Fifty years ago, Britain’s food scene was nothing like today’s cornucopia of ingredients and recipes from around the globe.
But at least a legendary brown sauce could add tang to a bacon or corned-beef butty. Why did a largely forgotten Nottingham man invent this 19th-century condiment –which in the 1960s became known as ‘Wilson’s gravy’?
Frederick Gibson Garton, born in 1862, started his working life as a grocer’s apprentice before opening his own shop.
Making pickles and jams as a sideline, he experimented with sauces made from locally supplied vinegar and imported spices. He sold his wares off a handcart which he lugged around the city.
Of all the sauces he developed, the most successful was registered in 1895 as HP Sauce.
Garton got himself into a financial pickle after running up too many unpaid supplier bills. Shrewd Edwin Samson Moore of the Midland Vinegar Company saw an opportunity, wanting an affordable sauce – made with in-house vinegar – for his company to sell.
In 1903, he offered to pay off the grocer’s debt, plus a one-off payment of £150, in return for ownership of F G Garton & Co’s sauces, pickles and chutneys. From then on, Garton refused to have the sauce in his house, and got upset and angry when asked by his son about it. It was originally called Garton’s HP Sauce, but the Midland Vinegar Company later dropped the inventor’s name.
It’s still somewhat of a mystery what the initials HP on the bottle meant. One legend says they’re the initials of Harry Palmer, who some believe sold the recipe to Garton.
Others say it’s a reference to the Houses of Parliament pictured on the label.
Mrs Garton reputedly told one of Moore’s salesmen it was a tribute to Harold Pink, whose company supplied spices for the sauce.
As well as sporting a picture of parliament, HP Sauce gained a further connection to politics.
Mary Wilson – wife of the Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson – said he added it to much of his food – hence ‘Wilson’s Gravy’. She said, ‘If Harold has a fault, it is that he will drown everything with HP Sauce.’
In 1970, Private Eye began a regular feature called HP Sauce – still
going today. Ownership was sold to what is
now Kraft Heinz in 2005. To much dismay and protest, production was moved from the
Aston factory to the Netherlands in 2007, severing a longstanding link with its traditional home in the Midlands. But the Nottingham grocer’s legacy still has a place on many dinner tables.
As for me, a dollop on a pork pie is simple food heaven. Dene Bebbington
