J«Journal DECEMBER 1962 House M a g a z i n e o f J . Sainsbury Ltd

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C o n t e n t s The Bradley Brothers Visiting Veterans in East Anglia There's an Ant in My Kitchen J.S. Egg Group Meets New Branch at Bedford A Nosh with the Posh J.S. Buyers Making Sweets at Batgers Lewisham Expanding Prizes at Bristol and Ashford Socials Weddings Staff News

The Bradley Brothers

Ourfocus on suppliers this month is,

appropriately, on the Bradley Brothers who,

since the late forties, have built up a turkey

breeding and raising farm in Hampshire

from which comes a very large slice of

the turkeys sold by J.S.

Below is the village of Middle Wallop. Brewery House Farm is the last house on the left side of the road. The farm itself is on the top of the hill on the left of the picture. Opposite is part of the turkey farm. The fence divides the breed­ing and raising section from the killing and processing section.

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The Wallops, Nether, Middle and Over, lie just inside the western boundary of Hampshire. They are well kept English villages with brick and thatch cottages and winding, tree-overhung lanes and roads. A cool river runs through them, high open fields surround them. Nearby an Army airfield sends up droning Austers, spotters and helicopters through the day.

In Middle Wallop is Brewery House Farm, where Pat and Malcolm Bradley began farming in November 1946. It was a mixed farm then, and they used to get up at three in the morning to milk their 15 cows. They had, at the time, 75 turkeys, which they had bought to fatten for the Christmas trade.

The two brothers had just come out of the ser­vices. Pat Bradley, the younger, had been in the Navy. For some of his service he was on the staff of Admiral Sir Geoffrey Layton in Ceylon, and he had an ambition to become a tea planter there when the war ended. Malcolm had served in the Army. He had been at Cambridge from 1935 to 1937, and had won a rowing blue. War service took him to the Middle East, to Malta, to Sicily, and to the

Normandy beaches, and when he came to Middle Wallop he was still getting about on crutches, though you wouldn't know that now.

Farming was something the Bradleys had to learn from the beginning. Neither of them had any experience nor any family background of an agricultural kind. Their father was a hard worked medical missionary, who built and ran a leper hospital in China. There they were born, as were three other brothers and one sister, who was the only member of the family to follow Doctor Bradley's vacation. Farming seemed to them to be a good kind of life, so they put their money into Brewery House Farm and started work. They were both batchelors at the time.

They happened to know one of the well-known turkey farmers, Mr. Motley, who invented the Motley Veranda method of turkey raising. He sold them their first birds. On the basis of some calcula­tions on the back of an envelope they thought at the time that they simply couldn't fail to make a wonderful lot of money at this side line. As things turned out they broke about even when it came to

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selling their birds in what is one of the really tough stretches of the retail food trade - the Christmas turkey market. They had gained a lot of experience however and weren't discouraged. Raising turkeys still looked a good idea, and they increased their stock the next season.

The turkey trade in those days was one in which a lot of people raised small flocks of turkeys which they bought as chicks or young birds from breeders. The Bradley brothers built their trade up into a matter of 3,000 birds for the Christmas season, but this was quite a big effort. It meant that they had to mobilise the local labour force and get down to killing and plucking furiously and then make their deals with keen traders, who came out into the country looking for keen prices.

The Bradleys decided that the breeders were in a less exposed position than the fatteners, and so they went into turkey breeding. This, they felt, should become the basis of their business though they continued to fatten the surplus birds for the market since they had the equipment and the experience.

Turkey History The turkey is a native of North America and

thrives wild in Mexico and in some parts of the U.S.A. At least it would thrive if local hunters let it be. Its history as a domesticated bird is only about four centuries long, and the early years were mostly

The office wall in Brewery House Farm bears witness to the quality of the Bradley turkeys. A Bradley bird won the award of Best Bird in the Show at the 1962 Dairy Show.

in Spain. The Spaniards brought the birds home from Mexico in the early 16th century.

This comparatively short period of domestication (as compared with the common fowl, which has a history of at least a couple of thousand years of domestic life) probably accounts for its rather low fertility rate, its precarious grip on life and its susceptibility to disease and to parasites. The turkey farmer has to be one of the most vigilant of farmers. He is dealing with a delicate stock which is still being adapted to a hostile climate and on an artificial habit of life. England's damp weather doesn't really suit turkeys, so gradually stock has come to be raised in sheltered conditions. The Motley Veranda was invented to keep young birds off the ground and to combat "blackhead", a parasite which flourishes in moist soil. Then came fattening pens, roofed and walled against wind and rain, where food is brought to the birds. The flocks of turkeys that used to roam the fields are disappear­ing from our landscape.

The essence of breeding animals or birds is to know exactly what kind of product you want to have at the end of a long complicated process. The modern turkey that is sold "oven-ready" is an attempt to produce, en masse, an ideal table bird that has the right kind of meat in the right places.

But this is only one thread in the tangle, since the breeder must balance many factors to produce the attractive product a customer sees in a refrigerated cabinet.

To begin with the modern breeder keeps a record of every egg that is laid by trap-nested birds in his breeding flock. The birds are numbered, their eggs are numbered and times of collection recorded every day. Progeny resulting from the incubation of these eggs is followed through to the point where they are killed and prepared for the market. Some are trial cooked. Some are kept to breed more birds in the same family. Bradleys had about 3,000 birds in their breeding flock when we visited them. They breed in the care of Mr. Lloyd, who is manager of the breeding side of the farm, and who conducts this operation. We got the feeling after some talk that he could do with a computer to help balance the multiplicity of factors and of family lines involved in the production of an ideal turkey. Such a bird besides being broad-breasted, well fleshed in the legs, strong in the feet, a good colour when plucked, and so fitting in with the retailer's need for his market, should produce eggs that are the right shape and strength to make hatching easy for the chicks. It should produce vigorous chicks with a will to live, chicks that will have a high fertility rate. This last is an important point, since turkeys don't lay eggs with anything like the abundance of hens -another reminder of their short term of domestica­tion. The chicks should have a good growth rate,

On the left, Pat Bradley, on the right, Malcolm. These two brothers started in 1946 with 75 turkeys. Their farm, today, has a throughput of some 300,000 birds being fattened, processed and frozen for the market.

