Michael’s mother worked for Caley’s in the 1960s and he remembers her bringing home the reject chocolates for the family. When he left school, Michael worked in Colman’s Research Department on soft drinks for three years. He took courses to develop his interest in sciences and then worked at the John Innes Institute on virus research for 26 years.
Mother worked at Caley’s
My mother was on the Quality Street production line at Caley’s. My main memory was that she would bring home the reject chocolates, as I used to call them. They tended to have this white bloom on them. I was only about six or seven at the time so obviously it was a great treat. My mother tended to work in the afternoons so when I came home from school she would leave me with my older brothers and sisters.
We think she was weighing the chocolates and the family impression was that she may have got the job because she was French and she knew about the metric system. We switched currencies in 1971, when decimalisation came in. My memories of kilograms and grams are from about 1964/65 when I worked at Colman’s.
Colman’s Food Research Department – soft drinks and ice cream sauces
During the summer holidays I worked on soft drinks production at Colman’s.
A friend who’d started there before me suggested that I apply as I was looking for paid work at eighteen. There was the hope of going to university, but that didn’t work out. So then I managed to get a paid position in November 1975 with the Food Research Department at Colman’s.
The Food Research Department was doing development for soft drinks for the group worldwide, not just within the Norwich factory. I was working on a dehydrated form of soft drink – there was something similar on the market and we were trying to reproduce that. We also tinkered around with developing a range of soft drinks within the Robinson’s range.
At that time we were trying to extend the range; the most popular range at that time was obviously the orange drink and together with colleagues I helped to develop something called Orange Lemon Pineapple which I think is still sold. Colman’s produced the Jif lemon and we were developing equivalent products in the shape of a raspberry, a strawberry and a chocolate walnut whip shape that were sauces that you could put on to ice cream.
That’s what I was demonstrating to Prime Minister Jim Callaghan in the picture. Hecame to visit Colman’s in 1977 or 78. In the picture I was showing him how we were developing this range of ice cream sauces. I remember him telling me that he didn’t actually like ice cream so he wouldn’t be using it! That’s the one celebrity visit I member, as I was only there for three years, but Colman’s generally did have celebrities visit.
I continued developing Robinson’s products but I wanted to do something a bit more academic, so I left there and moved to the John Innes Virus Research Department working on plant viruses. I did that for another 26 years. It was a little different, but still within the scientific environment.
Colman’s – social life and attitudes to staff
We had a good social life. We used the social centre in Lakenham. I used to play squash occasionally at that time, so I used to go up there to the squash court.
There was quite a bit of camaraderie, and they certainly did look after their staff that’s for sure. When I passed one of my exams I do remember being given a bit of money to spend. Something like £30, which was probably quite a lot of money at the time, and bought quite an expensive calculator with that money. They used to give a bonus every Christmas – something like £2 – not much but certainly some sort of recognition.
They were good at encouraging people to complete courses and I was given day release. One day a week I’d go to the City College and study and be paid at the same time, I studied sciences, which allowed me to leave and move on.
Michael Shanks talking to WISEArchive at The Forum, Norwich on 22nd March 2024. © 2024 WISEArchive. All Rights Reserved
