Reading's Top Ten Biscuit Tins

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Reading is the home of the biscuit tin. Through ten biscuit tins in the Museum's Huntley & Palmers Collection this blog explores the history of two great Reading companies, Huntley & Palmers and Huntley, Boorne & Stevens. The story starts in 1822 when Joseph Huntley started making biscuits in his small baker's shop on London Street in Reading. It stood on the busy London to Bath road, near the Crown coaching inn and each day biscuits were sold from a basket. The bakery quickly developed a good name with hungry coach travellers. The potential to sell biscuits further afield was soon realised and in 1832 Joseph Huntley’s younger son, also Joseph, began making tin boxes in his ironmonger's shop which stood opposite the London Street bakery. The bakery became the world famous biscuit and cake company Huntley & Palmers, and the tin shop developed into Britain's leading tin works Huntley, Boorne & Stevens. George Palmer joined the firm in 1841. Palmer moved production in 1846 to a larger site on Kings Road in Reading. By 1898 an 'industrial army' of just over 5,000 men and women worked in a complex of factory buildings covering 24 acres on both banks of the River Kennet. It was the largest biscuit factory in the world and exported globally.