Crawford's is a

brand A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's goods or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create and ...

biscuit A biscuit is a flour-based baked food item. Biscuits are typically hard, flat, and unleavened. They are usually sweet and may be made with sugar, chocolate, icing, jam, ginger, or cinnamon. They can also be savoury, similar to crackers. ...

s. It started as a Scottish baker of ship's biscuits in a public house on

The Shore, Leith The Shore is a historic and picturesque street in the centre of Old Leith, the harbour area of Edinburgh. It edges the final section of the Water of Leith before it flows through Leith Docks into the Firth of Forth. History The site had be ...

in 1813. The bakery was acquired by Robert Mathie in 1817 and then William Crawford in 1856, when Mathie retired. William Crawford & Sons established large factories in

Leith Leith (; ) is a port area in the north of Edinburgh, Scotland, founded at the mouth of the Water of Leith and is home to the Port of Leith. The earliest surviving historical references are in the royal charter authorising the construction of ...

and

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

so that, at its peak, it was one of Britain's largest biscuit manufacturers and claimed to be its oldest. The company was acquired by

United Biscuits United Biscuits (UB) is a British multinational food manufacturer, makers of McVitie's biscuits, Jacob's Cream Crackers, and Twiglets. The company was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. In ...

in 1960 and is now a brand within their portfolio.

History

In 1856, William Crawford (1818–1889) bought an established bakery at 31

from Robert Mathie (1789–1863). The bakery specialised in ships' biscuits and had been established in 1813, with Mathie taking it over in 1817. Crawford wished to expand the business and set up a retail outlet at 14 Leith Street (which links

Leith Walk Leith Walk is one of the longest streets in Edinburgh, Scotland, and is the main road connecting the east end of the city centre to Leith. Forming most of the A900 road, it slopes downwards from Picardy Place at the south-western end of the str ...

Princes Street Princes Street () is one of the major thoroughfares in central Edinburgh, Scotland and the main shopping street in the capital. It is the southernmost street of Edinburgh's New Town, Edinburgh, New Town, stretching around 1.2 km (three quar ...

) in 1861, relocating to the exclusive address of 2

in 1866. In 1879 they built a large purpose built factory on Elbe Street in Leith. The Elbe Street factory was served by its own railway siding. A second factory premises was built in Leith on Anderson Place in 1947 (it is now in use as a creative hub). William's eldest son, William Crawford (1858–1926), became a partner of the business in 1880 and expanded it further. It was then known as Crawford and Sons. In 1897, two younger brothers, Archibald Inglis Crawford and James Shields Russel Crawford, were sent to establish a subsidiary in Australia. They got as far as the major English port of

in England where they established a major new factory. This huge factory, the Fairfield Works, stands on Binns Road and was designed by their brother, the architect

Alexander Hunter Crawford Alexander Hunter Crawford (1865–1945) was a Scottish architect and businessman. Closely associated with his father's firm of Crawford's Biscuits he designed many biscuit factories, and became owner of the company in 1931. Many of his villas a ...

in 1895, taking two years to build. The Liverpool factory was highly mechanised, allowing creation of more elaborate biscuit designs, in particular the

Custard cream A custard cream is a type of sandwich biscuit popular in the British Isles, and parts of the Commonwealth, filled with a creamy, custard-flavoured centre. Traditionally, the filling was buttercream (which is still used in most homemade recipes ...

which promptly became one of Britain's most popular biscuits. The Fairfield factory made snack bars including Bandits, Penguin, and 54321 chocolate. In 1927 Crawfords were one of the first factories to provide employees with their own social club and sports facilities: at Sandown Hall in nearby

Wavertree Wavertree is a district and suburb of Liverpool, in the county of Merseyside, England. It is a Ward (country subdivision), ward of Liverpool City Council, and its population at the United Kingdom Census 2011, 2011 census was 14,772. Located to ...

