• Welcome to this forum . We are a worldwide group with a common interest in Birmingham and its history. While here, please follow a few simple rules. We ask that you respect other members, thank those who have helped you and please keep your contributions on-topic with the thread.

    We do hope you enjoy your visit. BHF Admin Team

H P Sauce Factory

A

Astonian

gone but not forgotten
Hi Guys todays the day of our beloved and lost love and a piece of our long life history
of Aston and birmingham is the saddened Anniversary of the big british industry
of Hp sauace aston cross ,co,s today it closed for good on this very date 16 april 1916
there is some photos on the pages of the mail of inside and certain members of staff that worked there its also on the birmingham section of the birmingham news today if you logg in
I am surprized no one on the forum as mentionioned it today
i know when it finaly closed down on that week alot of us put our feelin of saddness
alot of people voved never to buy another bottle of it
i was for one said i would never buy one ,but i have to put my hands up and say i faulted
and still continue with there fruity sauce
as or should i say as any body else bought since the closure of old Aston cross HP SAUCES
Best wishes Astonia
 
I cannot recall for the present the exact closure date, but it was not in the year 1916.

I am one who have chosen not to buy it and with Brexit hope that this product can be made here again. The two sauces best remembered for the Aston factory are HP and Daddies. I gather costs of these sauces have increased in recent times and it cheaper to find others.

The recipe for both were developed in Nottingham and later transferred to Aston. My argument has always been that in addition to the special ingredients, local water with its dissolved minerals cannot be replicated and so HP and Daddies produced elsewhere cannot be the same. This view also applies to Davenports, Ansells and M & B beers. Having moved production elsewhere, it has always been my contention that the name cannot be used and only the place of the original wells can supply water for these brewing processes (sauce making requires the brewing of vinegar from malt).

Another lost sauce was made at Ashted until Birmingham City Corporation decided that it was best to remove this business for the new road widenings there. Instead providing support for a relocation nearby, they let the company move production abroad!
 
I agree that raw materials affect the flavour of things such as sauces and beers, but does that not mean that the sauces you mention should be manufactured in Nottingham ?
 
As a matter of interest, I do not have any HP in the house, but do have an old (not old enough to be made in UK) bottle of HP" spicy woodsmoke "sauce and this has spirit vinegar, rather than malt vinegar on the label, and this alone, never mind the water, would be expected to effect the flavour
 
Astonian, I think you have the wrong closure date, it was bought by Heinz who later sold it to a French company who moved production to Europe, HP closed the Aston works in 2007, just 10 years ago. Eric
 
I know this may seem heretical in a Birmingham forum but my favourite sauce would be that with a Worcestershire connection. Whilst the one manufactured by the River Severn is most well known the version from the Birmingham Vinegar Co. is also still available, this product also became very widespread in Australia I believe.
Heavens knows where either product is now made but I am sure the Worcester site as is the Ashted one is long gone.
 
well cookie
the day i done that thread was the same day the mail had printed it on there tele pages
other wise i was no wiser than that day i only copyied what i had read that morning
and then i thought i may get other members comments but no there was no response from any member
on that day not even a twich
Still not to mind as the old saying goes there aint as queer than folks
 
I loved the smell from HP, first became aware of it when I started work at Hercules Cycles just down Rocky Lane in the 40's' and again in the 50's when I came out of the RAF and picked up my Wife who worked at George Masons on Aston Cross, very sad when it closed down, end of an era, same with Ansells Brewery, Hercules Cycles etc... I could go on but life does not stand still and changes happen whether we like it or not. Eric
 
I may have mentioned this before on another thread, but I once applied for a job in Quality Control at HP Sauce Ltd, Aston Cross. I turned up for the interview and was shown around the place by a strange little man with greased-down hair and a squeaky voice who looked a lot like George Formby. Within about 2 minutes I realised I could never work there, as the stink and the fumes from the vinegar were just too much for me. My favourite sauce back then was OK Sauce, anyway, so probably I wouldn't have fitted in at HP.

Living as I did in Witton, every so often we would be treated to the wind-borne pong from Ansells Brewery - Lord knows what they were doing when they released that stink into the air, but it was awful. My mother, if she had washing on the line, would rush out and get it in. In later life I always preferred M&B beer anyway, as I didn't live downwind of the brewery.....

G
 
Big Gee said:
I may have mentioned this before on another thread, but I once applied for a job in Quality Control at HP Sauce Ltd, Aston Cross. I turned up for the interview and was shown around the place by a strange little man with greased-down hair and a squeaky voice who looked a lot like George Formby. Within about 2 minutes I realised I could never work there, as the stink and the fumes from the vinegar were just too much for me. My favourite sauce back then was OK Sauce, anyway, so probably I wouldn't have fitted in at HP.

Living as I did in Witton, every so often we would be treated to the wind-borne pong from Ansells Brewery - Lord knows what they were doing when they released that stink into the air, but it was awful. My mother, if she had washing on the line, would rush out and get it in. In later life I always preferred M&B beer anyway, as I didn't live downwind of the brewery.....

G
Click to expand...
I’m a newish member and reading your mail reminded me of a little rhym my mum used to say,
Ansells beer,and HP sauce
Kick up a stink at Aston crauce ( cross)
I went for an interview at Ansells ,didn’t get the job though and wasn’t too sad about it either
But thanks for the memory’s
 
You go out on a saturday evening and you will see plenty of bottled women, well girls, coming out of the clubs
 
think i posted that one on the park lane thread viv will check later to see if it had a date...have to out soon

lyn
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top