The breeding side of the farm has some 3,000 birds at any one time laying eggs, some of which are collected, numbered, and recorded on the way to the incubator. The purpose is to select strains of turkeys which will have suitable qualities for marketing. Below, left, are some eggs from trap-nested breeding birds. On the right are Mr. Pat Bradley and Mr. Lloyd, who is manager of the technical section of Brewery House Farm.

Working in the processing plant {on the left) in steam and moisture calls for waterproof clothes. The birds go through the normal steps of plucking, evisceration and are packed in polythene bags. J.S. representative Mr. W. Jordan calls in frequently at Brewery House Farm to maintain liaison between the firm and Bradley Brothers. Once the birds are boxed and blast-frozen they go into the plant's cold store and then on to other cold stores. Some are sold immediately in J.S. outlets. Many are kept in store awaiting the Christmas turkey demand.

good conversion rate, and what Mr. Lloyd called family consistency; this last factor being the ability to keep passing on all the other qualities down the line of their descendants. It is what anybody in business wants - a reliable standard product.

The Bradleys keep the two sides of their farming -breeding and raising - separate. The processing plant is managed by Mr. Nuttycombe, and the plant is shut off from the rest of the farm by a fence. There are separate canteen arrangements for the staff to prevent the spread of disease from plant to fattening pens or to the breeding and incubation sections. Disease can have a devastating effect on a turkey breeder's work. Earlier this year the whole of the breeding stock at Brewery House Farm was lost as the result of an outbreak of fowl pest, and the present breeding stock has been built up over the past six months. To avoid recurrence of such a break in continuity of breeding, stock is now being held at three distant farms, one at Henley-on-Thames, one at Burley in Hampshire, and one near Basingstoke. Research, progeny-testing and trap-nesting are carried out at Middle Wallop and other

farms are a reserve should disease break out again. The fattening side of Brewery House Farm is

managed by Mr. Young, who has the job of pro­ducing birds for the processing plant. These birds are hatched on the farm incubators, which have a capacity of 27,000 eggs a week, though they are not always working at peak. The eggs take about 28 days to hatch, and once the chicks are out of their eggs they begin a three week spell in the breeding house. They aren't very big to start with - not much larger than the chicks of a fowl - but they soon get growing and at three weeks they go either into a deep litter house or out in the open verandas till they're nine weeks old. From this point they go into the fattening pens. The birds we eat at Christmas have usually been killed at between 20 and 24 weeks of age. The smaller birds, which are round about five pounds weight, are killed at 10 to 12 weeks.

The fattening pens at their largest hold 15,000 turkeys, and are 300 yards long, though the average pen is a good deal smaller. Even so, feeding a horde of turkeys as great as this must be done by mech­anical means. A trailer filled at a central silo visits

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the fattening pens at regular intervals to fill the feed bins. By using a trailer the food can be distri­buted at a rate of four tons an hour to the farm's vast population of turkeys.

The turkeys are fed on pellets, which provide all they need in the way of food, and they get water from automatic drinkers. They live a life of luxury and ease compared to their wild ancestors. Understand­ably they show us humans little gratitude.

A substantial slice of the turkeys sold in J.S. branches this Christmas and, in fact, for many Christmases past has been provided from Bradley Brothers' plant at Wallop. They have always co­operated closely with J.S. in setting new and higher standards of presentation and eating qualities.

Every year immediately after Christmas the two parties sit down to plan operations for the Christmas which is to come. Not until all the birds are in our hands - a matter of hours before the retail Christmas trading commences - does the final settling of price occur; a striking tribute to the confidence which each part has in the other!

Visiting J.S. Veterans I tu^ A report of a week-end trip by Mr. E. J. Harvey

I I of the J.S. Veteran Visiting Panel

East Anglia We had in a report the other day from Mr. E. J. Harvey, who is on the J.S. Veteran Visiting Panel, telling us about his travels in East Anglia when he called on a number of the firm's veterans in the course of a week-end. Mr. Harvey set off on Saturday morning from Chelmsford to visit veterans in Norwich and Sheringham. He was in Norwich before noon after a delightful drive on a bright day. He took his camera along and we're printing some of the pictures he took in the course of his trip. Sorry we can't do them in colour.

He made his first call on Mrs. Rosby of Cypress Road, who he found in very good health. At the next call, too, he found Mrs. Ewen of Edinburgh Road in good health. Mrs. Ewen has been widowed since 1960, her husband dying a short time after he retired. After lunch he called on Mrs. Wilkins (of Gildencroft) in Magdalen Street and found her with her daughter and grandchildren. On to South Hill Road at Thorpe St. Andrews to find Miss Cage setting off shopping to our Haymarket shop.

He then made his way to Front Street, Salhouse, to see Miss S. F. Jesmy but as her sister was very un­well and she herself was resting he was unable to talk to her. He was, however, able to talk with her very helpful neighbours. Then on to Miss E. Dicks at Halt Road, who at a very ripe age enjoys good health and the veterans' outings.

Sheringham is on the coast and Mr. Harvey's call there was on Mrs. Youl (of Hayes) at Alexandra Road, where he had a good cup of tea (not the first one that day he tells us). He stayed that night at Cromer, pressed on next morning to Aldeburgh and then on to see, at Leiston, Suffolk, Mr. W. S. Short, who was once manager at our Leatherhead branch and whom he had first met in 1922, then hadn't seen again till 1959 when he became a veteran. And so back to Chelmsford. A trip of 290 miles and well worth it in the pleasure given by visitor and visited.

Above, Mr. E. J. Harvey with Mrs. Rosby. Opposite page: top, Mrs. Ewen of Edinburgh Road, Norwich. Centre, Mrs. Wilkins and her daughter with her husband and her two grand-daughters. Below, Mr. W. S. Short at the door of his bungalow at Leiston in Suffolk.

SHORT OF WEIGHT! Fellow

FOR a long time past Opposition in all Trades has been carried to the very highest pitch—bnt in none more so than amongst the GROCERS in this Town and Neighbourhood. At some Shops the Articles at first sight, appear Cheaper than those Sold by other Individuals in the same Trade, but on W E I G H I N G Hie Goods purchased at the nrofes-wrfCHKAP SHOPS, I have foundSugar.Butter, Tobacco, soap, Sfc. Sfe, *«?., not more than 16 Ounces to the Pound! This is, in fact, selling for 16 Pounds what weighs only .FIFTEEN! The practice pays the parties well even if they Sell at prime cmt! short Weight being their profit!

