"Birmingham England - not Birmingham Alabama !" duncanburt's Profile

Profile
Activity
Travel Pages (8)
Photos (186)
Videos
Badges (3)
Stats

RIP HP Sauce - Aston Birmingham

Yesterday I had a big shock driving to work!

One of the major landmarks in Birmingham, the tower of the old HP Sauce factory had gone !!!!

Yes I was driving along my usual route to work and I noticed something missing! No HP Sauce sign!

See below for a photo before the JCB's moved in.

HP Sauce is a condiment; a popular brown sauce formerly produced in Aston, Birmingham, England, by HP Foods.

Invented at the end of the 19th century by a Nottingham grocer, HP Sauce, with its trademark picture of the Houses of Parliament on each bottle, was acquired by the Birmingham-based Midland Vinegar Company and first produced at Aston in the late 1890s.

Under the plans announced by Heinz, the Aston factory, which produced 24 million bottles of HP Sauce a year, closed in March 2007.

The Aston factory was once bisected by the A38(M) motorway and had a pipeline, carrying vinegar over the motorway, from the Top Yard to the main Tower Road factory site. The Top Yard site was subsequently closed, and vinegar was not brewed on the Aston site during the last few years of production there. Ansells' brewery was adjacent to the factory.

Hp Sauce Factory in Aston as it was

This is how the factory used to look until a few days ago.

More about Birmingham,

Yes you must of heard this a million times before, but apparantly Birmingham does have more miles (km) of canal than that famous Italian city.

Here are a few photos I took a year of so back, and yes we do get some sunshine in Birmingham :-)

This pages really serves as my introduction to VT - I'll add more when I get the time.

Next up will be photos of my "second home" - Turkey.

I will include photos of Istanbul, Turunc and Bodrum plus more as I visit more places in this wonderfull country.

... more canals in the city centre

Worcester and Birmingham Canal

Canals under the City

The Birmingham and Worcester Canal actually runs under one of the main street in Birmigham City Centre - Broad Street, full of bars and clubs - absolutely heaving on Friday and Saturday nights !

Old meets New

Gas Street Basin, built in the late 1800's and Zinc, a modern bar and restraurant

Where Bill meet Boris

This is the pub now famous as the place where Bill Clinton and Boris Yeltsin had a pint during a G7 (or was it G8)summit

Brums mode of transport - the "Buzz"

Brummies know these as buzzes....again on Broad Street

If anyone wants any more info on the UK second city - Birmingham - just send me a email and I'll do what I can to help :-)

Intro Updated Aug 1, 2007
Report Abuse

Personal Pages (4)

1 - 4 of 4

Comments (22)

MalenaN May 14, 2011 at 10:24 PM Report Abuse

Happy Birthday Duncan! Have a great day!
kayleigh06 Sep 6, 2008 at 6:13 AM Report Abuse

Yeah I'm always on Facebook nowadays, hardly ever on here. Same as before I think - don't know when I last spoke to you!!! So don't know what's happened since! Add me on Facebook, kayleigh Roberts... blak and white photo :-) speak to you soon!
y2ketan2007 Jan 4, 2008 at 9:41 AM Report Abuse

Wonderful pages and pictures.Pity the sauce factory is gone ! Unfortunately it is the mega bucks that decide what stays and what does not !
denizkizi Dec 14, 2007 at 11:17 AM Report Abuse

Tesekkurler... It's a bit early though :)
Lyndra Jul 22, 2007 at 10:59 AM Report Abuse

Hi Duncan - I do believe I have found a brummie who loves Turkiye as much as I do! I am looking to buy a house there this summer :-)
Heavens-Mirror May 25, 2007 at 1:00 PM Report Abuse

Hey Duncan great pages. I enjoyed reading through :) Keep up the good work. Take care, Stacey xxx
lohki May 15, 2007 at 11:51 AM Report Abuse

Birthday wishes from Toronto! Hope you have a great one.
ani_istanbul May 15, 2007 at 6:52 AM Report Abuse

happy birthday
mary2u99 May 14, 2007 at 10:28 PM Report Abuse

Duncan, Happy Birthday to you.:-)
mikkie50 Aug 13, 2006 at 6:46 AM Report Abuse

hi duncan great pages m8 another turk addict eh :-))) we got a place in kalkan been trying to meet up with buket for about two yrs now ha haha maybe this year cheers mikkie