FORGET the summer of love, this is the summer of biscuits, as The Ding prepares to celebrate one of its most famous exports.
A town-wide celebration of Huntley & Palmers will be held with a series of special events, all in honour of the firm that started life 200 years ago from a small bakery in London Street.
And in the 40 years on from 1822, the company created store cupboard staples including the Nice biscuit, the gingernut and the Bath Oliver, going on to become a global force in biscuit making, until it merged with Peak Freans in the 1970s.
To mark the big anniversary, Reading will once again become The Biscuit Town, with an exhibition, guided tours, biscuit events, a unique museum collection and afternoon teas… with biscuits.
The Museum of English Rural Life (The MERL), which houses a large collection of Huntley & Palmer’s emphermia, will explore the company’s impact on the growth of Reading, and tell the stories of people who worked in King’s Road factory.
There is also a collection of the many decorative biscuit tins, a biscuit supplied to Captain Scott’s ill-fated Antarctic expedition and the rude ‘Kate Greenaway’ biscuit tin that embarrassed the biscuit company in 1980.
It runs from Tuesday, May 10, through to Sunday, September 25, and the museum is located in what was Alfred Palmer’s family home.
A self-guided Biscuit Crumb Trail will start from The MERL or Reading Museum, but there will also be a weekly Biscuit Walkabout guided tour running until October.
Organised by Terry’s Reading Walkabouts, the intrepid tour guide’s mother worked for Huntley & Palmers, and this special guided walk will take in many of the places synonymous with biscuits in the town.
Another walk is a special audio trail, launching on Tuesday, June 21. Aundre Goddard and Richard Bentley use a mixture of real and imagined voices and sounds to tell the story of how Huntley & Palmers went from London Street to the world. Listen and walk the trail via your smartphone at https://www.reading.gov.uk/audiotrails/londonstreet
Next month’s Reading Children’s Festival (14 May – 5 June) will have a biscuit theme, including an Alice in Wonderland-theme tea party, a biscuit choir, a chance to make biscuit hats, and feature in a biscuit parade.
This is part of the Forbury Fiesta on Saturday, May 14.
And there will be biscuits inspired by Huntley & Palmer at a special afternoon tea at the Roseate Reading Hotel, served from Monday, May 9. A cruise along the River Thames is also planned.
Alex Brannen, from Reading UK which is helping to organise the events, said: “The impact of Huntley & Palmers biscuits on Reading has been huge and this summer Reading will be paying tribute to its fascinating biscuit story with a series of special events and activities.
“The coming of the railway to Reading in the nineteenth century helped take Reading’s biscuits all over the world, so we are delighted that GWR has become the ‘Official Travel Partner’ for Biscuit Town 2022, bringing people to Reading to retrace the steps of the largest biscuit manufacturer in the world.”
And this partnership has been welcomed by the train company.
Its senior regional marketing manager, Gauthier Hardy, said GWR was proud to be taking part.
“Great Western Railway has a long association with Huntley & Palmers as its factory was located on King’s Road, close to the railway line, and its biscuits were carried by train to London, Bristol and beyond.
“Reading remains one of the busiest destinations on the GWR line and we look forward to welcoming customers keen to get a taste for the town’s rich biscuit heritage.”
More information at www.visit-reading.com/biscuittown