Sneh a practice Is an ae tna l Bobbery on the Pablfc J and a very serious injury to upright Tradesmen, who can never unbuilt to saerittee the i r nrlneinles and charac ter la this way, and therefore M M * to ten* recourse to Kosrulsh a n a Dishonest Means of procuring bnstness.

My Advice Is, and Its for your own Good, WEIGH Your Articles!

you wffltjtad it < ( witrih the 'MbrmMel

Ann If any Tradesman be offisnded a t this a t tempt to «»*•» jrww «ye*» t e n him the practice estate to a most shameful ex tent ! and tha t no

upright M a s will be afraid or ashamed of being brought t h a i to the Teat . . Wheneve r yen a r e induced to JPwrehaae a t the

Pretended Cheap Shops, —Sftmi »f Weif/Mf Also remember, when-

_ of mtderselltajj his Neighbour, t ha t he can nor pay hhfway by *tni$i»g mutneS&ig at the wmtte JPrkmT be awmetkina amiss somewhere! and depend upon it, tha t

fair Means, VBMt WIIdEi leave i f aaeb prof i «f<-»m,r* cannot G A I N by fair Mean*, TOEKt Wl ldU ntrled in the tray of I l i l t K K B V . Omm <SAop haa ! t awl Wonder -work ing Men a r e often frrynl kaayes—am

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What old housekeeper, too long cheated by the local tradesmen (rogues and thieves!), went off to the town printer, Mr. Pratt, to have him set down her warning in black and white print ? You can almost see Mr. Pratt reaching out for the blackest of type as the housekeeper beat on the desk with her umbrella. The poster is dated April 23rd, 1828, and maybe at the time this was all the redress available to her. This copy is from the files of the Avery Historical Museum, who lent it to us.

There's an Ant in My Kitchen Do you worry about survival in a crowded world ? J . L. Woods does, and fights against its insect hordes.

Once in a while we have a thing about things in our house. Sometimes it's leaky taps when everybody goes round with a spanner and a pocketful of washers. Every so often it's woodworm, and we turn the place upside down peering for flight holes. Right now it's ants. The fact that it's not really the ant season does not necessarily make any difference to us, we have ants like other people have colds or headaches - any time, all the year round, there is no "close season" for us. This, of course, doesn't stop our having a special sort of "ant festival" every summer. Every year, regular as clockwork, we have our flying-ant day, July 14th, as sure as fate; this is the day of liberation for our garden ants. We are quite certain of the day because it's the day after young Bruce's birthday - on ant day we always remember we've forgotten to do anything about it.

These, as I said, are our garden ants, and they live in our lawn, which round about that season begins to take on a chequer-board effect as the ants gradually work their way to the top to take a quick squiz at our calendar to make sure they've got the

date right before slipping down below again to give the waiting hordes the O.K. to get flying.

There's only really one thing to do on July 14th and that is to pack up sandwiches and be out of the place by 9.30. This is fine, of course, if July 14th happens to come at the week-end. When it falls in the middle of the week it's slightly more tricky. When it happens to coincide with washing day it's positively unbearable.

We've tried most things in the past to encourage them to find somebody else's lawn, bait, powder, liquid, boiling water (this makes the grass look very sad indeed), paraffin oil, turpentine, red lead, and a blow lamp, but in the end we've concluded they consider this all good clean fun (or perhaps they have a remarkable intelligence service) and just keep our fingers crossed that the prevailing wind on July 14th will be away from the house.

One year I recollect the wind blew the whole lot straight into the kitchen - the only thing we could do was to shut the door, switch on the extractor fan and blow them straight out again. It was quite fascinating to stand outside the kitchen window in our decontamination kit and watch the jet. We got

to holding a fly swat over the exhaust which saved us a lot of unnecessary swishing to and fro.

This also reminds me of Fred our spider, which is quite another story really, but he fits in quite nicely here. Fred had come to live with us and had taken up residence in our bathroom. We grew quite attached to him (and he to us on a number of occasions . . . he would rather delight at dropping from the ceiling and swinging at one). His home was actually in the overflow, and we warned the children to make sure he was elsewhere if they allowed the water to come up over the danger mark. I used to lie in the bath and watch Fred do a couple of cir­cuits of the rim, occasionally stopping to have a look to see how I was getting on. We never found out what he liked to eat - he never seemed to fancy any of the titbits we occasionally brought him, except perhaps toffee papers.

The moment of his going was rather unfortunate. He was doing his swinging act from the ceiling just as I was drying myself. Regrettably, I sneezed. This must have made him jump and lose his hold, for I heard a plop and there was Fred whizzing round in ever decreasing circles, the centre of which is the noisy whirlpool our bath makes as it empties. Time was short - I flung my towel around me, dashed downstairs collecting the tea-strainer en route from the kitchen and whizzed into the garden. I should perhaps explain that our bath outlet outlets (with some force) into an open drain at the rear of our house. I thought if I could hold the strainer under

the pipe I might catch Fred in his downward plunge - however, he must have beaten me to it; I 'm afraid it's the last we saw of him. But back to our ants.

Of course our house ants are a different breed altogether; they're the black kind, whereas the garden kind are a sort of granulated sugar colour. Our house ants are not too particular about seasons either, we're just as likely to have them on Christmas day as any other time. They actually started with us the day we had prunes for breakfast. The prunes were left soaking in a saucepan overnight. The word got round and by morning we had the equivalent of what I estimated to be about six to eight infantry divisions marching round the kitchen, in fact all over the kitchen. This was quite a sight, and it did not console my wife one little bit when I explained they were really very clean, hardworking insects with a keen sense of community spirit, and all we need do was to put the prunes outside and go for a walk for an hour or two. It was considered that this was the typical man's way out and would not discourage them at all. I must admit I was all for keeping on the right side of them and ask them to leave in an orderly fashion at their convenience. I felt any hasty action might cause them to turn against us. In the end, however, brushes, brooms, vacuum cleaners, biscuit tins, ants, the cat were all flying about the kitchen in a whirlwind of activity, and the enemy finally dispersed and swept up. This occasion has lived in my memory, and evidently in the ants' memory, too, for since then they've never actually left us, they keep popping up in most unexpected places on the look out for another saucepan of prunes, and the sight of a single ant in the kitchen is now a sign for a major upheaval. Ant powder is sprinkled outside the door, either to keep them out or keep them in; tins are opened, gas cookers are moved, cupboards are turned out.

