Made in Hull; Cakes

Waterloo Round Feeding Oil Cakes were a major product that was made in Hull and distributed nationally and globally.

It was part of the catalogue of products by the Waterloo Mills Cake and Warehousing Company Limited based in the Wincolmlee industrial and commercial district of Hull and manufactured for agriculture.

Above one hundred thousand tons were sent out under the learned testimony of a Doctor Augustus Voelcker, Consulting Chemist of the Royal Agricultural Society.

The description as a cake may seem unusual but aptly described the size and purpose of what was a mixed food for livestock, and specially adapted for young animals to bring them on strongly and healthily.

Product endorsements, although mainly by the company themselves went along the lines that "It is now almost universally admitted that in order to produce the greatest weight and best quality of meat in the shortest time a mixed food must be used and with this view the Patent Round Cakes have been introduced"

The Waterloo Round was patented in 1873-74 and the marketing literature for the company proudly boasted that "upwards of eight thousand prizes have been awarded to stock fed on them".

The 1886 Norwich Show brochure bore a full page advertisement for the product under the rather menacing and protectionist warning that "as there are now inferior imitations of these cakes in the market the public are cautioned to buy only such as bear the Waterloo Brand. None others are genuine".

Oil-cake is the residue obtained after the greater part of the oil has been extracted from an oilseed. Oil-cakes are rich in protein and most are valuable food for farm animals. The typical composition of selected oil-cakes is

Much of the ingredients were readily sourced from around the globe and shipped to the major east coast Port of Hull where a number of processing and manufacturing industries were established and became household names during the nineteenth century.

Oil-cake from large-scale oil mills was often an ingredient of compounded animal feeds. Some seeds, such as castor beans, yield oil-cakes unsuitable for direct incorporation into animal feed as they contain toxic substances.

No secrets were given away in the advertisements but Dr Voelcker was rolled out with more endorsements. "I am glad that you make no mystery about the ingredients of your Waterloo Round Cakes and that the various feeding materials of which the cake is composed are all well known articles of food and of the best quality procurable" and"The high appreciation of the merits of your Round Waterloo Cake by practical feeders and fatteners of stock, I take it, is mainly due to its uniform composition, its fresh condition and prime quality of all of the foods which are used in the preparation of the cake. These feature favourably distinguish the Waterloo Round Cake from similar compound feeding cakes"

The skyline of Hull was for many years dominated by the factory buildings associated with Oil Mills but only one or two have survived. The silos and warehouses had little alternative uses, fell into obsolescence and were demolished to make way for industries of the modern era.

The Waterloo logo was widely recognised as an important export from Hull and contributed to the collective wealth of the city in its halycon era.

Waterloo Mills Cake and Warehousing Company Limited will have done a lot of business at "Present Price £7 5s per ton and free on Rails at Hull.