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H.P Sauce Birmingham

Rupert said:
The OXO powder packets are more convenient to use. Bisto now comes in a plastic bag inside the usual card container here. Don't ask about the quantity inside....seems about the same to me...but the powder iteslf seems different. It has a silver sheen to it and seems to make a different texture of gel when mixed with a little water. Less of it seems to make thicker gravy...the usual deep brown though. It does not flavour...the oxo powders take care of that part for the most part. Or you can foresake all of this (a curse on all of their houses):peaceful: and make a jeu with challots and cognac or wine and stock...and butter. Use the vin Thames Embankment that you bought to go with your meal. You don't have to set anything on fire and singe your beard. That part is totally unnecessary. Darn, I feel hungry now and I have to finish last nights take-out Chineese.
We had our small bottle of HP in the trailer and I just went out to it (looking forlorn in the rain on the driveway). Does not say where made just made by Heinz...'head office' Toronto. Well I suppose that we, at least, have a head office....er...and no smell.
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Hello Rupert, I used to work for HP Sauce from 1968- 1985 and although HP Sauce was exported to virtualy every country in the world except Canada and the USA as it was made in Canada under licence by a company called Smiths for Canada and the USA. I cant remember where in Canada the company was situated. Perhaps a bit of homework for you. Regards Clive
 
There was a shortage of materials and labour in the UK in WW2 and manufacturing was started by E.D.Smith in Winona Ontario. That is what I have been able to determine. The old Smith factory was still there the last time I was there a year or two ago...but not sure now. Any way it's Heinz now. Wether made here or imported is unknown. E.D Smith is still here...making jams and stuff now. Heinz make a nice tomato juice but it seems to be in shorter supply here now.
 
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I suppose many members will already know this but I have posted it for those who don't.
 
This might be of historical interest. Like the words coming out of the chimney .... Viv.



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HI GUYS
I have just come out of the worcester royal hospital yesterday afternoon i have been there for two weeks for major surgery ; but never or less thats not i have come on for whilst i was there i got speaking t n old couple whom was visting my neibour
of the ward they lived n aston many years ago just before my time and they have lived in malven evr since but the son started to talk about HP and how is father worked there and that one day the vats exploded and the streets of aston cross was flooding the houses and there cellers of the old houses for months on end it taken to clear the smells from these house and the huge smell hanged over aston residents and that there was and explosive at birds custard factory some put a electric light on at the switch and bley tons and tons of custard powder all over the streets
i told him i recall old aston and the coooorts of aston but never recall the floods of vivgar and the house close bye and any ody recall this ever happening i would love to hear more if any body can recall this please many thanks Astonian;;
 
I do remember some years back they (HP) had a problem with the vinegar pipeline that ran over the Aston Distress Way and there was a leak that took the paint of cars that passed under the pipework

Astonian said:
HI GUYS
I have just come out of the worcester royal hospital yesterday afternoon i have been there for two weeks for major surgery ; but never or less thats not i have come on for whilst i was there i got speaking t n old couple whom was visting my neibour
of the ward they lived n aston many years ago just before my time and they have lived in malven evr since but the son started to talk about HP and how is father worked there and that one day the vats exploded and the streets of aston cross was flooding the houses and there cellers of the old houses for months on end it taken to clear the smells from these house and the huge smell hanged over aston residents and that there was and explosive at birds custard factory some put a electric light on at the switch and bley tons and tons of custard powder all over the streets
i told him i recall old aston and the coooorts of aston but never recall the floods of vivgar and the house close bye and any ody recall this ever happening i would love to hear more if any body can recall this please many thanks Astonian;;
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My mom worked at HP sauce just after WWII; I recall she toldme a story of a sauce vat bursting
 
Good morning guys ;
many thanks for all your replies i found them very intresting and i never knew that story but i will ry and find some news cuttig now on it
once again i thak you all and i hope you all have a great day ; best wishes Astonian;
 
Firstly Alan I wish you good health for the future. Had missed your posts but not realized you had to have major surgery. My uncle Norman worked there most of his working life as a carpenter. He used to bring us the brown sauce which he did not like. The workers had an allowance every month. Jean.
 
Best wishes to you alan.
The vinegar flood was on 28th Dec. 1956. Cuttings, which I assume were originally from the forum, are below. Before the war there was. i gather a molasses flood , presumably from Ansells as it was being stored for preparation of yeast. Imagine 400 tons of molasses rolling towards your house.

