thirty one years after the date hereof, of the sole right of sugar refining within the kingdom of Scotland, with liberty to import all sorts of "basse sugaris" fit for refining, "as namelie Panceles, Stomas [S. Thomas], Muscavados, and the lyke," and to erect the necessary works, their imported and exported sugars to be free of custom duty for twenty one years to come, but in lieu thereof a yearly payment of £600 to be made by them to the royal exchequer. - Subscribed by the Chancellor, Mar, Wyntoun, Lotheane, Melros, Landirdaill, Privy Seal, Sir R Meluill, Sir G Murray.
[There's as yet no evidence that these 3 refined any sugar, which suggests that it was this monopoly, and maybe others, that delayed the start of refining in Scotland until 1667 - BM]

Extract from the 1619 Register of the Scottish Privy Council. (Volume 12, pages 91-2, in the British Library 1895 version)

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Scurvy - 1767 ...

A sugar-baker in Cheapside, was put into fresh earth up to the chin, in which situation he remained six hours, by way of remedy for an invertebrate scurvy, that had baffled the skill of eminent physicians.

Gentleman's Magazine 10 May 1767 p277 - My thanks to Steve Van Dulken.

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Hessian bags - 19th century ...

... most of the items were shipped in hessian sacks. Raw sugar was packed in 250lbs hessian bags. This was the largest size of bag that two dockers with hooks could work lifting all day. It seems an incredible weight today when the average size of sack is 100lbs [or 50 kilos]. No wonder dockers, especially in the West Indies, were broken men by the age of forty as the human frame wore out under such loads.

Sugar & Spice - Edward Billington & Son Ltd, by John Billington, 1998.

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Pay ...

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Postcard ... Original postcard produced for Burton & Sanders of Manchester, sugar millers. They were suppliers to the confectionery trade and this card appears to have been an early form of mail order ! ...

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Letter ... Original letter written by Wm Macfie of Greenock and sent to his brother John in Edinburgh, 1839 ...

To
John Macfie Esq
Edinburgh

My Dear Brother
Thanks yours of 28th. The 20 bags as
advised over fallen in. The next 30 bags No53 at 58
will go for __ to __ to morrow with some fine crushed
& some treacle, com crushed, perhaps candy.
It was 30/4½. I refused the treacle.
I note the mistake of Hulbert & Co. The Wm Nichol
is daily expected. I think we can use them for
mixing & it is well Robert has wrote as he did.
We are attending to the order for Messrs. Couburgh & Co.
Cooper to Lpool. I was not aware they wanted one. Dan
Brown was here to day. I believe he is looking out.
I am glad to learn from Robert they have tryed one of
the pans. And also that he has allowed M Scroder to
go to Mr Bugglen. It is doing a good turn to an
old friend & we could not have detained him above
a week or two, from what Robert says, they
will require a good boiler.
I am well pleased he did not take the __ __ at 49/-
but have recommended his giving 51/- at 51/6 for the 700 bags
better. I scarce think he should take 21/6 for
the 1300 bags Minilla's, as I fear they can't replace
them - but you will have advised, I would not
hesitate to advance at 4m/d.
The Wm Nichol was to leave London middle of last week.
Then got my suit for Wednesday and John
Graham's secured for the 12 o'clock coach, but
the weather is very bad, we have had a
very heavy fall of snow & likely to continue
besides all about is so slipy. I was not at church
yesterday afternoon on this account. I could
wish you would dispense with my going in
at this time, besides it is really my inconvenience
on account of the absence of Robert.
I enclose the account of goods for __.
I am
Dear Brother
Ever yours
Wm Macfie

Wax seal.

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William Macfie - died 1854 - Robert Macfie & Sons, Greenock.
Younger brother John - died 1852 - Provost of Leith.
Robert - the son of William - Liverpool - married daughter of James Fairrie - died 1899.
____________

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