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Seaweed imported to Warwickshire

Andrew Duff said:
Thanks for the suggestion. The question is whether untreated seaweed was imported into Bournville by Cadbury during the late nineteenth century. It's possible, but only an industrial historian is likely to have the answer.
Click to expand...
Thank you Andrew, while I never worked for Cadburys, I have worked for and very closely with major companies: John Deere, Caterpillar, BMW, Cummins, General Foods etc, they all are very proud of their history as I am sure Cadbury is even with their recent transitions. The companies I have noted ex Cadbury have an in-depth history of their company mostly developed internally with very skilled managers/historian facilitators.
If you visit John Deere HQ, there is a whole building dedicated to their history, they have people continually scouting the world for old Deere equipment.
Just a thought!
 
Interesting article, Alan, but ladies would likely shake off unwanted wildlife such as beetles, and we are possibly talking about a substantial quality here. Richard in post #31 might be onto something, but only Cadbury can answer that one. Did anyone such as Albright & Wilson manufacture iodine, though I can't see a connection between A & W other than the canal system & why would anyone dump seaweed in Knowle?

In my experience company papers filed with record offices tend to be restricted to Minutes of Directors' Meeting, buildings, and possibly patents. Anyone expecting to find such as personnel records, etc., will be sadly disappointed.

Maurice :cool:
 
Some years ago I used to pick up calcified seaweed from a place near Hayle in Cornwall and deliver it to Wrigley's Chewing gum factory in Plymouth.
I asked what it was used for and was told that the seaweed was used to cover the finished chewing gum sticks to prevent them sticking together...
 
sospiri said:
Interesting article, Alan, but ladies would likely shake off unwanted wildlife such as beetles, and we are possibly talking about a substantial quality here. Richard in post #31 might be onto something, but only Cadbury can answer that one. Did anyone such as Albright & Wilson manufacture iodine, though I can't see a connection between A & W other than the canal system & why would anyone dump seaweed in Knowle?

In my experience company papers filed with record offices tend to be restricted to Minutes of Directors' Meeting, buildings, and possibly patents. Anyone expecting to find such as personnel records, etc., will be sadly disappointed.

Maurice :cool:
Click to expand...
That assumes that all ladies did their own collecting. I firmly beieve that some would have their children or servants do the 'dirty' work. They would, most likely be in their finery, days before bathing costumes were in vogue, and would be reluctant to get their apparel dirty or wet. It is hard to acceept how things were in those far off days, especially,since the start of WW2 when it became acceptable for women to wear more work related clothing. As a youngster the only women I ever saw in 'trousers' were those working on the city's factories.
 
Richarddye said:
Thank you Andrew, while I never worked for Cadburys, I have worked for and very closely with major companies: John Deere, Caterpillar, BMW, Cummins, General Foods etc, they all are very proud of their history as I am sure Cadbury is even with their recent transitions. The companies I have noted ex Cadbury have an in-depth history of their company mostly developed internally with very skilled managers/historian facilitators.
If you visit John Deere HQ, there is a whole building dedicated to their history, they have people continually scouting the world for old Deere equipment.
Just a thought!
Click to expand...
:confused:
 
Andrew Duff said:
Thanks for the suggestion. The question is whether untreated seaweed was imported into Bournville by Cadbury during the late nineteenth century. It's possible, but only an industrial historian is likely to have the answer.
Click to expand...
Andrew, I Googled Cadburys and found that do in fact have a museum and history center in Bournville. It would seem to me that would be a good place to start. They might not tell you everything but it might lead you in a better direction. I have done a lot of research in patent history and found that fact based information is much more beneficial than opinion based.
Good luck with your search!
 
Thinking out loud now; current generations talk about recycling, but the Victorians were masters of it. They recycled or found secondary uses of nearly everything. Birmingham’s town halls foundations were apparently laid on a formation layer of crushed oyster shells. Possibly wate from the mother of pearl industry in Birmingham.

It maybe worth looking at old maps etc to see if what industry’s or activities were operating around the area where the beetles were found.
 
On Sat July 18, 1868 the Birmingham Natural History and Microscopic Society meeting announced a half-day excursion to Knowle (no mention Blatch), and amongst other things discussed the fructification of various seaweeds

Cannot find any further details.
 
The original post quoted only a mossy bank in Knowle, but now we know that it was WG Blatch who discovered the beetles, and also the names of the three beetles.

Presumably the long-standing zoogeographical puzzle is how the beetles, or one of the beetles, came to be present at Knowle.
This suggests that the discovery of Blatch may be unconfirmed, and if there is no evidence uncovered as to presence of seaweed then it will remain unconfirmed. On the other hand if it is accepted that it is highly unlikely that seaweed was present then...
 
I'm not sure but doesn't one of the beetle names, 'O. riparium' mean 'of the river bank'
Never did Latin at school. :)
 
The distribution of the riparium can be seen below, and it appears to have confirmed reports around the coast. The unconfirmed in the middle of the UK is Leicestershire, as mentioned in the initial post.

The most common littoral Omalium species in Europe. Lives beneath wrack and carrion at the beach.
EC4BE5E4-C467-4DC8-A705-07B2A9D6A958.jpeg
 
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