4th May 2013
Top Picture: Pan Yan Pickle Jar
Bottom Picture: Cremola Foam
I have had several
conversations over the last few months about a building we knew as Flint House
in Lower Drayton. I understand that this was a colloquial name for the derelict
building and that its real name was Marsh House. Unfortunately I have very
little information on the place can anyone help. As far as I know there is only
one picture of the house (below) which is of Anida’s mother and was taken
between the wars.
What Happened to
…….
Several months
ago, in an email, Anida asked whatever happened to Pan Yan Pickle? Well I think
I have the answer.
Back in March
2008 Pan Yan Pickle lovers started to rejoice after a secret recipe for this
once popular brand of the relish that was thought lost forever was found in a
workshop in Essex.
Production of
this once-popular apple-based relish ended nine years ago. Hopes of a revival
were dashed after the pickle maker - Premier Foods - revealed that the original
and only copy of the recipe had been destroyed in a factory fire in 2004.
However Sheila Cracknell was
stunned to come across the rare jar of Pan Yan Pickle - the spread of choice
for thousands of Brits and a favourite addition to the traditional cheese
sandwich or ploughman's lunch. Mrs Cracknell, of Great Maplestead, Essex, said: "My
husband Leonard was a self-employed carpenter and he died recently. I was
clearing out his very large workshop and there were screws and tools everywhere
and then I found this jar. He had used it to store nails. I read the label and
it said Pan Yan Pickle and I knew I had heard about that from somewhere. The
label was in perfect condition and you could read the ingredient list
perfectly."
Premier Foods
launched a public appeal for anybody who had a jar of Pan Yan to come forward
in 2008. The company, which acquired the pickle brand in 2002 as part of the
Branston business, brought production to an end because of falling sales.
As the original
recipe was destroyed in a fire in 2004 the Premier's pickle manager Jamie Crofts,
said that they were not planning to make the pickle again so they never
bothered to transfer the recipe to their technical database. The original
recipet was literally on a piece of paper in a file so when the factory was
destroyed by fire, the recipe went with it. The company had had the odd letter
from people over the years asking for the product to be reinstated. But they
didn't really start to take it seriously until Chris Evans talked about it on
his Radio 2 show and then they were literally deluged with requests from
consumers wanting the brand brought back. In
fact thousands of listeners texted and emailed Chris Evans with their memories
of balmy afternoons and picnics with sandwiches filled with the pickle and even
though the recipe was lost appealed to Premier Foods to bring it back.
It took 150 fire
fighters more than 12 hours to extinguish the blaze at Premier Food's factory
at Bury in October 2004, Much of the building was wrecked - leading to fears of
a Branston Pickle shortage over the Christmas period.
Pan Yan Pickle
was first made by the Scottish firm Maconochies in 1907, in their factory in
east London's Isle of Dogs. It quickly became a household favourite and was
part of an era of food inspired by exotic spices and fruits which were being
shipped through the West India Docks in the East End. Even the name of the
pickle was chosen to reflect its Oriental taste.
Although not confirmed I understand that
the original ingredients included Bramley apples, dates, sultanas, malt
vinegar, soft brown sugar, Madras curry powder, salt and pepper. The manufacturers appealed
to the general public to look and see if anyone had a jar that they could
analyse and within a few days the firm had been
contacted by 13 people. Some had full jars, some had empty ones and some had
jars with a tiny scraping left at the bottom they were asked to send in
whatever they had and they were be sent to the laboratories to find a possible
match.
But there was no
one in the company who has any idea what the pickle looked like or tasted like.
So they asked the public for anyone who had a first-hand experience of Pan Yan
Pickle to contact them so they can be invited to a tasting.
And
unfortunately this is where the trail goes cold, I can find no more traces
of renewed production of Pan Yan Pickle
so maybe the manufacturers decided that to reintroduce the pickle was a non
starter, unless you know any different!
Having
investigated Pan Yan Pickle, whatever happened to Cremola Foam?
