Maynards

Next door, Charles's wife, Sarah Ann, ran a sweet shop selling their products to the Stamford Hill area of Hackney, London.

The new factory site, below an embankment of the New River, had clean Hertfordshire spring water to be used in production, whilst proximity of the Lee Navigation and numerous railways meant easy, cheap shipping of coal, sugar, and gelatin.

Around the turn of the century, Charles Gordon, heir to the confectionery firm, suggested to his father that the company should diversify into making "wine gums".

Nevertheless, Charles Riley, a strictly teetotal Methodist, gradually came round to the idea when his son persuaded him that the new sweets would not contain alcohol.

As Maynards grew, it expanded its manufacturing operations to other locations, such as a toffee factory in the Ouseburn area of Newcastle upon Tyne.