KINGSWOOD food factory is set to close with the loss of 250 jobs
1st April 2003: Hibernia Foods' factory on Bridge Road, Kingswood, which makes Entenmann's cakes and Mr Brains Faggots, is expected to close this summer -yesterday, its 250 staff were informed about the planned closure, now subject to consultation - One member of staff, who did not want to be named, said the news had come as a blow.
The proposed closure follows a business review across Dublin-based Hibernia's UK companies - The company said that though it had a strong range of branded and own label products, it was clear 'that the manufacturing base needs to be consolidated to ensure the company operates as efficiently as possible to compete in this increasingly -competitive market place'.
Production is expected to continue at current levels until the middle of the year, when manufacture is to be transferred to other group manufacturing facilities.
A period of consultation is now planned and the company has said it will make 'strenuous efforts' to mitigate the effect of the announcement.
Chairman Oliver Murphy said: 'I regret the personal impact that this decision will have on many people and will personally ensure the proposed closure is handled sensitively and professionally' - Hibernia Foods makes cakes, ready meals and frozen desserts.
It has the European licence to make Entenmaun's cakes and is the exclusive UK and Ireland license holder for Sara Lee branded frozen desserts. It employs approximately 2,300 people in the UK.
Mr Brain's Faggots - The Brains behind the Brain's
Mr Brain’s Faggots have been sold in the UK for over 100 years. Herbert Hill Brain, son of a grocer, was born in 1864. In 1890, four years after his marriage, he started his own grocery wholesale business in Temple Street, Bristol.
In 1927, the Upper York Street premises was purchased and it was used for bacon curing, smoking, cooking hams and butter packing. In the mid 1930's a suggestion from an employee led to the first production of Faggots from the premises. Mr Brain lent his name to the new product and it soon became the best known of all the foods emerging from Upper York Street.
Following the Second World War a new company was incorporated, Brain's ( Food Products Ltd ) and when Arthur and Leslie, Herbert's sons resigned their directorships from this company this marked the end of the Brain family interest in the food side of the business. Bryan Drew began working for Brain's in 1961, a year after his marriage to Shirley, Herbert's granddaughter, and he soon realised there was money to be made in buying commercial properties.
The income from these helped to subsidise the bacon and provision business, and the subsidiary company H. H. Brain ( Investments ) Ltd was set up.
No Faggots On Campus!!!- The high hopes of faggot loving Bath students have been cruelly dashed with news that this year's Mr Brain's Faggot Roadshow will not be visiting the campus to celebrate National Faggot Week.
The five day event, running from the 27th to 31st January, will involve faggot fanatics, the Doody family, touring the country offering lucky passers-by no-fuss meaty treats to get down their throats. Those of you who feel that way inclined will have to make the long trip to Birmingham on the 27th in order to obtain full faggot satisfaction.
'Everyone has heard of the Cornish pasty, Yorkshire pudding, haggis - it's high time the faggot got back in the limelight. They were a delicacy long before any of the others.'
FAGGOT FACTS
1: Originally, the word 'faggot' referred to a bundle of sticks for fire, and later especially to those bundles used when heretics were burned at the stake.
2: Its use for male homosexuals originated in the US in the early 20th century.
3: As with the use of 'nigger' within some black communities, the word 'fag' has to some extent been reclaimed by the gay community. Some homosexuals use the word to one another without any derogatory implication.
4: American teens seem to be using fag as a generalized term of derision. This would seem to be related to the similar usage of gay, but the usage of fag seems to be more obviously tied to the sex/gender issues than does gay.
5: Faggots are balls of low quality pork, a kind of 'English haggis', probably intended as a way to make the grossest animal parts seem edible.
They are reasonably tasty, if you keep your eyes closed, but the ingredients show that the pork contains more pork liver than pork and a disturbing flavour at the back of the palate suggests the presence of even more offal. Indeed, the second most abundant ingredient is 'pork rind'.
So do faggots deserve a place in today's British cuisine? They certainly have a long pedigree, going back to the Middle Ages when they were often called savoury ducks. The faggot from the Latin word for bundle was made from pig's liver and offal, minced with fat and onions and then mixed with breadcrumbs soaked in milk, herbs and seasoning.
Characteristically each faggot was wrapped in its own little jacket made from caul fat ( from the pig's innards don't ask ). This is how my mother-in-law used to make them, with the caul supplied by the butcher. Her family reminisce about them still.
Today Mr Brain's frozen packs of faggots have discarded the offal and the lining, and are made from pork liver and pork, with breadcrumbs and seasonings. They certainly make a cheap meal for those who enjoy them..But they are obviously one of those tastes you either love or not.
During WW2 Bristol had lots of Faggot & Pea shops - faggots were and still are a popular food. A popular source of protein in working class Britain during WW2 where because they were made mainly from offal they were excluded from the weekly meat ration.
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