Out in bloom along the New River (YMGW passim) are ox-eye daisies (Leucanthemum vulgare) and field poppies (Papaver rhoeas). Hard by the nearby River Lea are the buildings of GlaxoSmithKline, the principal employer in Ware. One of these buildings was originally a factory belonging to Allen and Hanburys Ltd, a pharmaceutical manufacturer absorbed by GSK in 1958. The A&H factory had specialised in baby foods, malt products for invalids, and medicated pastilles; and was behind the asthma drug Ventolin. The factory has been sympathetically converted, although it's a shame that the London stock bricks of which it is constructed have been re-pointed such that the mortar is proud of the bricks.
I remember Allen and Hanburys Blackcurrant Pastilles which we had as a kid.
ReplyDeleteFantastic - they were made in this factory! You have a virtually eidetic memory!
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