Tate and Lyle

Sugar has been associated with Liverpool for centuries. Henry Tate opened his new refinery in Love Lane in 1872, amalgamating with Lyle’s in l921. The world famous firm finally closed 60 years later – but the name remains, a permanent reminder, above the doors of the art gallery, the Tate Liverpool, on Albert Dock.

The history of Tate’s is not just about dates, however - or philanthropy, or new processes - it’s about the people who worked there, especially the women. They have their own stories to tell about being part of a factory family. The following tales, which span the last 50 years of Tate and Lyle, are recalled by the women who worked in sugar. More...

Image courtesy of Liverpool City Library and the Records Office:

Good thread. The Scottie Press website www.scottiepress.org carries some pics and info on their archives section.

There are some interesting pictures of the concrete dockside sugar silo being built here.

The pictures below are of the conveyor tower and silo last year. The tower will most likely be demolished in the near future, although the silo is currently used for storing animal feeds.

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Fascinating pics Snappel :handclap:

Great link to the English Heritage pics Snappel and great pics of your own. :handclap:

A few shots from the T&L tower. Taken yesterday.

http://www.liverpoolpictorial.co.uk/dayout/011tl.jpg

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My father in law was the chief steward at Tates. He lobbied for years to keep the place open.

There is a book and television documentary in the works "Boys From The White Stuff".

Quote:

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Originally Posted by scouse mouse

My father in law was the chief steward at Tates. He lobbied for years to keep the place open.

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What was the name of the union? The reason I am asking is that I watched a documentary on CBC TV in which the host, Joe Schlessinger, commented on Redpath Sugar (Tate & Lyle subsidiary) laying off workers in Montreal. His comment was to the effect that the Redpath owners, Tate's, was a very profit oriented company who gave little thought to staff loyalty. He gave the example of the company's head refinery in Liverpool that, although in a highly unionised city, was none union and never sufferd one disruption through workers industrial action and was also profitable. And to be honest, having been born and raised withing shouting distance of the plant and having a number of relatives who worked for them and I even learned to swim in the warm canal water that was exhausted from Tate's at Chisenale Street, I can't ever remember any mention of the union. Thanks in advance.

PS: As the song goes; "I never roamed those fields of sugar cane
coz I ewzed to pinch me sugar from the wagons
in Love Lane."

The book i'm just reading, left by the book club in work features a pic of the water rats (local lads) who used to swim butt naked in the scaldies (as you'll know, the name given to the Tates warmed kinny)

There's also a pic of well known local Liverpool club swimmer James Clarke who has a street named after him off Burlington Street.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ged

The book i'm just reading, left by the book club in work features a pic of the water rats (local lads) who used to swim butt naked in the scaldies (as you'll know, the name given to the Tates warmed kinny).

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"Oh yes, I remember it well." :)
I well remember the first time I was able do a few strokes without sinking. I was with me cousins, who were a few years older than me and their mams, me auntie Maggie Fitz and me auntie Vera Sant who watched over us, like mother hens, from the Chisinale Street bridge by the 'Fly House'. They were all determined to teach me to swim and, were succesful.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by scouserdave

A few shots from the T&L tower. Taken yesterday.

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Nice one Dave, it really is an interesting bit of dockside history. Just a shame about the vandalism in there, but that seems to be inevitable...

Just seen your pics Dave, many thanks. Do u often take a souvenir away? I don't think I could resist surrounded by all that history.

Although it's technically theft, I've done it on occasion when it's in the best interests of the building/history. I can't speak for Dave though, but it'd be interesting to hear how he feels about it. For example, the third time I went to this place all the porcelain fuse-holders had been smashed by vandals. I found about four or five that were still intact and took them back with me - not much use for them there now. Also I found a couple of milk bottles that must be from the 70s which I rescued - how they escaped being thrown is a mystery.

By the way, here's a photo of the 'Tate Hall' at the University of Liverpool. Situated in their Victoria Building, it was the original library for the university. More recently used for functions and exams, it's currently being cleaned up as part of plans to turn the building into a museum and resource centre. Why the photo? Well, it was funded and named after Henry Tate, of Tate & Lyle fame...

http://tk41.powweb.com/photos/vb2/Dsc_0087.jpg

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Originally Posted by snappel

Why the photo? Well, it was funded and named after Henry Tate, of Tate & Lyle fame...

http://tk41.powweb.com/photos/vb2/Dsc_0087.jpg

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Superb, I spent a day at Risley Remand Centre and took a souvenir off of one of the old cell walls.