We don't actually have to see ants now to know they're abou t -we just have a feeling about them. Sometimes my wife wakes up in the middle of the night and knows there's an ant in the kitchen. I 'm all for waiting until the morning in the hope that it will have gone, but if we wait that long my wife reckons our ant will only have gone to fetch his pals so there's nothing for it but to get up and search. This is all very well so long as we find an ant immediately. The ant is despatched and honour satisfied, but sometimes it may take up to three or four hours to find one, by which time we're all feeling rather jaded.

Fortunately, I think at last I've solved this problem. Bunging up the holes in the tiles didn't really work, they thought it was some sort of game. . . . I've covered the floor with black mottled lino . . . we haven't seen an ant for ages.

Egg Producers Confer The Sainsbury Egg Group holds its first conference

To review the past year's trading and production and to hear plans for future development, members of the Sainsbury Egg Group met on October 24th at the Athenaeum in Bury St. Edmunds. This group has been in existence since October 1st, 1961, and has grown from an initial membership of 170 pro­ducers to its present strength of 300.

Producer groups are a new development in this field, which for many years has been strongly individualistic in its habits. They have arisen as one answer to economic problems facing small units in egg production. Limitations of size which present difficulties to the small producer who hopes to grow into a large producer can to some extent be overcome by the group system. At least some of the

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On the opposite page: The first conference of the Sainsbury Egg Group at the Athenaeum, Bury St. Edmunds. On the platform, I. to r., Mr. I. E. Carr, Mr. E. Green, Mr. W. M. Justice and Miss Ann Murray. {Below opposite page) Miss Ann Murray {left), guest speaker at the conference, with Mr. and Mrs. A. G. Cooper of Stradbroke. On this page, right: Mr. I. E. Carr, Liaison Officer for the Sainsbury Egg Group, talking with Mr. and Mrs. T. Every of Great Yarmouth. Below, left: Mr. E. Taylor of ourK.enningha.ll packing station, talking to Mr. D. W. Scott of Bedingsfield. Below, right: Mr. Carter of Wis­bech, Mr. A. E. Catchpole of our Wisbech packing station, and Mr. G. R. Gubbins of Roydon.

economic disadvantages can be set aside if he is a membsr of a group system which will give him the benefit of discounts through bulk buying of feed, chicks, equipment and housing. He can expand more confidently. From the J.S. point of view there is great value in continuous and close association with producers whose output is big enough (and ex­panding) to make worth while gains in the quality of eggs, by using careful quality control.

Producers supply at least ten boxes of eggs a week. This means they have at least 1,000 hens laying. The larger producers in the group have 10,000 to 15,000 hens and are supplying us with up to 150 boxes of eggs every week. Collections are made twice a week by our own vans. From the producers

point of view there is great advantage in regular prompt payments for their eggs, in the annual share out of a considerable sum in benefits arising from bulk buying and in the payment of a quality bonus.

At this first conference Mr. W. M. Justice spoke on behalf of the firm outlining the history of the group. He announced the trading results, and also the formation of a small consultative committee which will maintain closer liaison between group members and the firm's packing stations.

As a guest speaker, Miss Ann Murray, a well-known authority on egg production and formerly lecturer on poultry science at Wye College, London, attended the conference.

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New Branch a t Bedford

On October 16th the firm opened a big new self-service branch at Bedford, replacing the former counter service shop which had been trading since 1923. The new branch is over 9,000 square feet and a very impressive-looking shop both inside and out. It is in Bedford's new shopping precinct, just a little way from the bus station. The town is county town of Bedfordshire on the River Ouse. It is of ancient origin, but is most famous perhaps because it was there that John Bunyan lived, was imprisoned and while in jail wrote "Pilgrim's Progress'' The modern town is famous for its schools and as a centre of engineering, automobile and steel works. Picture below shows: Mr. Alan greeting one of the first customers on opening day.

A general view of the interior of the branch {above) and a view of the shop exterior {below). Mr. H. A. Knell, manager of the new Bedford branch joined J. S. in 1928 at Ilford. He worked at several branches in that area, and in 1937 was first made manager at Kettering. He remained there till 1950 {except for his spell away at the war), when he became manager at Brentford. In 1953 he went to Bedford, and is now managing the new shop after self-service training at Stevenage and Dunstable.

In Bedford's fresh meat department. Below, left, Mr. D. Cope, Head Butcher and, right, four butchers at work. Left to right, Messrs. J. Grimsey, R. Keast, K. Tysoe, R. Fault. Working at the rolling cold, foot of the page, are Miss A. McElroy, Mrs. M. Stevens, Mrs. J. Hopper, Mrs. R. Hutchings, Mrs. E. Taylor, Mrs. M. Waddington.

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Top, in Bedford's office: left to right, Miss C. Wygers (First Check Out), Mrs. A. Carr (First Clerk), Miss B. Auton, Mrs. D. Henderson. Left, the Housekeeping Staff has a spell for tea. Below, the canteen of the new branch.

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Above, the Produce Preparation Room and, belotv, the Produce Department in the shop. J.S. People on the left are, from top to foot of the page, Mr. N. R. Hayes, District Supervisor; Mr. G. Bradburn, Relief Manager; Mr. R. Findlay, Assistant Manager; Mr. R. Bareford, Assistant Manager; Mr. R. Lowe, Assistant Manager. Opposite page: Looking across the massive display of products on the rows of gondolas in the new branch.

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tFpi^™ London's last Lord Mayor, according to the "Today's Arrangements" column of The Times, took part in the course of his year of office, in "86 luncheons, 155 dinners, nine banquets, 38 receptions." The list doesn't include visits to functions at Birming­ham, Belfast, Dublin and Warsaw. It was compiled for a letter published just before the Lord Mayor's Banquet; "pause for a moment" said the writer, "to consider what a gastronomical as well as physical feat of endurance."

