IT is 100 years ago this week that Joseph Rowntree died.
Today, we take a look back in photos at the Rowntree factory in Haxby Road.
Chocolate making in York in synonymous with Rowntree’s.
And we have Joseph Rowntree to thank for that.
Born on May 24, 1836, in Pavement – now home to Pizza Hut – Joseph Rowntree was a true York pioneer who made the city the UK’s confectionery capital.
His journey into sweet-making began when he joined forces with his younger brother Henry Isaac.
Joseph had initially begun in business by taking over his father’s grocery business.
Younger brother Henry Isaac was running a cocoa business which he had taken over from the Tukes of York.
But when Henry Isaac faced financial trouble in 1869, Joseph stepped in – so beginning the start of the legendary Rowntree & Co.
An aerial image of the old Rowntree factory in York
In 1890 the Rowntrees bought 29 acres of land off Haxby Road and began to build a new modern factory.
Nine years later, another 31 acres were snapped up and the factory was connected to the NER branch line via a private railway link.
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By 1906, the Haxby Road factory employed more than 4,000 workers – a figure that would swell to 14,000 in later years.
A social reformer, Rowntree is now celebrated for pioneering decent working conditions for employees.
At his factory, staff were offered free access to a doctor, dentist, and optician, free schooling was available to children under 17, and a pension was introduce in 1906. The factory brought in a 44-hour working week in 1919. The factory also had a dining block with a gymnasium, school room, and lecture hall.
Today, parts of the original factory building have been redeveloped for housing – the Cocoa Works.
And Joseph Rowntree’s legacy lives on in many areas of the city – from Rowntree Park to the theatre and secondary school named after him, as well as the model village of New Earswick that was built at his direction to provide decent homes for factory workers.
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