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/111/2...7040892957.jpg

There were also trips torn out from a bible hung up around the lamps, weird.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by snappel

here's a photo of the 'Tate Hall' at the University of Liverpool.

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My friend owns the home of Henry Tate, or at least the home Henry Tate built and lived in. It's in Woolton and is now called the Redburn Hotel.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sloyne

My friend owns the home of Henry Tate, or at least the home Henry Tate built and lived in. It's in Woolton and is now called the Redburn Hotel.

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The Hotel is closed now isn't it?

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Originally Posted by Kev

The Hotel is closed now isn't it?

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I beleive so Kev. I understand it is to be (or in the process) converted into condo apartments. He is also getting out of the elderly care business and converting most of those properties into condos. The house he lives in on North Mossley Hill was also owned by a very wealthy and famous Liverpudlian.

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My friend owns the home of Henry Tate, or at least the home Henry Tate built and lived in. It's in Woolton and is now called the Redburn Hotel.

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Is that the fella Home & Bargain? My mums boss sold it on a couple of years back as the council were nobbing them around. They wanted to turn it into apartments (M3 Properties), but they wouldn't have it. I think it's used as one massive family home now.

Bitter-sweet film on Liverpool’s 300 years of sugar trade screened at the Tate
Oct 30 2007
by Vicky Anderson, Liverpool Daily Post

THEY were called “boys from the whitestuff” – the generations of families who enjoyed jobs for life at the Vauxhall’s Tate & Lyle sugar refinery.

Historian Ron Noon’s decade-long obsession with the Liverpool sugar industry led to the making of the film Love Lane Lives: The Boys and Girls from the Whitestuff, which is to be screened tonight at the Tate.

Produced and directed by local film maker Leon Seth, it explores how Henry Tate – who introduced the sugar cube to Britain and went on to found the Tate Gallery – became “Britain's Rockefeller”.

It traces how after 109 years of refining in Liverpool’s Love Lane, and the devastation of the Vauxhall community following the closure of the refinery, the phoenix eventually rose from the ashes in the guise of the Eldonian Housing Cooperative. The film also captures the historic 25th anniversary re-union of the Tate pensioners in April 2006.

“Beat the beet, keep the cane” had been the unsuccessful mantra of the refinery workers involved in the ten-year struggle to keep Henry Tate's mother plant open. Its closure in April, 1981, was the end of over 300 years of sugar cane refining on Merseyside.

Ron Noon said: “The remarkable thing about this project was not just sugar, but the extraordinary lives of ordinary refinery workers who star in the film.

“This project has lots of historical curiosity value but it has wider ramifications for ongoing debates on the politics of food and globalization. It's also a vital record of the people who struggled against a major multi-national to protect not just their own livelihoods but a whole community. It’s an amazing story and Liverpool is right at the heart of it.”

Mr Noon and his team plan to keep the momentum going and make a second film, talking to older relatives of pupils at Trinity Primary School, opposite the Eldonian Village and the former Tate & Lyle refinery.

Mr Noon, of Liverpool John Moores University history department, was awarded £50,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund to develop the film.

It will also feature on Granada’s Inside Out programme on November 7.

Source: Liverpool Daily Post

It's also being shown at the Rotunda event in Kirkdale - see festivals thread. It's very good, was on the St. George's Hall big history festival on the sunday.

Gardens of Stone, about the city centre tenements will also be shown and my model will be on display.

BBC's Inside Out tonight will include 10 minutes dedicated to the film doc 'Boys from the White stuff' - about Tates and Sugar refining in Liverpool.

Lyle's Golden Syrup dates to the 1880's and has been produced by Scotsman Abram Lyle's company continuously since then.

From Wikipedia:

"Together with his three sons he bought two wharves at Plaistow in East London in 1881 to construct a refinery for producing Golden Syrup. The site happened to be around 1.5 miles (2.4 km) from the sugar refinery or his rival, Henry Tate. In the first year Lyle's refinery showed a loss of £30,000, with economies being made by asking staff to wait for their wages on occasion, but eventually the business came to dominate the United Kingdom market for Golden Syrup.

"The tins are believed to be Britain's oldest brand, with its green and gold packaging and image of a lion with a biblical quotation having remained almost unchanged since 1885."

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Love Lane film show
Mar 29 2008
by Catherine Jones, Liverpool Echo

TENANTSPIN presents a screening and Q&A event at Fact next week.

Love Lane Lives is a film by Leon Seth, made in collaboration with local historian Ron Noon, which profiles the history of sugar in Liverpool and workers’ stories of the Tate & Lyle refinery.

The film has toured many locations and viewers have the chance to discuss the it with its makers after the screening.

