Victory V Lozenges
Victory V is a British brand of liquorice-flavoured lozenges, originally manufactured in Nelson, Lancashire.
According to one source, Dr. Edward Smith took over a bankrupt drug factory, formerly Thomas Fryer and Co, in Nelson, and began to manufacture his lozenges which became Victory V Lozenges. His younger brother William Carruthers Smith became the manager of the factory.[1]
The following is extracted from a 1924 newspaper article about a visit to the factory, which included an interview with the manager, J. W. Haythornthwaite[2]:-
'The original founder was Thomas Fryer who got his experience at a spice factory at Barrowford. From there he took a shop next door to the Prince of Wales Inn, in Leeds Road, Nelson. ..... Thomas Fryer improved on their methods, and began making his own cough lozenges. With the advent of cheap sugar he was able to produce sweets in greater variety, handier, to the particular taste of his customers and in accordance to their spending capacity. ....... Working for Mr. Fryer was a man called Kellett Ashton, of Chorley. He was then, and his sons are to-day, in the confectionery trade. He was the first man to carry Fryer's goods up and down the country. At this time there was living at Bolton a Dr. Edward Smith. Kellett Ashton was his patient, and one day, quite in confidence, he told the doctor what he did for a living. Evidently Mr. Kellett Ashton was possessed of a persuasive tongue and won, without asking, the doctor’s interest in the toffee business. To such an extent did the doctor show his concern that he sent his brother, William Carruthers Smith to Fryers. Negotiations were opened, terms arranged, and young W. C. Smith became a partner with Thomas Fryer in the manufacture of boiled and dry sweets, That would he about the year 1884. When the partnership started the plant consisted of 1 slab, 1 small coke stove and 1 pan. On removal to Chapel Street the commencing plant comprised 3 revolving pans, 4 fires, 4 slabs. ..... Smith began extending his premises, putting up one part after another, until the year 1898 when the present building was put 18 expanding ; they are full up at both places, and still short of room. And a fine building it is. It is solidly built of good red brick. It has height and width and is light and airy within. There are four stories and one cellar ; the floor space is up to 2 1/4 acres and every room is lit up by electricity. The top of the building is part glass (after the manner of a weaving shed roof). Having given me all that information voluntarily I now began to ask Mr. Haythornthwaite questions.
"How did Mr. Smith become possessed of the recipe for Victory V. Gums?”
“It was a particular recipe of Dr. Ed Smith’s, brother to W. C. Smith.”
"Was there a price paid for it?"
"No; it was given by the doctor to his brother absolutely gratuitously."
"Are Victory V. Gums a medicine or a sweetmeat?“
"I am glad you have asked that question. They are a winter sweetmeat, pure and simple and not a medicine at all, and there is nothing enters into the making of them that is in anyway injurious to health."
1933 From the Nelson Leader, 26 May 1933: '..... Seventy years ago Thomas Fryer started the business in a little shop in Leeds Rood, Nelson, boiling and retailing cough lozenges and to-day there are two modern factories with four and a half acres of floor space, employing over three hundred workpeople and manufacturing over four hundred different lines of confectionery. "Victory V” gums and lozenges are, of course, the chief products of the firm, the formula for which was made up by the late Dr. Edward Smith, a medical practitioner in Bolton, so long ago as 1884, but since then the confectionery industry, as is well-known, has wonderfully altered, particularly in the last thirty years and there is no greater proof of this than the Victory factories. ...'
In 1959, a film was produced by Red Rose Films called The Story of Victory-V, documenting the production of Victory V lozenges and other products of the Nelson Victory V factory. In the 1960s they acquired the Alverthorpe firm of A. Talbot and Son. Victory V lozenges are available in specialist shops and online, but no longer contain chloroform or ether. However, their scent and flavour is still vividly reminiscent of diethyl ether - recreated via artificial means to preserve the original flavour. [3], accessed 6 October 2024.
1992 Acquired by Trebor Bassett
2008 Victory V lozenges no longer contain chloroform or ether. They are manufactured by the Ernest Jackson Co in Devon, a subsidiary of Mondelez International.
See Also
Sources of Information
- Trademarked. A History of Well-Known Brands - from Aertex to Wright's Coal Tar by David Newton. Pub: Sutton Publishing 2008 ISBN 978-0-7509-4590-5