. In 1938, Crawford's carried out the first ever British national biscuit survey, interviewing approximately 5,000 households.

, formed in 1948 from two Scottish companies, MacFarlane Lang and McVitie & Price, acquired William Crawford & Sons in 1960 for £6 million. Production processes were automated in the 1960s. The Elbe Street factory was expanded and modernised in the 1950s but demolished in the 1990s when housing in Leith's former industrial areas started to change the area. Around 200 people lost their jobs. The closure in 1996 was cited as a casualty in the Scottish "bread wars". McVities have struggled to maintain the Scottish factories for their iconic Scottish brands.

Products

In 1923, the company advertised several biscuit varieties which commemorated royalty and its marriages: * York – the marriage of the

Duke of York Duke of York is a title of nobility in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. Since the 15th century, it has, when granted, usually been given to the second son of List of English monarchs, English (later List of British monarchs, British) monarchs ...

Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon (4 August 1900 – 30 March 2002) was List of British royal consorts, Queen of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 to 6 February 1952 as the wife of K ...

* Wedding Bells – the marriage of Princess Mary to Viscount Lascelles * Marie – the marriage of

Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia (; – 22 October 1920) was the sixth child and only surviving daughter of Alexander II of Russia and Marie of Hesse and by Rhine; she was Duchess of Edinburgh and later Duchess of Saxe-Coburg and G ...

to the

Duke of Edinburgh Duke of Edinburgh, named after the capital city of Scotland, Edinburgh, is a substantive title that has been created four times since 1726 for members of the British royal family. It does not include any territorial landholdings and does not pr ...

* Royal George Their range then included a variety of popular biscuits including

shortbread Shortbread or shortie is a traditional Scottish biscuit usually made from one part sugar, white sugar, two parts butter and three to four parts plain flour, plain wheat flour. Shortbread does not contain leavening, such as baking powder or bakin ...

, cream crackers, digestives and

ginger nuts A gingersnap, ginger snap, ginger nut, or ginger biscuit is a biscuit flavoured with ginger. Ginger snaps are flavoured with powdered ginger and a variety of other spices, most commonly cinnamon, molasses and clove. There are many recipes. The b ...

. The brand now includes: * Bourbon creams *

Cream cracker A cream cracker is a flat, usually square, savoury biscuit. The name "cream crackers" refers to the method in which the mixture is Creaming (food), creamed during manufacture. The cream cracker is traditionally prepared using Fermentation in food ...

s *

Custard creams A custard cream is a type of sandwich biscuit popular in the British Isles, and parts of the Commonwealth, filled with a creamy, custard-flavoured centre. Traditionally, the filling was buttercream (which is still used in most homemade recipes ...

* Digestives *

Garibaldi biscuit The Garibaldi biscuit consists of currants squashed and sandwiched between two thin oblongs of biscuit dough before baking. The biscuits are similar to Eccles cake. Popular with British consumers as a snack for over 150 years, the Garibaldi bi ...

s *

Marie biscuit A Marie biscuit is a type of biscuit similar to a rich tea biscuit. It is also known (in various languages) as María, Mariebon and Marietta, amongst other names. Description The biscuit is round and usually has the name embossed upon its to ...

s * "Nice" biscuits

Packaging

Historically, some of Crawford's biscuits were sold in decorative biscuit tins. In 2007, a Crawford biscuit tin was sold for £15,600 at

Bonhams Bonhams is a privately owned international auction house and one of the world's oldest and largest auctioneers of fine art and antiques. It was formed by the merger in November 2001 of Bonhams & Brooks and Phillips Son & Neale. This brought t ...

in the form of a sports car and was reported to be the most expensive tin sold until that date.

References

External links

Crawfords Biscuits
at Brighton Toy Museum, with images of biscuit tins, model Crawford's Biscuits railway wagons, etc. {{DEFAULTSORT:Crawfords biscuits Biscuits Scottish business families Scottish brands