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Scribbans Bakery

  • Thread starter Thread starter Steve C
  • Start date Start date
In the 1950's, My Nan would take me and my sister Marilyn to Jo Lyons corner house, next to the town hall and we ate and loved "Pineapple Creams Tarts", as my Nan called them. Paul
 
I remember Bradfords pineapple creams, used to buy them from Jonsons grocers shop at the bottom of Common lane Sheldon.
 
Scribbans was acquired by Allied Bakeries in November 1957. Extract Birmingham Weekly Post. Viv.
 

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#64, lovely to see the old "Pineapple creams", bought back loads of memories, I had forgotten what they looked like, thanks for posting. Paul
 
Steve C said:
I am researching the Scribbans Bakery and family. It was started sometime prior to 1871 in Lodge Road, Hockley by Thomas Scribbans. He died 1904 and I think his two sons, Thomas and John Henry took over.

They must have expanded the business and certainly Henry made enough dough (scuse the pun!) to move to Little Aston Hall. I believe they did mostly door to door sales from horse and wagon, and probably later a van, rather than have shops? My wifes Grandfather worked for them all his life.

Understand they later opened a much larger bakery in Windmill Lane, Smethwick and it was bought out in the 1970's. I have heard also of a fire at the Windmill Lane premises in about 1978.
Any memories or info appreciated

Steve
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My dad used to work for Scribbans in the 1950s. He took us to visit the factory on one occasion to see the horses - but we didn't go inside. My sister remembers his workmates making a fuss of us and giving us some pocket money. Dad was involved in making the bread. My sister and I went to a Baptist Church in Great Barr, where we lived, and the firm used to make us a big harvest loaf for our harvest festival every year. I assume my dad asked if they could do it. Dad would bring it home on his bike and we had to push it to church in the dolls pram it was so big! It was wonderfully made with plaits and sheaves of corn and beautifully golden brown - it had pride of place at the front of the church and smelt wonderful.

Janet
 
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Back in the early 50s, when I was aged between 8 and 11 I accompanied my father in school holidays to his employers, a bakery company called Scribbans, for whom he was a roundsman. I'm sure that a child would these days not be allowed to do so - more the pity in my view. His delivery vehicle was usually a Morrison electric van and so part of his job was to plug in his vehicle at the end of the day, leaving it overnight to be re-charged.

However, when Dad and I got to his employers' depot there were all manner of vehicles that were used - electric, petrol and also horse-drawn. Therefore, on entering the depot at Hockley the presence of horses was very obvious - by visually seeing their droppings and the general odour that was present. An experience never to be forgotten, and a small link to nature which is lost on most of the current generation.

Dad's round used to cover Kings Heath, and since we lived near there, he would daily have to travel the same distance across town to Hockley to load his van and drive it back to Kings Heath.

I went with Dad one Christmas Eve (1954 I think) when there was a mound of snow on the ground. We left for Hockley at about 5 in the morning and didn't get back until 11 at night! I was 10 years old then. A lot of the time was spent at customers houses consuming hot drinks. And collecting a 'Christmas box'.
 
jlerwill said:
Back in the early 50s, when I was aged between 8 and 11 I accompanied my father in school holidays to his employers, a bakery company called Scribbans, for whom he was a roundsman. I'm sure that a child would these days not be allowed to do so - more the pity in my view. His delivery vehicle was usually a Morrison electric van and so part of his job was to plug in his vehicle at the end of the day, leaving it overnight to be re-charged.

However, when Dad and I got to his employers' depot there were all manner of vehicles that were used - electric, petrol and also horse-drawn. Therefore, on entering the depot at Hockley the presence of horses was very obvious - by visually seeing their droppings and the general odour that was present. An experience never to be forgotten, and a small link to nature which is lost on most of the current generation.

Dad's round used to cover Kings Heath, and since we lived near there, he would daily have to travel the same distance across town to Hockley to load his van and drive it back to Kings Heath.

