I can’t stand cooking. Instead
of a kitchen I’d prefer a vending machine where you just type in a number and
the food you fancy appears through a hatch instantly. You’d never have to use a
pan or kettle ever again. I’d prefer if I never had to enter a kitchen ever
again and I cut corners to minimise time spent in there. I use gravy and curry
mixes where you just add boiling water. So long as food is of average quality
I’m happy (it’s only tomorrow’s pooh anyway.)
I love custard and occasionally I’ll have a slab
of cake in a dish with instant custard poured over it. I can still recall the
distinctive red, yellow and blue Bird’s Custard powder mix which is still going
strong today. The Custard King was invented Alfred Bird and I went to look for
his grave in a cemetery in Hockley on the outskirts of Birmingham.
The cemetery is surrounded by roads, huge
industrial buildings and a railway platform - all which seem to be bearing down
on the place with threats of extinction. Burials no longer happy here, only one
grave had fresh flowers on it and there was not one living soul there for the
half an hour I strolled around gormlessly. A building developer would probably
make use of the land that was once Birmingham’s main cemetery. It’s the resting
place for many of its prominent citizens.
I was expecting to find Alfred buried along a
corridor of mammoth headstones where affluent mill owners tried to out-do one
another even in death. However most of the headstones were of the same height
and nature. I found Alfred’s resting place, a horizontal thing without
prominence or pretensions. There was nothing fancy here to show the owner’s
legacy.
Alfred was an English food manufacturer and
chemist. He was born in Gloucestershire but grew up not far from this grave in
Birmingham. He was the inventor of a series of food products which made him
rich, most notably egg-free custard and baking powder. It all started from
small acorns. Alfred was a pharmacist and chemist and was aged 26 when he
invented egg-free custard in 1837. He invented it as his wife Elizabeth was
allergic to egg and yeast. When they had friends round for tea they served real
custard but when Alfred fed them egg-free custard (using cornflower instead)
instead they liked it just the same. Shortly after they set up “Alfred Bird and Sons Ltd” with their two
sons.
Alfred was running a chemist’s shop but in the
evenings was using his knowledge to test and invented new things. The magical
powders he invented only needed milk adding to them and then warming up and
stirring. The nation and world would go on to consume mega tons of the powder.
British troops fighting in The Crimean War in 1855 and in the First World War
lived off the stuff. He also supplied hospital with baking powder, fresh bread,
light cakes and puddings for the sick and wounded.
The product went on to become a household staple
across the UK and “The Custard Factory” in Digbeth
got bigger and bigger - as did Alfred’s fortunes. He wasn’t money-minded though
and away from the business was interested in physics and meteorology. He
constructed a water barometer and invented of several useful appliances.
Alfred passed on the business to his son (who
became an MP) and died aged 81 in 1922 leaving an estate worth £653,000 (about
£26 million in today’s money.) These businesses rarely stay in the family do
they? After the Second World War the
company was purchased by the General Foods Corporation and merged into Kraft
Foods. In 2004 Kraft Foods sold the Bird’s Custard brand to UK firm Premier
Foods.
It all sprang from Alfred who lies under this
stone. Even now millions of people who have a yeast allergy use the products he
invented. Well done Alfred.
The Custard Factory…