OBJECT OF DESIRE
Roll out the barrel
Savour a biscuit… and be sure to save the tin! After all, you could be holding on to something worth more than a few crumbs
by JENNIE BUIST BROWN
In the ring After 1877, biscuit tins came in a range of novelty designs and sizes
Cup of tea and a biscuit anyone? Two of the nation’s favourite things in one delicious sentence. We love our biscuits in this country: statistics show that no other nation buys and eats more biscuits than we do. Last year almost 257,000kg were sold, with the UK biscuit industry worth £3.4 billion. And further research suggests that 61% of UK households have a biscuit tin. So where did it all begin?
The somewhat unglamorous answer is in a Reading bakery, 200 years ago. In 1822, Quaker Joseph Huntley, whose shop was on the busy road from London to Bath, had the clever idea of selling his biscuits to hungry coach travellers. Ten years later, his son – also Joseph – began making tins in his ironmonger’s shop. These early tins – square 7lb or 10lb containers with glass-inset tops, designed to be placed on grocers’ counters – were sent worldwide.