Edible Souvenirs

Market Drayton Gingerbread

Why did gingerbread settle on Market Drayton in Shropshire? Few towns are more landlocked, so it was not because of connexions to a local port. Gingerbread production in the town also predates the coming of the Birmingham and Liverpool Junction Canal, which did not touch it until the 1820s. There are certainly references to gingerbread bakers in the late 18th century, and local businesses were stocking ginger a century before that - predating attempts to connect it with Drayton's famous son Robert Clive (Clive of India). Clive's efforts in securing India and the spice trade for Britain must presumably have improved the availability of ginger, and it is not until 1793 (nineteen years after Clive's death) that the first baker of gingerbread appears in the town's records. Perhaps an extant, small-scale trade was boosted by the town's pride in its links with Clive, and expressed through the use of a flavouring which his work had made easier to come by?

Billington's is the most authentic survivor, a recipe rather than a manufacturer in the usual understanding, and a secret passed on from baker to baker since at least 1817. The current owner of the recipe is Terry McCarthy, based in The Bread Bin. He is also the proud owner of the original African Biscuit Machine, a hand-cranked device which churns out the thin strips of gingerbread, ready for "dunking". Terry makes around 360 units of gingerbread in the town every week, and is eager to see the brand developed for the local tourism market. On the Food Connection web-site he expresses the hope that in the future he will be able to give visitors a tour of the bakery, to show the gingerbread in production - increasing the close links between the town and gingerbread, and bringing extra value to the biscuit as a souvenir with excellent local provenance (though it would be interesting to know how local the ingredients are).

Billington's <www.foodconnection.co.uk>