Pausing, we made a rough calculation that the Lord Mayor was ceremonially fed about five times a week. To survive repeated exposure to the banquet routine must call for considerable toughness. The first few times it seems a bit of cake. The fourth or fifth week it must begin to put some strain on the appetite and by the end of a year the old sole normande and tournedos bearnaise must be a real burden.

Reasons why the human race goes in for this sort of status promotion by ritual eating aren't simple nor easy to understand. Primitive societies have such a difficult time getting food that they work out magic rituals to ensure it being plentiful. It follows that eating too is a serious matter and surrounded by taboos. These range from the kind in which people will not let themselves be seen taking food or drink (kings have a lot of trouble of this sort and in some

cases expect death if they are seen to eat or drink), to less unsociable customs in which the whole family gets together for feasts but closes all doors and windows to make sure their souls do not wander, it being well known that souls may escape from the mouth during eating and drinking.

Perhaps the habit of social eating comes from the notion that enemies or rivals can do you harm by casting spells if they get hold of the remnants of one of your meals. Obviously they wouldn't eat the same food if they intended to use it this way so if both parties sit down to eat together by doing so they give a mutual guarantee of non-aggression.

In time the banquet grew into a social get-together without these dangerous hazards. Event­ually it became a top-people's pastime. But from its early days it was always an endurance test which at times became a sort of variety show with food in place of the turns. The Romans were the first people to turn their ceremonial meals into a sort of gastro­nomical cinerama. Best account of how the really wealthy Roman put on a banquet is the account by Petronius in The Satyricon. The host is Trimalchio a former slave, now free, rich and working hard to make a big impression. At his banquet nothing is quite what it seems. One of the first dishes to appear is a wooden hen with its wings spread over eggs which the guest Enclopius thinks are addled.

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They turn out to be paste shells containing beauti­fully cooked beccaficos (garden-warblers). Then after the customary display of a perfectly jointed silver skeleton to remind them of the shortness of life the guests were served with a second course. This at first doesn't impress the guests much. It is a big globe-shaped dish surrounded with the signs of the zodiac each covered with appropriate but coarse food. Trimalchio calls his waiters who whip off the top of the dish to disclose a course of chickens, pork, a hare (with fish fins made up to look like a flying horse), fish and rivers of sauce. The guests, says Enclopius, "fell merrily aboard this."

Trimalchio however is only beginning to show off his cooks and after a long rambling speech calls on the next course. A pack of barking beagles rushes into the hall followed by waiters carrying a tray with an enormous wild boar on it surrounded by pastry sucking pigs. A huntsman follows, slashes the boar's flank and out from the cut fly thrushes. In comes a team of fowlers who catch the birds and present one to each guest. The comic turns from

the kitchen go on through the night. The slaves bring in another boar stuffed this time with sausages and blood puddings, a pie full of blackbirds, quinces, stuck with prickles to look like hedgehogs, a dish of "fat Goose with Fishes and all kind of Fowl round it" which was all made from the meat of one hog. The ceiling opens and showers down garlands and cheese cakes, tarts and fruits that spray out perfume when touched and the night ends with Trimalchio drunk and Enclopius and friends gladly escaping into the streets.

The food at this banquet seems messier than most, particularly as it had to be eaten with fingers. The fork is a comparatively modern innovation at the dinner table and guests usually took their own knives along to a banquet. The Romans provided napkins and slaves who brought round water so you could clean up from time to time. This con­tinued to be the case up to the 14th century when the Italians took to the fork at table. It was a little time before it got to England. Thomas Coryate, a traveller who returned from Italy in 1608 where he

A banquet at the French Court in the 14th century. Service is from the central tables outwards. The standing characters behind the guests are their personal servants. The waiters on horseback are a piece of rather fancy service that was popular at some banquets. They serve the royal table. We aren't sure what the Griffin on the right is doing. If they aren't going to eat it, it is probably going to take part in a song and dance routine.

21

J U N E The un l i censed V ic tua l l e rs D i n n e r

George Cruikshank's version of a publicans' dinner. The dishes are made up in the form of their inns' names. The engraving is about 120 years old, but a lot of the brewers' and distillers' names on the wall are still familiar to us.

had picked up the fork-using habit, wrote: "I have gone on using a fork even now that I am back in England. This has occasioned more than one joke." Well-bred banquet guests in the 15th century were instructed in etiquette books. "Take the meat with three fingers and do not fill your mouth with too big pieces. Do not keep your hands for long on the dish." It wasn't, however, thought impolite to wipe your fingers on the tablecloth.

Our records of banquets in more recent times are fuller. There are lists of purchases which have their own sort of ostentation. The city of Paris feted Catherine de Medici in 1549. They bought 30 pea­cocks, 33 pheasants, 21 swans, nine cranes, 33 ducks, 33 ibises, 33 egrets, 33 herons, 30 young goats, 99 young pigeons and more and more birds. The organisers excluded butchers'meat as "too ordinary" but they did serve some rabbits and young piglets. In 1571 entertaining Queen Elizabeth of Austria, they put on a fish banquet which began with 1,000

frogs. They also served 50 lbs. of whale meat at this meal!

In the 17th century court life had settled into a well established routine and banquets were being served with a certain amount of finesse. Rules of service, the order of dishes and the way to set a table were worked out. "The head steward will give orders that the napkins be changed at least after every two courses" writes one authority. What can they have done with them ?

Louis XIV had a household of about 1,500 people living in his Palace and so had to have kitchens, bakeries, food stores on a big scale. He was served all his meals with all the ceremony and elaboration of a banquet. A long procession brought food to him from the kitchen. The Lord Steward of the Royal Household led it. The Comptroller of the Household followed him. Clerks came next with plates and knives, spoons, pepper, salt and spices. The Palace population turned out to watch the

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dishes being carried into the King's apartments. They bowed. The food by this time was cool. When it reached the dining room and had gone through the ceremonial it was cold. The service began. A gentleman-in-waiting tasted each dish. If it was poisoned he died first. A chef de gobelet tasted the wine and the water. A mere life-saving operation for which he didn't have to be a connoisseur. The meal proceeded and, happily, Louis XIV had a healthy appetite.

