The Smells we used to know

The decline in the UK manufacturing and industrial base has been dramatic and alarming over the last 15 to 20 years or longer and we just did not realise it. Frankly, we do not really make anything anymore in this country. I accept that it is the turn of the emerging countries to have their industrial revolutions and all the trappings of materialism that go with that. There is, however, a very high price to pay for industrial decline. Human cost for loss of employment, income and self worth. Regional losses where identity with specific sectors has gone for ever. Landscape loss with the skyline devoid of chimneys, pit winding towers, flare stacks and the bulky buildings of production.

What I have missed, however are the smells of industry.

My childhood was accompanied by the over-riding odour from sugar beet factories. Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk and Brigg in Lincolnshire had two such factories and with a westerley wind there was the sweetish scent of rooted beet being crushed, boiled and processed into the best Tate and Lyle granulated, caster and icing sugars. The plant must have been one of the most productive in the UK for many years based on the constant sickly smells coursing through the town. Brigg also had a marmalade producer and on some days such was the combination of sweetness in the air that you just craved for something savoury or sour.

Our family moved to the Hull area in the late 1970's. Hull at that time was just starting to lose its fishing fleet of any tangible size following the Cod War with Iceland which negotiated itself to a conclusion in the mid 70's. The decline had been in progress even well before that. The smell of fish being cooked, processed, frozen and packed was however an assault on sensitive Lincolnshire noses. It was a standing stereotype of course but also a matter of pride for a thriving fish processing industry and a large bulk market frequented by suppliers,merchants and traders from all over the UK and the world. The traditional smoke houses were, by my time, very much an endangered species and many were demolished before their heritage value was really appreciated. At least two of the distinctive steep pitch roofed smokers still survive but only as ghostly hulks. Such buildings do not lend themselves to alternative or economic use.

The Eastern Docks were also a hive of activity and raw materials including cocoa beans arriving by freighter from exotic parts had only a short road journey to a processing plant in the Wincolmlee industrial area. The smell of chocolate wafted around the eastern suburbs and, windows wound down, the car soon filled with this pleasant aroma. Unfortunately that business closed down in 2010.

My first job in 1985 was in the city centre close to the former Hull Brewery on Silvester Street. The first industrial sized brewery was founded on the site in 1866 and carried on until Mansfield Brewery ceased operations in the late 1980's. The malty and hoppy smell also sat well on the taste buds and may even have contributed to the fairly laid back attitude of the few residents around Kingston Square just opposite the brewery.

Needlers sweet factory was a major source of emissions into the urban air of Hull. I would not have thought that the manufacture of such favourites as Blue Bird Toffees and Sensations boiled sweets would involve as complicated a production process to justify the plumes of smoke and steam from the imposing brick buildings.

The few surviving smells in Hull are high tech processes rather than hard graft and full scale manufacturing. Sutton Fields industrial estate some 4 miles to the north of central Hull has a heavy Yeast influence and at the eastern end of Leads Road we have Jane Asher to thank for a light sponge cake induced atmosphere from the vast factory, itself shaped like a large slice of victoria sponge.

The established residents of Hull will, like me,have noted the absence of the smells of industry. If you blindfolded a younger resident and asked them to identify, by smell, what the essence of Hull was today I would not be surprised by the answer of latte, twelve inch Sub and whatever has just escaped from the large water authority sewage treatment plant at Saltend.