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HI MIKE
Many thanks for coming up with the information for me
i did not think anybody would have found out or either had info
for me ; big thank you mike you are a true gentleman and a scholar and
a true gentleman and a mind field of information best wishes Alan
 
astonian, im friends with cliff crutchley who worked at Hp at the time as did his father and grandfather all were blacksmiths, i will ask him about it as i do remember him telling the ladies at the home i worked at a few years ago the story, i will let you know,
 
I am sure Fred Eggison in the photo is the father of my swimming coach Bill Eggison?. They lived in Park Lane.
 
Apparently the tank that burst was above some of the garages that housed lorries, and the lorries were submerged to half way up the bonnet. Don't think that would ahve done them much good.
 
hi folks a few photos i have been given of the beginning of demo of HP SAUCE...

lyn

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mikejee said:
They have been more than a cash and carry for a while, having their own branded products and , apparently, their own rice mill. The HP site, however, is apparently going to be a cash and carry with hotel attached. A shame really as it could have been used for food manufacture for the group
Mike
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Classy hotel, next to a cash and carry in Aston Cross. Ozzy Osborne would probably stay there though.
 
My parents ran the Eagle pub just round the corner from the HP factory so I grew up with the smell of the sauce as I went to school each day. Cannot remember the name of the school though but think it was girls only?? (It was a long time ago...). Memories of mum and dad going to the market on a Saturday and bringing back a bag of broken biscuits and crabs claws (such a treat).
 
hi katrina do you have any photos of the eagle pub...ive not heard of that one ..just trying to think of the school you may have attended..can you recall if it was within walking distance as the only all girls school i can think of was lozells girls school which is where i went which was only about a ten min or less ride on the no 8 bus from the HP...

lyn
 
thanks mike...its possible then that katrina attended upper thomas street school
 
Katrina, my husband's grandparents ran the Eagle in the late 1940's. Grandad was gassed in WW1, he was a stretcher bearer, and he died in the early 50's I think. Nan had to move out as the brewery would permit a woman licencee at that time.
 
The loss of HP Sauce was probably a case that should never have happened, were we in Belgium, France or Holland as there would have been a public protest to prevent it. Though the HP sauce and Daddies and other related products were first developed in Nottingham it was Midland Vinegar that promoted it to the level that it became a regular household purchase. Since the move to manufacture abroad it has not been the same product. No matter how much additives are included to try to replicate HP sauce of Aston, they cannot reproduce the local water and the minerals it contains. The same can be said for Ansell and M& B which are sold now, but brewed away from Birmingham. As to HP it may be said that the only HP should be made in Aston and that the sauce made abroad to save on cost should not be allowed in this country!
 
I love HP Sauce but it was nearly the death of Parker. He was on the tower measuring for a new roof and walked on what he thought was metal - it wasn't - it was plastic and he went straight through. Luckily there was a concrete beam and his legs went one either side of the beam which saved him from a 30' drop. He was badly bruised from knee to goodness-knows-where but survived to tell the tale. I must ask him if he finished measuring the roof....
 
Lady Penelope said:
I love HP Sauce but it was nearly the death of Parker. He was on the tower measuring for a new roof and walked on what he thought was metal - it wasn't - it was plastic and he went straight through. Luckily there was a concrete beam and his legs went one either side of the beam which saved him from a 30' drop. He was badly bruised from knee to goodness-knows-where but survived to tell the tale. I must ask him if he finished measuring the roof....
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Oo0h!! That must have hurt. Poor Parker,
Old Boy
 
mikejee said:
The original question on this thread regarded a molasses flood and does not seem to have been answered. Could the poster possibly have been confusing the vinegar flood with an event elsewhere which happened , also in 1936, described below?
https://www.bbc.com/future/story/20..._rss&ocid=global_bbccom_email_17082016_future
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As mentioned in the Upper Thomas Street thread, my wife started her teaching career at Upper
Thomas Street School and often commented on the different odours. One day she was invited into one of the houses near the School where she was shown by the lady who lived there a definite darker lower section to the walls of the room which the lady said was the result of the flood ,she did not say which one, but no matter how many times you painted over it or wallpapered the walls, after a time the discolouration reappeared. My wife started there in 1958. Apparently T & S Element had the job of skimming and removing the top of the vat every Saturday, any recollections anywhere?

Bob Davis
 
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