The event from 2-3pm on April 9 is free.

Source: Liverpool Echo

Cheers Howie :PDT11

Film screening

'Love Lane Lives: The Boys and Girls from the Whitestuff' - 6pm Wednesday 23 April 2008 - everyone welcome

http://www.ljmu.ac.uk/MKG_Global_Images/tate_web.jpg

The first public screening of the film, 'Love Lane Lives: The Boys and Girls from the Whitestuff', will take place at 6pm on Wednesday 23 April in the G01 lecture theatre (John Foster Building, Mount Pleasant).

'Love Lane Lives' is an absorbing film and public history project, tracing the story of how Liverpool, an insignificant fishing village at the end of the seventeenth century, experienced transatlantic take off with sugar and slaves.

The film, described by Jimmy McGovern as 'really powerful and very moving', explores how Liverpool was affected by the closure of the Love Lane Tate and Lyle factory.

LJMU Historian Ron Noon (pictured below) was awarded £50,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund to develop the Love Lane Lives Refinery project. The film, produced and directed by young local film maker Leon Seth, explores how Henry Tate - who introduced the sugar cube to Britain and went on to found the Tate Gallery - became Britain's Rockefeller not with oil but white gold, sugar. It also traces how after 109 years of refining in Liverpool's Love Lane, and the devastation of the Vauxhall community following the closure of the refinery, the phoenix eventually rose from the ashes in the guise of the Eldonian Housing Cooperative. This model of community-led sustainable urban regeneration received the accolade of a World Habitat Award in 2003. The film also captures the historic 25th anniversary re-union of the Tate pensioners in April 2006.

When Love Lane closed in April 1981, the city renowned internationally in the 1960s for the sound of the Mersey Beat and the Beatles, was depicted as the first main victim of the European beet boys. "Beat the Beet, Keep the Cane" had been the unsuccessful mantra of the refinery workers involved in the ten-year struggle to keep Henry Tate's mother plant open. A woman interviewed about the closure said, "It's dead now", referring to Liverpool, not Tate and Lyle and when in November 1982 in the closing scenes from Alan Bleasdale's Boys from the Blackstuff, the refinery was filmed being bulldozed into oblivion, only a few grasped that it symbolised much more than the misery of mass unemployment. It was the end of over 300 years of sugar cane refining on Merseyside.

Both Ron Noon and Leon Seth will take part in a Q&A session after the screening.

Everyone is welcome to attend. Entry is free but you are asked to email lovelanelives@ljmu.ac.uk in order to reserve your seat(s). Refreshments will be available.

http://www.ljmu.ac.uk/MKG_Global_Images/ron_web.jpg

Source: LJMU News Update

I saw this and spoke to Ron at the Rotunda, it's a very interesting documentary.

Thanks for the tip-off - hope to go.
Julie

it may not be of much interest,but i waws a galley boy on a ship the sugar importer,she was run by the silvertown services in london,for tate and lyle.
picture of ship below

The conveyor/tower, along the dock road, is fenced off. Demoltion notices are on the fences. The dock road has been blocked off.

Dock road?s Tate & Lyle conveyor belt comes down after 90 years

The Tate & Lyle conveyor belt has stood over Liverpool?s Regent Road for more than 50 years.

The conveyor, which weighs more than 1,000 tonnes, was built to carry sugar beet from boats moored on the Mersey, freshly arrived from the Caribbean, over the road to the silos of Tate & Lyle, where it was refined into sugar.

But the 95-metre conveyor has stood silent and unmoving for 17 years since Tate & Lyle left the site.

Now the landmark machinery is being taken down to make way for a vegetable oil refinery.

Excavation specialist PP O?Connor, which removed 10m tonnes of earth and rubble from Paradise Street for the construction of Liverpool One, was contracted to bring down the colossal machine.

It planned the deconstruction for three months and, when the time came yesterday, used two cranes weighing 500 and 300 tonnes each, 70-tonne and 50-tonne excavators, and a 2,500-tonne shear ? a massive pair of scissors for cutting metal.

Contract demolition supervisor Neil Steward said: ?The structure has come down a bit more slowly than we thought it would. It took about nine hours with 20 men working on site. The people who owned it have maintained it very well.

?It was built to last, with really good quality metal.?

The conveyor began on the dock and sloped up 43 metres on the other side of the road.

Mr Steward said: ?It is the end of the road for a landmark on the dock road.

?The first time I saw it, I was in the Royal Navy and saw it from aboard HMS Hermes just before the Falklands War.

?I have a big connection with it and it makes me sad it is going.?

Liverpool Echo