Bittersweet life of the Sugar Girls... book about Tate & Lyle's East End factory

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception

The idea was to write a nostalgic account of the women who helped the oldest brand in Britain survive the Blitz and post-war rationing.

Packed with tales of factory life, love affairs, charabanc outings and sometimes oppressive bosses, it is told through the words of the women who helped produce 14,000 tons of sugar a week, plus thousands of iconic tins of golden syrup, at the Tate & Lyle factory in East London.

Since its publication in March, however, The Sugar Girls: Tales Of Hardship, Love And Happiness In Tate & Lyle’s East End, by Duncan Barrett and Nuala Calvi, is an internet hit at the website thesugargirls.com. As a result, former factory workers — many now in their 80s — have added more reminiscences, anecdotes and, above all, photographs like the ones that appear on these pages.

How about Ain't She Sweet? For the sugar girls, workers' playtime meant spinning a few 78rpm records

Syrup filler Lilian Barnes (pictured left) stays cheerful in 1951 and the 1957 Tate & Lyle beauty queen (pictured far right) and runners up smile for the camera

 

Girl power: Britain may have been on the verge of bankruptcy in 1947, but the shopfloor spirit was still strong

Attics have been ransacked and archives searched to produce scores of photographs of what it meant to be a Tate & Lyle employee.

As well as pictures of production lines, some of the others sent in show the factory ‘family’ on beer-fuelled trips to Margate and Southend — when they would stop at a pub to link up with male workers from other factories — or taking part in the annual sports day or beauty pageant, when film stars would crown the factory queen.

 Other photographs show workers protesting at cuts to the scheduling of the ITV soap Crossroads, or standing in dungarees, their headscarfs stuffed with underwear so that they would sit fashionably high on their heads.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2185641/Bittersweet-life-Sugar-Girls--pictures-How-book-Tate--Lyles-East-End-factory-prompted-workers-dig-albums.html#ixzz231CZVi00