The banquet is a great challenge of organisation to a cook. Modern cooking methods and techniques

for keeping food hot have made it possible to feed masses of diners - up to 30,000 at one meal. However there is one good older authority on this subject who should have the last word. Of the art of arranging banquets Brillat-Savarin wrote: "See to it that the number of guests does not exceed a dozen. That the choice of dishes should be exquisite but restrained in number and the wines of the first quality. That the speed of eating should be moder­ate, dinner being the last affair of the day and that the guests behave like travellers who aim to arrive at the same destination together."

Genteel English ways were the subject of rather genteel comment by this artist, Richard Doyle, who among other things drew the cover design "Punch" used for over a century. The recorded banquet gives some idea of different methods of service at that time. The joints and the sweets are all on the table together.

f ANNE( --AND- CVSTOMS or ^ f NULYSHE IN ^ 4 9 N a33.

--A W E - D D Y N & E - :BRE:AKFASTE:. •^JD

23

J.S. Buyers Four more of the J.S. people who buy the commodities which the firm sells or uses.

Miss E. D. Boxall has been with J.S. for 33 years. She started behind the counter at Weybridge—"where we had the wines and spirits, and I was allowed to unpack them but not sell them." Next stop was Surbiton, where she became first clerk. During the war she was Manager at Ewell and later at Hook. In 1946 Miss Boxall moved to Stamford House in the Buying Office, and she has been there ever since. She works under Mr. R. S. Harrison, head of our Grocery Buying Department, ordering our supplies of tea, preserves and flour. At home Miss Boxall turns her attention to needlework, knitting and cooking.

Mr. F. H. Bumstead joined the firm early in 1960 and started in proprietary lines working under Mr. R. S. Harrison. He soon concentrated on biscuit buying, being responsible for about 180 lines and after a long spell at this he has now moved over to the canned goods section of our Grocery buying department. Mr. Bumstead says he has always lived with groceries, and his father before him. "I was born with the trade in my nostrils, and I've been with it ever since." He was with a wholesale grocery firm before he joined J.S. He has recently moved into a new house ''on a hill, gradient 1 in 2," and spends spare time excavating and building terraces to prevent an avalanche !

Mr. E. J. W e s t on the left, is seen at work in our Stilton room at Blackfriars. He buys all our "fancy" cheeses under the direction of Mr. Ingham head of our Dairy Produce Department. The number of these cheeses which we sell has grown enormously in the past few years, though not every branch stocks every kind of cheese. Besides "fancy" cheeses, which includes everything that isn't a Cheddar or Cheshire type of cheese, Mr. West buys our milk and our cream. When he isn't buying cheese for us he plays chess or rugby. He is secretary of the S.S.A. chess group, and last season played for the Essex countyXV. He joined the firm in 1958 and started buying cheese in 1960.

Mr. A. O s b o r n e , of J.S. Stores Buying Department, is taking a hard look at a polythene potato bag. He joined the firm early in 1960 to work as a buyer of packaging materials, a section of the retail food trade which has grown greatly in importance with the development of self-service. In fact one might say that smooth running of self-service in the food trade is dependent on the good quality of its packaging materials. Mr. Osborne's future field of work as the firm's out-of-town depots come into action will be to work as quality inspector of all Stores Buying purchases. He will be responsible to Mr. S. R. Brown head of that Department. Married with one daughter Mr. Osborne's hobby is his garden. He specialises in dahlias.

Making Sweets for Sainsbury's A visit to the Clapham factory of Batger and Co., an old family business

The firm of Batger and Co., where we took these pictures of sweet manufacture, is, like our own, a family business. Though there aren't any Batgers now, and haven't been since 1844. They started the business in 1748 with a small cake and confectionery shop in Bishopsgate, on the corner of Houndsditch nearest Liverpool Street Station. The business throve till 1825, when, following the death of John Batger, it began to decline slowly, and in 1844 when Mrs. Batger was very old, it was sold to Samuel Hanson, a well-known Eastcheap trader, and Nathaniel Machin. They rebuilt the shop, expanded the bakery and factory side and did a wonderful business in candied peels, jams, preserved fruits, comfits and boiled sugar goods, jujubes and cakes. One of the cakes made the pages of the Illustrated London News. It was 4 feet 8£ inches high, 8 feet and 6 inches in circumference, and the decorations were designed by an eminent R.A. The Bishops-gate premises closed down when plans were laid to run a railway track through them. The firm opened up a new factory on a much bigger scale in the Rat-cliffe Highway (now Cable Street). The business became wholly owned and run by the Machin family in 1886, a few years after Mr. Hanson's death and in 1920 Mr. Joseph Hetherington, who had joined the company as a boy, was made a director. Today Machins and Hetheringtons - grandsons and great grandsons of the men who built up the business - sit on the board and work as production and marketing directors in the new Batgers, which has been simplified and reshaped to meet the needs of the market of today. Some of the old lines Batgers used to make have been discontinued. Some of them have been developed. No Christmas is complete without Batgers Chinese Figs, and these are still being produced in enormous quantities. They never saw China, of course, till Batgers exported them there! Our pictures show some aspects of modern sweet making and were taken at Batger's Clapham Common factoy.

It all starts with sweetness. The sugar comes in tankers, flows into the factory and is stored in silos from which it is drawn to become boiled sweets, toffee, caramels, dragees or what have you.

26

The first part of the manufacturing process takes place in a boiler room. Whether you're going to make boiled sweets, caramels, jellies or Chinese figs from sugar and fig paste, the raw material goes into boilers in which the temperature is raised to 320 deg.F. What is happening is the reduction of a sugar solution to a super-saturated solution. From the boilers the syrup is poured onto cooling slabs and flavour and colour are folded in. The moulding process begins here. The worker below is folding the cooling mass of boiled sugar in on itself to ensure clarity in the final product.

The problem is now how best to turn the block of boiled sugar into small marketable wrapped pieces. The machine on the left spins the block between tapered rollers until it is a slim rope of sugar. This passes on through a rotating drum which stamps out the shaped sweets. From here they move into an automatic wrapping machine.

