Yet another post about the National Loaf. If you read the history you'd believe it was the only bread available during WW2. So I asked someone who lived through the war years as a young girl. What was the bread like in the war? They could only recall eating Hovis. Now memory is deceptive. But it is true Hovis was available and was advertised in the newspapers.
Hovis was sold at co-operative stores, and other shops, for it had an interesting business model. Your local bakery bought the patented flour from Hovis, along with the baking tins indented with the Hovis name. Thus the bread was clearly marked as a Hovis loaf a popular and respected brand.
What is different about Hovis flour is the addition of partially cooked wheatgerm and salt. The display advertisements mention Macclesfield, which was the home of Hovis which commenced in 1886. Nearer to home there is a large mill and grain elevator in Trafford Park which manufactured Hovis flour from 1914. If you visit the Imperial Museum North you can't miss seeing the mill with its large concrete silos. It was severly damaged in the Blitz of 1940 but subsequently repaired.
Now just when you think you know all about a subject, even a tiny subject of the National Wheatmeal Bread then along comes another fact that changes your understanding of the history.
Related links : The National Loaf
No comments:
Post a Comment