Many Varieties in Archives
In mid-October Stan Foster made the long journey from Wembley to Raveningham to deposit a small but fascinating collection of material which has been added to the extensive
Heinz UK archive at HAT. Stan, a carpenter by trade, worked for the Heinz company, within the maintenance team at their Harlesden factory, for ten years from around 1970-1980. He donated a photograph album containing over 100 black and white images of the stage by stage construction (1955-1957) of Heinz’s Kitt Green factory near Wigan from the digging of the foundations to the near completed buildings. Kitt Green was designed to be Europe’s most efficient food factory and featured the latest in production technology, including a state-of-the-art boiler plant. It was officially opened by the Queen Mother in May 1959 and is still in operation today.
1956 Kitt Green building site photograph from the collection donated by Stan Foster
The photograph album originally belonged to R.H. Thorn, a member of the Heinz Kitt Green Project Committee and this detailed photographic record complements the construction diaries for the same factory held within the Heinz archive collection at HAT. The photographs were taken by Stewart Bale Ltd, a family-run business from Liverpool, which specialised in commercial and industrial photography. Stan’s Heinz deposit also included a selection of photographic plates of the exterior of the Harlesden factory (1930s), a 1983 Heinz ‘Royal Mint uncirculated coin collection’ presentation pack and a branded envelope from Heinz’s centenary year (1986).
Eve Read, Assistant Archivist (L) with Stan Foster (R) at HAT
The Heinz UK marketing archive at HAT features information about most products manufactured by the company in Britain. As well as advertising and marketing material, the archive contains an extensive historical photograph collection, a jar and can label library and material relating to its UK factories, their operations, product development and packaging. There is also a comprehensive library of Heinz TV commercials.
HAT welcomes offers of donated gifts according to its current collecting policy so if, like Stan, you have some archive material that you think would be of interest please get in touch with us!
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