The two ridged towers are at the end of the forming and wrapping machines. They are an ingenious space-saving cooling apparatus. The wrapped sweets travel along the spiral shelf around these vibrating cylinders. They leave the shelf cool and hard.

The long cooling slab above is covered with toffee. Unlike boiled sweets, toffee contains added fats. It is treated in the same way however, folded, formed and wrapped, emerging to fall into trays where it cools and is taken off to be packed into bags. On the right, sweets on sale at our new Bedford branch. They are a popular line earning a good share of shelf space on the gondola.

Lewisham

Our one-time largest branch is going to recover its position as largest branch in the firm (and probably largest food shop in Britain) when extensions now in hand are completed. Top picture shows excavation for the basement extension and the new lifts. The heavy timbering is supporting made-up ground with a deep silver sand stratum below it. On the right: Deliveries to the shop get through the building operations somehow.

30

Bristol Experts on the right of picture below are weighing a gruyere cheese. Mr. Harrison, manager, and assistant Mr. Rand keep watch. The operation is to decide the winner of a car in last month's guessing competition. The cheese weighed 759 lb. 2 oz. and nearest guess was by Mr. and Mrs Poole who now have the car.

Ashford Winners of the Netball League Shield for Ashford area is the team from J.S. branch there. Mrs. Tredwell, League President, is presenting the shield to Mrs. Judge, captain of the team. Other J.S. people in the picture are, I. to r., Miss J. Wraight, Mrs. J. Root, Mrs. G. Foley, Miss S. Strover, Mrs. A. Wraight, Mrs. J. Force, Mrs. W. Baker. Congratulations to Ashford.

31

Motor Cycle and Car Club Celebrates Award to Member

At the S.S.A. Motor Cycle and Car Club dance held on November 10th at Dulzvich Clubhouse members and friends saw Mr. C. Weller of Union Street Engineers receive the Road Safety Award Badge

from Mr. E. F. Laker, the club chairman. The award is made every year by Shell-Mex and B.P. in conjunction with the Auto Cycle Union, and is given t& encourage good driving to clubs affiliated to the Union. Congratulations to Mr. Weller.

Factory Folk on the Town Mr. Brownson and some of the Supervisory Staff from the Factory spent the night out at Talk of the Town recently. Top picture, right, shows Mr. and Mrs. R. Howell, Mr. and Mrs. G. Mott, Mr. and Mrs. A. Ladd, Mr. and Mrs. C. Brownson, Mr. and Mrs. S. Darke. In the lower picture: Mr. and Mrs. H. Hill, Mr. and Mrs. C. Fowler, Mr. and Mrs. C. Benham, Mr. and Mrs. W. Monk, Mr. and Mrs. A. Berry.

Congratulations

ToJ.S. People on this page, our sincere congratulations. Top left, ~Aiss Joyce Neale and Mr. Alan Heath, both of Nottingham branch, married at St. Cyprians on August 25th. Lower left, Miss Josephine Conway of High Street, Kensington, and Mr. Peter Batchelour of Teddington branch, married at St. Pius X on September 22nd. Top right, Miss M. Powell and Mr. D. Hinson, both of the Factory at Blackfriars, married at St. Saviours, Heme Hill, on September 1st. Lower right, Miss J. George and Mr. J. Eldergill, both of Catford Corner, married at South Street Baptist Church on August 11th.

Staff News Promotion to Assistant Manager R. N . BAREFORD Bedford J. v. M O R R I S St. Albans K. RICKERBY Oxhey s. SANDFORD 31 Eastbourne

Movements and Promotions

Managers

W . H . R E A D I N G

H . K N E L L

J . G. M O R R I S

F . P . R O W E L L

L . T . BAXTER

G. H O W A R D

J . BUSH

G. B E N T H A M

from Spare at Forest Gate to Cowley from Spare in self-service training to Bedford from 193 Catford to Sydenham from Hayes to Spare i/c 193 Catford from Spare to Hayes from Spare i/c Surbiton to 97 Kingston from 12 Walthamstow to self-service training from Victoria to self-service training

< & •

Mr. A. Wopshott

Promotion to M a n a g e r A. W O P S H O T T from 57 Kingston to

Spare Managers

H . P O U N D E R

S. SAUNDERS

Esher

from 18 Walthamstow to Hackney from Hampstead to Kenton

Assistant Managers J. G E R R I S H from Cheam to

J . E . B U T L E R J . E . H O L L O W A Y C. T Y L E R

J . M O R R I S

R. EADE

A. M E L L O D Y

G. H E W I N S

67 Sutton from training to Cowley from training to Cowley from 14 Hove to 55 Brighton from St. Albans to Berkhamsted from Coulsdon to 9/11 Croydon from Hayes to 1/4 Ealing from Fulham to Chingford

Promotions to Head Butcher s. F E L T H A M 43 Enfield to

Cockfosters w . GANDER Hampstead to Spare G. SAUNDERS Bedford to Spare

Head Butchers (Transfers) C. D O W N E Y

J . EGAN D . STROUD S. HAWES D . COPE

K. C A M P B E L L A. TAYLOR

Cockfosters to Crouch End Crouch End to Oxhey Oxhey to Nottingham Nottingham to Walsall Walsall to Bedford Spare to Hampstead Spare to Cowley

Marriages (Between members ofJ.S. Staff) Congratulations to the following members of the Staff who have recently been married. M iss J. C o n w a y of 189 Kensington High Street and Mr. P. A. B a t c h e l o u r of Feltham, who were married on September 22nd, 1962. M i s s J. J e f r e r i e s and Mr. J. Day both of Collier Row, who were married on October 6th, 1962. Miss S. M i t c h e l l of 87 Ealing and Mr. F. T r a v e r s of Hanwell, who were married on November 24th, 1962.

Our sincere congratulations to the following, who have completed terms of long service with the firm. 40 Years' Service

R. A. A. F .

A.

E.

A.

