British Sugar in York - readers share memories with photos

FOR decades a sign autumn had arrived in York was not the just turning of the leaves, but the distinctive sickly-sweet smell of beet processing at the city's British Sugar Plant, off Boroughbridge Road.

Despite its location in the west of York, the smell from the plant spread across the city and beyond.

Like the aromas of chocolate emanating from the Rowntree's and Terry's factories elsewhere in the city,the smell of sugar beet became one of the hallmarks of York.

It was a divisive smell, for as many people who loved it, saying it reminded them of Christmas, of gingerbread, of home, others loathed it as it lingered in the air, on hung-out washing, and on workers' clothes.

We are sharing readers' memories of the plant as news comes that work could start on building almost 1,100 homes on the site in 2027 to be completed in 2037.

The plans were drawn up in the years following the closure of the refinery in 2007 due to the restructuring of British Sugar’s UK operations.

Buildings which formed part of the sugar beet refinery, which opened in 1926, have since been torn down and the site has largely been cleared.

1974: York British Sugar factory with the new 180ft chimney at full steam. Readers recall the smell of beet processing across the city(Image: )

An archive photo of the plant sparked a wave of memories among members of our Facebook nostalgia group, We We Love York - Memories (www.facebook.com/groups/yorknostalgia).

Here are some of their recollections:

Martyn Howie: "As a kid cycling to school along Holgate Road there was a sugar beet lying in the gutter so as one does I decided to speed up and kick it It was as solid as a rock and nearly broke my foot."

John Grant: "Yes, loads of tractors pulling trailers with loads falling in the road."

Grahaeme Petersen: " I remember the smell every autumn. Also, as a cyclist, running the gauntlet of beets flying off the back of high piled open wagons as they went round bends and corners."

Sue Midgley: "Making turnip lanterns out of the beet that had fallen off the lorries. Living between the smell of cocoa and burning sugar beet."

Enrico Giacani: "Loved the smell it meant it was autumn and Micky night and Halloween and Bonfire night was coming."

Terry Ob: "Farmers clogging the road up bringing in sugar beet. Some of them would tractor and trailer for miles and miles rather than pay for a truck."

David Barnes: "Sneaking in there on a night and watching the shunter train they had and the smell."

Julie Brandon: "Loved the smell, you knew autumn wasn't far of."

Lisa Smith: "Loved September when we could smell it."

Kate Messenger: "Smelling Christmas!"

Dawn Hide: "I loved that smell from the factory as I lived on Poppleton Road."

Angela Hemmington: "Absolutely loved the smell, cold crisp frosty morning. Mixed with the chocolate smell from Rowntrees/Terry's."

Jenny Beck Derry: "We lived in Ash Street in late 60s early 70s and the smell from the sugar factory very strong some days, it smelt like ginger bread."

James Coakley: "I love the smell of the sugar factory."

Dean Flavell: "Miss that smell it was the smell of York."

Sugar beet being unloaded at the British Sugar Corporation factory, in York at the start of the processing campaign. October 1983. YEP Pic.(Image: )

However, not everyone loved the aroma:

Jim Marshall: "The appalling stench, I lived directly across the river in Rawcliffe for two years and it was always a bad day when the thing started up after the winter break and wind brought the reek over."

Shirley Hughes: "Not being able to hang out the washing because of the awful stench and sticky residue everywhere."

Lynne Hammond: "Went to Poppy Road school and the smell was awful at the height of the season. Then when I went to uni I knew I was nearly home when the train passed the works."

John Mills: "It was not a awful smell,it was just overpowering. Like bonfire toffee left in the pan too long."

the boiling when the wind was in a certain direction. It reminded me of when I was a lad, helping take cartloads of mangels to the British Oil and Cake Mills at Selby, to be turned into animal feed."

Martin Smith: "On a crisp winters morning if the wind was blowing in the right direction, you would smell it, it certainly cleared your sinuses out!"

Some members shared memories of working at the plant or bringing beet to it:

Robert Rooke: "I used to lead beet there with a Massey 590 Turbo, pulled a 14 ton trailer and dolly. Weights and Measures used to be on the weighbridge some days, they told me I was carrying too much. They came down to our farm and told my Dad to put less weight on, he told them to 'p*** offf'. I ended up in court and was find 400 pounds."

Zdzislaw Uryn: "My dad worked there for 30 years, I worked there... great blokes good money and I remember the when a load or Irish workers used to come over for the campaign season. Good memories."

Ken Whitehead remembers working as an apprentice electrician in the 1950s "working on the top of the silos repairing the neon BSC sign, very frightening."

Robert Morris: "Using a pickaxe to break up hardened sugar covering a huge area during a campaign and the camaraderie between the campaign workers."

Stuart Tanton: "Queuing at 4am in a morning sat behind 40 other trucks waiting to tip."

David Thistleton: "The story of my grandad working there and halting production by dropping his watch into one of the vats. So many could not live this down, more so him."

David Paul: "My uncle used to deliver sugar to shops from there,I used to go in his lorry in school holidays. Then when I passed my HGV test I delivered the sugar beet from farms into the factory. Good times they were."

Nev Thompson: "Worked in office there 1968-70. Great work place and colleagues. Got used to smell but it did linger on your clothes."

Philip James Paul: "A funny sweet smell, that is my first memory! Also being stuck behind lorries carrying sugar beat. Nevertheless sorry that it is no more."

Share your memories: join us on Facebook - We We Love York - Memories (www.facebook.com/groups/yorknostalgia). We'd love to see your old photos and read about your memories.