I went with Dad one Christmas Eve (1954 I think) when there was a mound of snow on the ground. We left for Hockley at about 5 in the morning and didn't get back until 11 at night! I was 10 years old then. A lot of the time was spent at customers houses consuming hot drinks. And collecting a 'Christmas box'.
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what lovely memories....thank you for sharing them with us.. wonderful childhood memories that of course the children of today will never have....as you say mores the pity

lyn
 
Astoness said:
what lovely memories....thank you for sharing them with us.. wonderful childhood memories that of course the children of today will never have....as you say mores the pity

lyn
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Delighted to, Lyn. And thank you and all for maintaining this wonderful website.

I could also add memories of me working a school summer holiday for TASCOS back in 1959 - part of my job was to help taking sour milk in churns out to the pig farms, and tipping it into the troughs. It was a hot summer that year, so there was a lot of sweat involved!
 
always happy to help...i think the below thread is about tascos...maybe you would like to add your memories to the thread....

lyn

Tascos Co-op

I was born in Stirchley in 1953, and the shop that dominated was the Ten Acres & Stirchley Co Operative Society to give it its full title. It was an imposing building at the corners of the Pershore Rd and Umberslade Rd. It also had a Milk dairy just behind it. They had a barbers in the basement...
birminghamhistory.co.uk birminghamhistory.co.uk
 
#69, Those were the days Jlerwill, lovely people, and so generous, our (Scribbans) baker, had a horse, and it was a joy to see, also our milkman, ( Wacaden,) had a horse to, they wore woolen hats in winter and straw oneas in summer, how my heart aches for those lovely far off days, not much money about then but made up for with kindness and laughter. Paul
 
paul stacey said:
#69, Those were the days Jlerwill, lovely people, and so generous, our (Scribbans) baker, had a horse, and it was a joy to see, also our milkman, ( Wacaden,) had a horse to, they wore woolen hats in winter and straw oneas in summer, how my heart aches for those lovely far off days, not much money about then but made up for with kindness and laughter. Paul
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totally agree with you paul...it is a very different world now...so pleased i grew up in my world... :)

lyn
 
Steve C said:
I am researching the Scribbans Bakery and family. It was started sometime prior to 1871 in Lodge Road, Hockley by Thomas Scribbans. He died 1904 and I think his two sons, Thomas and John Henry took over.

They must have expanded the business and certainly Henry made enough dough (scuse the pun!) to move to Little Aston Hall. I believe they did mostly door to door sales from horse and wagon, and probably later a van, rather than have shops? My wifes Grandfather worked for them all his life.

Understand they later opened a much larger bakery in Windmill Lane, Smethwick and it was bought out in the 1970's. I have heard also of a fire at the Windmill Lane premises in about 1978.

Any memories or info appreciated

Steve
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Scribbans also had a shop in Harborne on High Street, almost opposite the Green Man. My mate worked there as a young fella, we have lived in ADELAIDE, S0UTH AUSTRALIA for 55 years.

John Daniels
 
Scanning through this thread I saw reference to a book about Hockley by Ron Smith, nicknamed 'smudge'. I got the impression some facts about Scribbans were included in the book. There is thread, of one post on BHF, mentioning the book. However, whilst there were a a couple of historical discrepancies (regarding buses) as far as I can see, there probably is much to be read about about the area and it history. Like many of us with long memories sometimes they can have minor inaccuracies.
Noting post 24 and it photo, reminds me of a family member who was, so I was told, the first female to operate a delivery van with a horse for Scribbans. This was in the mid 1930's as far as know. It was disputed, by her interviewer, that she could do the job, but of course he had overlooked the fact that she came from a family that had horses.
 
Anyway, here goes. My grandpa from Streetly ran a garage there during WWI and it seems he was called to Mr Scribbans to repair his car. The story goes he was a fruit cake baker, and he met my grandmother there who was their silver service waitress. This would have been approx 1920 - 1923. Could this story be correct .... ?
 
