This film was made by members of Halifax Cine Club during the 1980s, possibly by Ernest Hardy, when the club was still very prolific, using super 8 cine film before going on to video.  The Club is celebrating its 75th anniversary in March 2013, having been formed in 1938, and still going strong.  It is one of many similar clubs across Yorkshire, which were especially strong in West Yorkshire where every city and town had, and many still have, a cine club.  At its height the Club had nearly a...

This film was made by members of Halifax Cine Club during the 1980s, possibly by Ernest Hardy, when the club was still very prolific, using super 8 cine film before going on to video.  The Club is celebrating its 75th anniversary in March 2013, having been formed in 1938, and still going strong.  It is one of many similar clubs across Yorkshire, which were especially strong in West Yorkshire where every city and town had, and many still have, a cine club.  At its height the Club had nearly a hundred members.  As well as holding their own meetings and social gatherings, with annual public film shows, the clubs would get together for regional events and competitions.  The Club continues to this day.  For more on Halifax Cine Club see the history by two club members, Ernest Jennings and Peter Holroyd (References), the Context for Supa Bupa, and also the transcript of an interview with Peter and Kate Holroyd Interview (2007).  It isn’t known why this particular bakers was chosen to feature a film on – probably just a local shop – nor the names of those working there – probably Townsend and Barber (hopefully, someone watching this might supply this information).

It might seem odd that the bakers in the film is called a Confectionary shop, given that these latter are usually regarded as selling sweets.  Yet the association goes back at least to 1801 when the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) cites the first usage of the phrase, ‘a confectionary shop’.  Hannah Glasse. in The Compleat Confectioner, explains that part of the confectioner’s job was to present an ornamental display with the dinner – a practice that goes back to the Tudor period.  The word confectioner goes back much further still (from Old French, to ‘put together’), but only become widespread in the eighteenth century.  Ivan Day notes that in this period the confectioner was the most highly regarded of all tradesmen involved in the preparation of food.  The confectioner, in making impressive ornamental displays for dinner, invariably catered for the families of noblemen and gentlemen.  By 1781 there were eight confectioners trading in York to cater for its 17,000 inhabitants.  Being a wealthy city, it was also in York that the earliest English cookery text was published outside of London, by John Emmett in 1737.  

Ivan Day, in her marvellously detailed account of confectionary, reveals the long and rich history of exotic foods that have been based on sugar.  In the beginning, the Romans used sugar, or saccharon, as a medicine for treating colds and bronchial disorders, and they were followed in this medicinal usage by the Persians and Arabs: giving the Arabic name sukkar (hence, sugar).  Arabs learnt how to refine sugar from raw cane and spread the cultivation of the plant throughout the Moslem world, making its way into Europe along with citrus fruits, spices, almonds, pistachios and rosewater. The English word "candy" derives from Arabic "qandi," meaning something made with sugar.  Sugar also acted as a preservative, and in the 18th century Jam, or Giam, first appeared from Italy.  Also coming out of Renaissance Italy were biscuits, biscocus (twice cooked), marzipan, or marchpane, ice cream, of course, and trifle.  In the late medieval period the words confyt, comfect or cumfitt were generic terms for all kinds of sweetmeats made from sugar coated fruits – ‘comfort food’ is clearly no new thing.  The suffice ‘meat’ in sweetmeat at that time was a generic name for any kind of food. 

The association between baking and confectionary increased as the 19th century went on, when cities and towns mushroomed, and when many baker shops were first established; helped by better ovens and ingredients, such as extra refined white flour, refined sugar and baking powder.   Originally cakes and bread were more or less the same thing: the word cake most probably originally derives from Old Norse, brought over by the Vikings.  Later, cakes were usually baked for special occasions, using the finest and most expensive ingredients for the wealthy.   The precursors of modern cakes were first baked in Europe sometime in the mid-17th century, and by the middle of the 18th century yeast was being replaced by beaten eggs in baking cakes.

It is a long time since Napoleon I declared, “L'Angleterre est une nation de boutiquiers” (a nation of shopkeepers).  In fact this epithet was first used by Adam Smith, several decades earlier, in relation to British colonialism, rather than referring to small retailers.  Nevertheless, there did used to be many more shop keepers than there are today.   In 1945, there were 500,000 independent retailers as compared to fewer than 30,000 now.  This figure has been dropping off at an average rate of 2,000 every year, and 13% of town centre shops are empty.

The decline of the small, or corner, shop has been a major feature of the post-war period, and shows little signs of reversing.  The rise of the supermarket, a late arrival from the US, has been relentless.    In 1950 Tesco had just twenty self-service shops, by 1969 there were 3,400 supermarkets, and now there are over 20,500 in Great Britain.  The category of retailer which includes hypermarkets, supermarkets and  superstores accounted for 73% of the total  grocery sales in 2008. Changes in planning permission rules, and some questionable tactics by supermarkets, will boost this more in the coming years.

As well as the decline in the number of small independent shops there has also been a marked change in ownership in recent decades.   When Uganda dictator Idi Amin gave all the country’s Asians 90 days to leave in August 1972, 27,000 of them, having British passports, were reluctantly taken in by the UK government (there were 80,000 refugees in total). These East African Asians, mainly Gujarati, using their existing business skills, took over many failing or empty corner shops.  This reinforced a trend already underway whereby  immigrants could avoid some of the racism and discrimination they encountered by becoming self-employed.    They had the advantage of being prepared to work longer hours, and were often better educated .  This was helped when the 1950 Shops Act was repealed in 1994 allowing for shops to remain open after 8pm and sell on Sundays (though this also favoured supermarkets).  Mark Easton’s blog on the subject has the distinction of provoking that rare phenomenon, a constructive and reasoned discussion on this (References).  If there are any Asian bakers out there making Battenberg or jam filled sponge cakes, this might be a good test for those worried about ‘integration’ – not that the diets (or lifestyles) of native white English from the top of the socioeconomic scale have much in common with those at the bottom end! 

Yet a report in 2002 found that the family run Asian corner shop is also in decline: numbers had dropped 25% in 10 years.  Nevertheless, moves are afoot to reverse this trend.  The magazine New Start in its recent special issue on the corner shop (August 2012) explores ways in which this institution is being, and can be, revived.   Tim Ahrensbach ‘reflects on the slow but sure rise of the civic corner shop’: “Many of these new shops aren’t ‘just’ shops, but act as vital community hubs – bringing residents together around a shared purpose and providing a new civic space for the exchange of ideas, conversations and experiences.”  One of these is the People’s Supermarket in London, owned and operated by the community in which it sits.  Apart from new community shops opening, the Corner Shop Project is documenting the social history of shops in the Black Country from 1950 - 2010.  This has provided some useful historical information and sources, ‘The Rise and Demise of the Corner Shop’.  Meanwhile, Barbers Confectioners shop is still there on a corner of Skircoat Green in Halifax.

References

David Barrie, Secret Sauce: The People's Supermarket, Nesta, 2012.

The British Confectioners' Association

Ivan Day, The Art of Confectionery

Food Timeline: cakes

Supermarket Chains and Grocery Market in the UK

The Corner Shop Project

Clare Goff, ‘Cornering a broader market’, New Start

Mark Easton, Corner shop culture

Family-run Asian shops disappear