My gg grandfather was
born in Kendal Westmorland in 1815 and lived in Kendal Westmorland until the
early 1850s before moving to Preston Lancashire. Having heard about Kendal Mint
cake when Bill Oddy appeared on “Who do you think you are?” I was intrigued to see if William might have
eaten it.
Now judging from an advertisement
in Westmorland gazette Dec 20 1890, John Court professes to have established his
business in 1822 as confectioner, sugar boiler, bread and biscuit maker. This advertisement promotes plain and fancy biscuits in great variety, funeral biscuits and brides’
cakes made to order and of course he is the manufacturer of the Original Kendal
Mint Cake as supplied to General Gordon. (Siege of Khartoum 1885) Others have
suggested that if Gordon hadn’t died at the siege it may have been called “Gordon
Mint cake”
So perhaps William ate
sweets from here but from Wikipedia, supposedly Kendal Mint Cake became
about from a mistake in the making of glacier mints by Joseph Wiper in 1869. (1)
Therefore,
it looks likely that William would not have eaten Mint Cake in Kendal.
In 1847 a branch line
from Kendal to Windermere joined up with the Preston to Carlisle line (2) so
railway transport was available from Kendal to Preston. Was this the way William
& family travelled to live in Preston? Did Kendal Mint cake also travel to
Preston on the train? Wouldn’t it be nice to know if William and family ate Kendal Mint Cake in Preston.
It was certainly getting around by 1898.
From an advertisement in the
Sunderland Daily Echo and Shipping Gazette Jan 15 1898 Joseph Wiper and Sons at
Exhibition Stand No. 118 claimed to be sole
makers of Gold Medal Kendal Everton Toffy, Original Kendal Mint Cake, only makers of K Brand which included K Butter
tablets, K Mint Rock, K Cream Butters, K Honey and butters. They had branch
shops in Sunderland at 306 High St, 11 Crowtree Road, 194 Roker Avenue, in
Kendal at 78 Stricklandgate, in Lancaster in 6 Brock St, in South Shields in 9
Ocean Road and the Steam Works were in Ferney Green, Kendal.
From Wikipedia it is
stated that Daniel Quiggin from the Isle of Man started making Kendal Mint Cake
in 1880 and Romney’s started in 1918. Romney’s
Kendal Mint Cake was requested by Edmund Hillary’s team to take to their successful
conquering of Mt Everest in 1953.
In 1987 Romney’s
bought Wiper’s Mint Cake from Harry Wiper who had inherited ownership when his father
Robert Wiper died in 1960.
Unfortunately, the Wilson
factory that started in 1913 sold out in
2015 to McClures and then closed in Feb
2016. McClures had moved to making other
sweets as their main products but still advertised Mint Cake before they closed.
In 2016 while visiting
the UK, Kendal Mint Cake was being touted as the energy bar to take hiking.
Fast forward to 2019
and just started up on 20 May 2019, Kendal Mint Co. sells for today's energy
market. Their new Kendal Mint Cake not only has sugar, glucose, water and peppermint
oil but includes electrolytes and vitamins – how times change.
So I ate Kendal Mint cake bought in Kendal in 2016. Gg grandfather William you sent me on a mission to see Kendal. I hope you managed to get some of the Mint cake while you lived in Preston.
So I ate Kendal Mint cake bought in Kendal in 2016. Gg grandfather William you sent me on a mission to see Kendal. I hope you managed to get some of the Mint cake while you lived in Preston.
1.
