YORKSHIRE DELIGHT
Workers at Goodall, Backhouse and Company's factory in Leeds pack bottles of Yorkshire Relish, 1906
On 25 June discussed the preparations for a meal for “500,000 of the London poor” to celebrate the coronation of Edward VII and his wife Alexandra. “Manufacturers of edibles and drinkables were not behindhand in their eagerness to associate themselves in the good cause”, and the menu included chocolate from Rowntree, ale from Bass, and 25,000 bottles of Yorkshire Relish. Goodall, Backhouse and Company could trace its origins back to 1853, when Robert Goodall set up a chemist's shop in Leeds, and its savoury sauce, similar to the Worcestershire variety, was launched in 1865. The firm was selling 13 million bottles a year by 1907, and had 350 employees at the dawn of the First World War. The business was sold off in 1959, and in 2002 a box containing company documents including handwritten recipes was discovered in an old factory by a demolition worker. This archive was auctioned off to a private collector in 2011, but a Leeds Museums video has more information about the firm's rich history: .