Stay in Touch
Peter
You Write:
You have invited us to write of our last day at school.
Although I did not go to your Manor Court, my lovely Carol did. I spent many
many happy hours at the Manor Court Youth Club and attended the Friday night
dances overseen by Bill Hudson..........who incidentally is still alive in his
90's and still a hearty old gent.
Well my last day
at the Southern Grammar School was very very memorable....................I was
expelled!!!!!!!!
I was in the
Upper Sixth Form, a special class for those preparing for the Oxford and
Cambridge Scholarship. An elitist group. I was eighteen years old, had a
regular and close girl friend in Carol Winter and we were about to get engaged.
My best friend John Bishop and I were regular smokers and we were standing at
the bus stop in Tangiers Road, after school, sharing a Cadets, when we were
seen by the head master. Himself a smoker and a hypocrite.
The next day,
for me my last day at school, John Bishop and I were called to the headmaster's
office. We were severely reprimanded for smoking in school uniform and told we
were to be caned. John who was in the Lower Sixth and had still to take his A
levels submitted to the cane.
I refused, I
told the headmaster that at 18 years of age, with four distinctions at A Level
in the last year's exam and a place at Emmanuel College Cambridge, it was
inappropriate.
"Then you
will leave my school"...........................so I did.
I went around to all my school masters and thanked them
each for all the help and guidance I had received over the years. They did not
seem to know what to say, in fact they could not believe it was happening. Only
one of them gave me any encouraging words.........George Spraggs, my Applied
Maths master. "Jonathan I would wish you good luck.........but I don't
think you need it."
My name remained
on the Honours Board in the hallway for my gaining a place at Cambridge, it
remained there until it was removed when the school became a sixth form college
years later.
I don't think this
would happen today.
News and Views:
On 04/05/1960 the number one single was Do you Mind - Anthony Newley
and the number one album was South Pacific Soundtrack. The
top rated TV show was Wagon Train (ITV) and the box office smash was Psycho.
A pound of today's money was worth £13.68 and Burnley were on the way to
becoming the Season's Division 1 champions. he big news story of the week was
that the Soviet Union shoots down American U2 spy plane flown by pilot CG
Powers
On 04/05/1961 the number one single was Wooden Heart - Elvis Presley
and the number one album was GI Blues - Elvis Presley. The top rated TV show
was No Hiding Place (AR) and the box office smash was One Hundred and
One Dalmations. A pound of today's money was worth
£13.25 and Tottenham Hotspur were on the way to becoming the Season's Division
1 champions. The big news story of the day was Castro makes Cuba Socialist.
On 04/05/1962 the number one single was Wonderful Land - The Shadows
and the number one album was Blue Hawaii - Elvis Presley. The top rated TV show
was Coronation Street (Granada)
and the box office smash was Lawrence of Arabia.
A pound of today's money was worth £12.89 and Ipswich Town were on the way to
becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.
On 04/05/1963 the number one single was
How Do You Do It? - Gerry & the Pacemakers and the number one album was
Summer Holiday - Cliff Richard & the Shadows. The top rated TV show was
Conservative Party Political Broadcast (all channels) and the box office smash
was The Great Escape. A pound of today's money was worth £12.64 and Everton
were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions. The big news
story of the week was Churchill retired.
On 04/05/1964 the number one single was
A World Without Love - Peter & Gordon and the number one album was With the
Beatles - The Beatles. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street
(Granada) and the box office smash was Dr Strangelove.
A pound of today's money was worth £12.24 and Liverpool were on the way to becoming
the Season's Division 1 champions.
On 0405/1965 the number one single was Ticket to Ride - The Beatles
and the number one album was Beatles For Sale - The Beatles. The top rated TV
show was Coronation Street (Granada)
and the box office smash was The Sound of Music. A pound of today's money was
worth £11.69 and Manchester United were on the way to becoming the Season's
Division 1 champions.
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