Why shouldn't it be right, Glennys? Or as much as any family legend is? I assume it ties in with the period of the Scribbans's ownership of Little Aston Hall. And they were well off and living in a grand house and so would in all probability have had staff with the sort of responsibility which your grandmother had.

My only knowledge comes from WW2 when Mrs. Scribbans was still there and a widow by then. I've seen mention (?in this thread) of her two Rolls-Royces being serviced by a local garage in the late 1940s, although that wasn't in Streetly itself. There WAS a garage in Streetly village in the 1940s (and no doubt earlier) just by the side of the railway bridge. Was it called Hall's Garage? I'm struggling to remember.

What was your grandfather's name?

Welcome back, by the way!

Chris
 
ChrisM said:
Why shouldn't it be right, Glennys? Or as much as any family legend is? I assume it ties in with the period of the Scribbans's ownership of Little Aston Hall. And they were well off and living in a grand house and so would in all probability have had staff with the sort of responsibility which your grandmother had.

My only knowledge comes from WW2 when Mrs. Scribbans was still there and a widow by then. I've seen mention (?in this thread) of her two Rolls-Royces being serviced by a local garage in the late 1940s, although that wasn't in Streetly itself. There WAS a garage in Streetly village in the 1940s (and no doubt earlier) just by the side of the railway bridge. Was it called Hall's Garage? I'm struggling to remember.

What was your grandfather's name?

Welcome back, by the way!

Chris
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How nice to welcome me back, my best regards to all who remember me.
Grandpa was James Foden and his garage Foden & Walters was in Burnett Rd while his Dad had the Hardwicke Nurseries on Chester Rd. However, James left S.C. when he married his waitress in 1923. Bet he regretted that (leaving S.C. !! )
 
I just did some research on John Henry Scribbans, so he could quite possibly connect to my grandparents, and the story may well be true.
Mr Scribbans in 1911 is an "oil cake manufactorer" and lived in Rosemary Hill Rd, Streetly, while grandpa Foden lived around the corner on Chester Road. They must have been drinking friends methinks at the local pub. In 1921, life is looking good for Scribbans and he goes on to Woodbourne Rd in Edgbaston, and then in 1930 to Little Aston Hall. When he died in 1935, his effects were over £2.5 million. It seems he made his fortune selling his cake to the Army who sent it to the front during the Great war. It would be interesting to know if that's true. Does anyone remember this cake ?
 
Glennys Jean said:
Grandpa was James Foden and his garage Foden & Walters was in Burnett Rd while his Dad had the Hardwicke Nurseries on Chester Rd. However, James left S.C. when he married his waitress in 1923. Bet he regretted that (leaving S.C. !! )
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Unfortunately I didn't start to become aware of my surroundings until about 20 years after James Foden left Streetly.

By that time there was certainly no garage type premises in Burnett Road but I suspect that parts of the road had been redeveloped in the1920s/1930s. There WAS a large garage for commercial vehicles on the corner of Chester Road and Foley Road which was always known to me as "Foden's Garage" – although I am unsure whether that was because it tended to service that make of lorry. The garage by that time was, I believe, owned by the Satterthwaite family. After the war Mrs Scribbans was apparently having her cars serviced at a garage in the Blake Street area.

Nor were Hardwick Nurseries still around, as far as I remember. Do you know exactly where they were located? Streetly had developed extensively between the wars. Nothing like it did from the 1950s onwards, of course, but a fair amount of the open space had nevertheless been gobbled up by then.

(I have posted some information in your parallel genealogy thread about a Foden family who farmed at Mill Green in the 1940s and earlier).

Chris
 
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The 1912 Kellys lists
Scribbans & Co. wholesale cake manufacturers, Corbett st. Smethwick (T A " Scribbans ; " T N 213 Smethwick) 1 & bakers, 60 Lodge road
There is a bit of difference between oilcake,manufacturer and cake manufacturer, but presumably the same (Oilcake manufacturers would normally be people who pressed linseed, or possibly rapeseed or similar seeds, to produce an oil , leaving the cake which would probably be used for cattle feed)
 
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