Waste not, probably want not now.....

For well over 100 years and certainly longer there was a thriving industry in our town for the tanning of animal hides.

The leather will have graced the most luxurious of furnishings and later in the plush and cosseting upholstery of prestige motor vehicles to name but a few end users. The tanning process was very labour intensive from start to finish and certainly a bit unpleasant in the use of cyanides and mercury based substances.

The last surviving Tannery in the town was closed in 1986. As a long lasting legacy of the toxins and heavy metals the large former site of the factory was encased in a thick concrete cover to contain the contaminants. It was then developed for some expensive executive detached housing. In subsequent years the homeowners found that they were expressly prohibited from extending their properties if it involved any prospect of breaking into the tomb like lid. This caused a bit of anxiety amongst the owner occupiers and considerable amounts of litigation work for solicitors seeing whom was to blame for the lack of information or cautionary advice about what lay beneath the now rather less attractive and value diminished dwellings. Of course, most of the purchasers of the housing were out of towners or new arrivals to the area. The locals were very well aware of what had gone on for the century and more of activity on the site.

As a teenager and in the years leading up to the closure of this particular tannery I was often witness to the arrival of a large road tanker to the premises.

This was a very regular sight. Not that a lorry was a rare visitor but because the approach roads to the factory were quite narrow and congested and such a vehicle only contributed to the urban chaos. If walking to and from school the build up of traffic was always interesting along with the frustration of drivers and all that went on in what later became known as road rage. After squeezing down the streets of tightly packed terraced housing the tanker would swing majestically through the Tannery gates and disappear from view behind the main buildings. I liked to gawp into the yard because there was always something interesting going on from piles of newly delivered unprocessed  hides lying around like so many deflated animals to the ant-like movements of the fork lift trucks, from an assembly of white clad workers on a ciggy break to the escape, whether intentional or accidental of thick and noxious smoke, fumes and odours into the air from innocent looking stainless steel stacks and flues. The road tanker would after a couple of hours re-emerge, somewhat heavy around the axles and straining into the flow of traffic to cause more mayhem.

The lorry cab and large cylindrical trailer bore no hauliers name or branded markings. The destination for the full to capacity tank was the City of York and specifically the Rowntrees sweet factory.

A waste product of the tanning process was gelatin. The substance forms part of the complex composition of the collagen found in animal skin and bones and of the total volume of gelatin production some 28% is derived from bovine hides. It is a transluscent material, colourless, flavourless and when dry very brittle. The main quality which makes it commercially viable is its ability to act as a gelling agent. As such it is very useful in food, pharmaceuticals, photography and cosmetics. Here is the scientific bit. As an irreversibly hydrolysed form of collagen it can be classified as a foodstuff and does qualify for an 'E' number. It is a mixture of peptides and proteins. With water it forms a semi solid colloid gel. That's enough of that stuff.

I was aware of the usefulness of gelatine for Mother's baking process and with a very ancient packet gracing the kitchen cupboard shelving for perhaps a decade or more. It really pushed hard for the award for the oldest inhabitant of the pantry but was no competition for the post war tin of chestnuts in water.

The application of gelatine can still be found from a capsule around a medical pill to wallpaper sizing solutions and it is the reason why crepe paper retains its wrinkled appearance.

So what use did Rowntrees have with for such a regular and large volume of the waste from our tannery?

It went into the making of the fruit gums. In the distance I can hear the sound of frantic spitting.