Records of Huntley and Palmers, Biscuit Manufacturers

HP

1837-1995

Huntley & Palmers started life in 1822 as a small bakery in Reading. Joseph Huntley, a Quaker schoolmaster from Oxfordshire, established his business on London Road. After 1829, his son Thomas became a partner, and the firm was known as Joseph Huntley & Son. On the retirement of his father in 1838, Thomas Huntley operated alone and under his own name, and then in 1841, went into partnership with fellow Quaker George Palmer, later MP for Reading, as Huntley & Palmer. In 1846, the firm opened a large factory on Kings Road in Reading. Palmer had begun to transform the business, developing the first continuously running machine for making fancy biscuits and setting up a properly organised factory. In 1857, George Palmer and his brothers, William, Isaac and Samuel, bought out the Huntley interest but retained the company name. Other members of the Palmer family became partners, and by the end of the nineteenth century, the firm, now called Huntley & Palmers, was the largest biscuit business in the world, employed more than 5,000 workers, and was among the forty most important industrial companies in Britain. In 1898, after George Palmer’s death, the private company Huntley & Palmers Ltd was established. In 1921, the company combined with the firm of Peek Frean, each becoming subsidiary units of the Associated Biscuit Manufacturers Ltd. The Liverpool firm of W. & R. Jacob & Co. joined the group in 1960. In the late 1960s, re-organisation took place, and from 1969, the three units disappeared as independent trading entities and were replaced by the division known as Associated Biscuits Ltd. Huntley & Palmers’ Reading factory was finally closed down in 1972. In 1982, Nabisco, an American multi-national company, bought out Associated Biscuits Ltd. The company was renamed Jacob’s Bakery Ltd in 1989 and acquired by BSN (Boussois Souchon-Neuvesel), which changed its name to Danone in 1994.

The bulk of the collection concerns the business of the firm, in all its aspects. Financial and general management records include accounts; wages records, register of members and shares; private family accounts. Minute books include those of the Executive Committee of Directors 1922-1948; of the Board of Directors 1898-1951; of the Reading Biscuit Factory Committee of Management 1917-1946. Legal papers include registers of deeds of property; contracts; deeds of association relating to the relationship with Peek Frean and with Associated Biscuit Manufacturers; patents, and trademarks. Business correspondence includes letters of the Palmers and other senior managers, c1850-1983. Promotional material includes catalogues, records of displays and correspondence about Huntley and Palmers’ exhibits at various international fairs; advertising booklets, leaflets and catalogues; sets of advertising cards with various themes; newspaper and other advertisements and press cuttings. There are specimens of different types of packaging and some original artwork for packaging and promotional material. Production records include records of the purchase of raw materials; recipes; productivity figures; records of wedding cakes made 1877-1921; and plant and machinery records. Sales records cover both home and export sales from the 1850s onwards and include price lists; order books; trade comparisons and analyses. Personnel records include details of wages and employees c1890-1944 (not comprehensive); records of staff absence, accidents and factory closures c1900-1936; sick fund details 1849-1855; details of Christmas gifts to staff 1887-1916; papers concerning industrial relations c1911-1981; minutes of the Workers Representation Committee 1916-1926; conditions of work 1918-1944, and rules and regulations 1893-1949. There are records of Huntley and Palmers’ various social clubs. Published material includes newspaper and journal articles c1900-1995 about the firm, the Palmer family, the British biscuit industry and the collector’s interest in biscuit tins. There are photographs c1872-1980, depicting various subjects including groups of employees, members of the Palmer family, VIP visits, exhibits at trade fairs and Huntley and Palmers’ buildings. Album subjects include celebration cakes and international exhibitions 1929-1954; presentations of sports and long service awards 1918-1954, and the visit of the Queen Mother to the factory in 1955. Other items of note include material relating to Huntley and Palmers supplies taken on the British Antarctic expeditions of 1911-1912; visitors books for the factory 1869-1973; papers concerning the royal warrants granted to Huntley and Palmers as suppliers to the courts of Europe; albums of corporate stationery 1883-1911; a ledger recording the journeys of the firm’s continental travellers 1887-1903, and particulars of army biscuits supplied to the War Office, August 1914. There are various personal papers of the Palmer family c1860-1951, including personal correspondence; papers of George Palmer about his work as an MP; obituaries; visiting cards; a family tree tracing the Huntleys and Palmers back to the early seventeenth century; and wills, baptism and marriage certificates. Some of the personal papers show the relationship between the family and the firm, such as notices of congratulation sent on behalf of the employees to various Palmers when they got married. Further material originates from the firms associated with Huntley and Palmers, including: Peek Frean c1880-1960; Jacob’s; Huntley, Boorne and Stevens, Associated Biscuit Manufacturers, Associated Biscuits Ltd. and the Nabisco Group.

Over 4000 items

English

fonds

Huntley and Palmers Limited, Joseph Huntley & Son, Boorne and Stevens Huntley, Peek Frean, Associated Biscuit Manufacturers Ltd, W. & R. Jacob & Co., Associated Biscuits Ltd, Inc. Nabisco Brands, Jacob's Bakery Ltd, Danone, George Palmer, George William Palmer, Thomas Huntley, William Isaac Palmer, Samuel Palmer, Alfred Palmer, Walter Palmer

Reading, Biscuit industry (Great Britain)

During 2022-2023 the collection underwent a re-cataloguing project. The catalogue has been given an organisational structure which will guide users to relevant parts of this large collection. Where possible the original numbering of items has been retained. The catalogue has been arranged as follows: HP A Administrative Records HP B Company Records HP C Financial Records HP D Manufacturing and Production Records HP E Marketing Records HP F Records of Shows and Exhibitions HP G Photographic Records HP H Company Histories, Research and Reference HP J Social Records HP K Family Records Some items were identified as having a different provenance to the main deposit and these items have been re-catalogued with a new collection reference, a note of the previous reference number has been retained on the catalogue description. MS 5848 (previously HP 1014) - CD containing 28 excerpts from interviews recorded during an oral history project and excerpts from promotional films produced by the company. MS 5849 (previously HP 1015) - Notebook containing minutes for the meetings for the Wembley Exhibition Fund, 1924. MS 5850 (previously HP 1016) - Material relating to Clement Bullivant Williams MS 5852 (previously HP 1021) - Material relating to written histories of Huntley, Boorne & Stevens and Huntley & Palmers Further material has been identified as published material and has been transferred to the Special Collections Library: First Name News, the Huntley & Palmers' Works Magazine (previously HP 315) Bakers' Gazette nos. 1-12 1849. (previously part of HP 344) Volume entitled, 'Lambeth method of Cake Decoration and Practical Pastries' by Joseph A Lambeth, First Edition, 1936, published by Virtue and Company Limited, London. Bought by the company, Huntley & Palmers', for the Experimental Dept, 20 April 1936 (previously HP OS 612)