Christmas special: Postcard Stockings galore! - Picture Postcard ...

Boxmaking
department at Aintree
ly the first in the sequence
and allowed the firm to
show not only the size of
the works, but also the
model village which stood
beside it, complete with
ornamental lake. The factory
was built of red brick and
was a largely self-contained
unit. It had its own boxmaking
department, where
most of the apprentices
started, turning out as many
as three thousand boxes a
day, garages to maintain
the firm's fleet of lorries,
and Dining Halls, one for
women, who formed the
majority of the workers, the
other for men.
Inside the factory, the
photographer captured different
aspects of the manufacturing
process. The firm
boasted that “fruit gathered
at sunrise is Hartley's Jam
Aerial view of Hartley’s London works
Poster
advert for Hartley’s preserves
the same evening” and vast
numbers of women were
employed to hull and stone,
top and tail, or to work in
the Finishing Room, where
nimble fingers labelled,
wrapped and tied over a
hundred thousand jars a
day. (The Mayor of Liverpool
on a visit to the works
noted that a clergyman
could not tie a knot as fast!)
When it was first
opened, the works had been
a series of long, low buildings
in which production
moved from one phase to
the next in a seamless
process, but in 1891 the first
of three great five storey
warehouses in which the
finished products were
stored had been added. A
second was built in 1899
and the third in 1924, too
late to appear in the aerial
photograph of the works,
but which
Aerial
view of the firm’s Aintree
factory
(below) The main entrance and offices at Aintree
Hartley’s motor
wagons being loaded with Seville
oranges at the docks
nevertheless featured in a
postcard that was later
added to the series.
The popularity of the
cards encouraged the firm
to widen its horizons. In
February 1924, the directors
ordered an additional
five million postcards,
which included the original
24 photographs, as
well as five photographs
taken in Seville (Hartley's
used almost a quarter of
the world's supply of
Seville oranges) and two
others, taken on the docks
at Liverpool. It also produced
three million colour
postcards, which were
reproductions of its marmalade
and preserve
showcards.
The firm's records are
incomplete, but it seems that
in total at least 37 images
were reproduced. The cards
were distributed amongst the
firm's travellers (salesmen)
and to individual grocers to
put on the counter. The cards
were also given out at trade
fairs and exhibitions, such as
the 1924 British Empire Exhibition
at Wembley at which
the firm had two stands.
In 1959, Hartley's was
sold to the Schweppes
Group, together with rivals
Chivers’ and William Moorhouse
of Leeds. A few years
later, production of preserves
ceased at Aintree and moved
to the Chivers' factory at Histon,
near Cambridge. It is not
known when the firm discontinued
the cards, but the
images, which sell for
between £5 and £25, remain
an invaluable record of a
business that is an important
part of Britain's industrial heritage.
Picture Postcard Monthly December 2009 23