J . H A R R I S G. BRAY

E. TARRANT J . C O L L I N S

EARL

W . ROFFEY

H . STUART

District Supervisor Porter, Portslade Manager, Wembley Spare Manager, Training Centre Head Butcher, West Wickham Head Butcher, Lewisham Senior Leading Salesman, Surbiton

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25 Years' Service M R S . B . E . E V A N S Daily Ma id ,

40/44 Wal thamstow M R S . B . G O L D I N G 1st Clerk,

Bishop's Stortford M I S S A . A . S H A R P E Resident Housekeeper ,

S tanmore M R S . R . M . T R A N T O N Leading Saleswoman,

21 Wor th ing

Obituaries We regret to record the death of the following colleagues and send our deepest sympathy to their relatives. R. A. K i n c h e n died on September 15th, 1962. He was a porter at our branch at 62 Mount Pleasant Road, Tunbridge Wells. He was engaged at the other shop in Tunbridge Wells in 1925 as a Delivery Man and subse­quently worked there in the warehouse. He was trans­ferred to 62 The Wells in 1949 as poulterer. At the time of his death he was aged 57. M i s s S . W a l k i n g joined the depot staff as an office cleaner in 1928 and retired on October 1st, 1946. She died on October 11th of this year. M r s . M. G a t e s joined the firm in 1956 as a part-time supply woman at 57b Kingston. She died on October 1st of this year.

Mr. R.A. Kinchen Mrs. M. Gates

Retirements We send our best wishes to the following colleagues who have just retired. H. B l o w s started with the firm in 1945 at 259 Cran-brook Road, Ilford, as a porter. He was subsequently transferred to Dagenham, from which branch he retired on October 1st, 1962. M r s . A. E. F a g g e t t e r joined the staff of the Factory in 1948 on a part-time basis. She later trans­ferred to full-time duties in the Sausage Section, retiring from this position on September 28th, 1962. M i s s M . H. G a t e s started with the firm in 1959 as a Resident Housekeeper at 12 Walthamstow, later transferring to Hoxton. In 1945 she was transferred to 12/16 Kingsland, and it was from this branch that she retired.

KELIHER. HUDSON & KEARNS. LTD.. LONDON. S.E.I

A L •

Mr. H. Blows Mrs. A.E. Faggetter

Mrs. B. Goodfellow Mrs. A. Owen Miss. E. Rowe

M r s . B. G o o d f e l l o w joined the firm as a sales­woman at 222 Watford in 1926. She was later promoted to First Clerk of the same branch. She retired on September 29th, 1962. During her 36 years with the firm she has never been absent through sickness. M r s . A . O w e n joined the firm as a Daily House­keeper in 1954 at Elmers End, from which branch she retired on August 25th, 1962. M i s s E. R o w e joined the staff of the Factory in 1941 as a First Hand. She was subsequently regraded to Woman Butcher in 1944 and to Skin Washer in 1947. She was transferred to the Casing Preparation Section in 1956. She retired on September 28th, 1962. W . H. S u t e r was engaged in 1939 as a Porter at Worthing. After his National Service he returned to the firm as a Porter at Northampton, and later trans­ferred to Kettering. In 1946 he returned to his original branch at Worthing, from which branch he retired on September 1st, 1962. M r s . E. W a r d joined the firm in 1950 as a Sales­woman at 12 Walthamstow branch. She retired from this branch on September 8th, 1962. F. C . W r i g h t joined the firm in 1920 as a Porter Poulterer at our Folkestone branch. He subsequently worked at our 24 Brighton, 147 and 10 Eastbourne and Bishop's Stortford branches until in 1952 he went to 31 Eastbourne as a Butcher's Cutter. At the time of his retirement he was Assistant Head Butcher at this branch. M i s s . J . M . W r i g l e y , who joined the firm in 1955 as a 2nd Hand in the factory. She retired from this position on September 7th, 1962.

Bradleys contribution to a White Christmas

• : « • „ *

m\

a&&

94 2 8

1 0 12 1 4 2 0 2 4 2 6 3 0 31 3 2 3 3 3 4

C o n t e n t s The Bradley Brothers Visiting Veterans in East Anglia There's an Ant in My Kitchen J.S. Egg Group Meets New Branch at Bedford A Nosh with the Posh J.S. Buyers Making Sweets at Batgers Lewisham Expanding Prizes at Bristol and Ashford Socials Weddings Staff News

The Bradley Brothers Ourfocuson suppliers this month is, appropriately, on the Bradley Brothers who, since the late forties, have built up a turkey breeding and raising farm in Hampshire from which comes a very large slice of the turkeys sold by J.S.

Below is the village of Middle Wallop. Brewery House Farm is the last house on the left side of the road. The farm itself is on the top of the hill on the left of the picture. Opposite is part of the turkey farm. The fence divides the breed­ing and raising section from the killing and processing section.

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The Wallops, Nether, Middle and Over, lie just inside the western boundary of Hampshire. They are well kept English villages with brick and thatch cottages and winding, tree-overhung lanes and roads. A cool river runs through them, high open fields surround them. Nearby an Army airfield sends up droning Austers, spotters and helicopters through the day.

In Middle Wallop is Brewery House Farm, where Pat and Malcolm Bradley began farming in November 1946. It was a mixed farm then, and they used to get up at three in the morning to milk their 15 cows. They had, at the time, 75 turkeys, which they had bought to fatten for the Christmas trade.

The two brothers had just come out of the ser­vices. Pat Bradley, the younger, had been in the Navy. For some of his service he was on the staff of Admiral Sir Geoffrey Layton in Ceylon, and he had an ambition to become a tea planter there when the war ended. Malcolm had served in the Army. He had been at Cambridge from 1935 to 1937, and had won a rowing blue. War service took him to the Middle East, to Malta, to Sicily, and to the

Normandy beaches, and when he came to Middle Wallop he was still getting about on crutches, though you wouldn't know that now.

Farming was something the Bradleys had to learn from the beginning. Neither of them had any experience nor any family background of an agricultural kind. Their father was a hard worked medical missionary, who built and ran a leper hospital in China. There they were born, as were three other brothers and one sister, who was the only member of the family to follow Doctor Bradley's vacation. Farming seemed to them to be a good kind of life, so they put their money into Brewery House Farm and started work. They were both batchelors at the time.

They happened to know one of the well-known turkey farmers, Mr. Motley, who invented the Motley Veranda method of turkey raising. He sold them their first birds. On the basis of some calcula­tions on the back of an envelope they thought at the time that they simply couldn't fail to make a wonderful lot of money at this side line. As things turned out they broke about even when it came to

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