30 years on from Rowntrees factory closure in Norwich

The source of the smell was the Rowntrees factory – where Rolos, Yorkies, Caramacs and easter eggs were made - in what is now Chantry Place.

It is 30 years since the factory received the shocking news it would be shutting its doors for good, but many people in Norwich still have fond memories of the scent that greeted them as they walked through the city.

AN EMPIRE IS BORN

It all started with Albert Jarman Caley, a Norwich chemist who opened a small mineral water business called Fleur-de Lys Works in Bedford Street in 1864. 

Chocolate making under way at Caley's, 1921 (Image: Newsquest)

His business swelled as demand for clean water soared and by 1880 Albert was able to buy the former glove factory in Chapelfield where he dug two wells to source the liquid.

But being a summertime venture, Albert thought of ways to keep his workforce in employment through the winter months. 

In 1883, Caley's as it was then known, started making cocoa which could be produced in any season and then three years later the rapidly expanding brand began to make chocolate.

While both sides of the business - water and chocolate - bloomed, demand for chocolate soon saw the need for a bigger production space and so Albert commissioned an entirely new factory next to the old one.

Workers busy making sweet treats for the nation (Image: Newsquest) Chocolate sales continued to soar even after Albert stepped down in 1894, one year before his death at 66 years old. 

Around the turn of the 20th century, A.J. Caley and Sons as it was later renamed, introduced a revolutionary process to its chocolate-making. 

By adding milk and more sugar to the renowned recipe, it made milk chocolate, which remains the most popular form of chocolate to this day. 

Caley's supplied chocolate to soldiers as part of the First World War effort (Image: Newsquest) The only other company in the UK to have attempted this method, known as the Swiss style, was Cadbury's.

FURTHER FORTUNES 

Production continued to ramp up well into the First World War as Caley's chocolate was supplied in the troop's rations. 

The company changed hands twice over the next two decades. In 1932 it was sold to toffee makers Mackintosh of Halifax. 

Five years later the beloved brand broke the mould again with the invention of the Rolo, a flat cone-shaped chocolate with caramel inside. 

Rolos were a real winner for the city factory (Image: Archant) At its height, Mackintosh Caley's was making up to two tonnes of Rolos every hour and shipping them to 100 countries across the globe.

Tragedy struck during the Second World War when the Chapelfield factory was destroyed in a Luftwaffe bombing raid. 

Rebuilding the factory could not begin until a year after the war ended and it took six years to complete, reopening in 1952. 

The Caley's factory ablaze after a bombing raid in 1942 (Image: Newsquest) Throughout the 1950s, Mackintosh Caley's introduced many soon-to-be favourites to the British public including Caramac, Munchies and Toffo.

Following Mackintosh's merger with Rowntrees in 1969, the Norwich factory grew to one of the most productive in the country, pumping out 40 million Easter eggs every year well into the 1980s. 

ACQUISITION AND DOWNFALL

Then in 1988, Swiss food giant Nestle acquired the company and began production of the Yorkie at the city factory. 

More than 1,000 people worked at the site at this time but over the next eight years the majority of machines and jobs were moved to a larger factory in York. 

The Chapelfield factory shortly before its demolition, 2002 (Image: Newsquest) Employees protested the closure, echoing chants and branding placards which read "Save our factory", but it was ultimately closed in 1996 and demolished in 2004. 

But not all was lost as three former Nestle executives bought the rights to Cailey's and reintroduced many of the public's favourite chocolate bars over the next few years, including Caley's Plain Marching Chocolate and Caley's Milk Marching Chocolate.

The factory's 110-year history in Norwich remains imprinted on the public's shared consciousness to this day, however, with the long-gone but not forgotten smell of chocolate wafting over the city still fresh in people's minds. 

Caley's continued to live on in the city even after the closure of the Chapelfield factory (Image: Newsquest)