We were treated today to a joint presentation by, in the main, Tom Dixon, ably supported and introduced by Graham Marsh, entitled “The Sweet Life in a Liquorice Factory”.
Graham has known Tom for many years, and told us details of life in Pontefract, and of Tom’s journey from a factory worker to matron of the retirement home, Northgate Lodge. Tom is a well-regarded TV personality having worked with the likes of Michael Portillo and Adrian Edmonson, as well as contributing to the Countryfile series.
Tom then took over the presentation, telling us how he began life as a manual worker in a liquorice factory at the age of 15, and explaining that Pontefract was the only area in the country suitable for the cultivation of the liquorice plant, which requires 10 feet of sandy soil in which to grow successfully. Before the establishment of the Pontefract factory, all liquorice was imported from Spain, and we were all able to recall that, in our younger days, we all referred to liquorice as “Spanish”.
Unfortunately, an addiction to liquorice can lead to ill-health, in the form of high blood-pressure, and rotten teeth, so beware!
To make a profit from cultivation is difficult, as it takes 7 years from planting to harvesting, so the factory closed in 1970, and raw materials are now imported from Iraq and Iran. The last full-scale producer of the plant was Tom’s uncle Jim, though Tom himself still grows on a small scale. Kew Gardens are not averse to profiting from his efforts, when, realising that climate change and warmer temperatures had revived flowering bushes, they obtained a small amount from him, free of charge, studied it, and then sold the seeds at £7 for a packet of 4 seeds. Tom the Yorkshireman will not forgive them for that!
After the war, Tom could not settle back in the factory and left to begin work at a former workhouse, now a retirement home, and worked his way up to become matron, but that is another story!