’London Rock’ Making Candy Factory (1957) | British Pathé

Do you ever wonder how rock candy is made? Check out how the producers of ’London Rock’ candy produced it in 1957 in a candy factory in Wood Green, London. For Archive Licensing Enquiries Visit: Explore Our Online Channel For FULL Documentaries, Fascinating Interviews & Classic Movies: #BritishPathé #History #Candy Subscribe to the British Pathé YT Channel: (FILM ID:) Wood Green, London. An object which looks like a large boiler or distilling barrel appears on screen. A man wheels a trolley with a basin on and places it under the strange barrel. He opens a tap at the bottom and a glue-like liquid starts pouring into the basin. After the basin is filled, he closes the tap and wheels the basin next to a long working table. He pours the liquid across the table helped by another man. This is a sweet factory in Wood Green where London Rock is made. Glue-like liquid is toffee of which the London Rock is made - a mixture of glucose and cane sugar boiled in the strange barrel at 260 degrees Fahrenheit. A man pours a colouring into the toffee and starts mixing it slowly. C/U shot of the man’s hand mixing colour into toffee. M/S of the two men making letters. The man wearing glasses is Mr Jerry Toll who has made the rock for 38 years. He and another man (young, possibly apprentice) are mixing strips of red and white toffee into rolls, each containing an individual letter. Rolls with individual letters are then placed into a large roll (a huge one) which, when stretched and cut, becomes London rock. Three men are lifting a huge roll to chain it on one side so they can hang it to stretch. After the roll is stretched, hand rolling takes place. Rolling has to be done very fast since it takes an hour for the toffee mixture to become too hard to handle. Succession of shots showing how huge thick roll is stretched and rolled into thin strips of London Rock. Rock is then measured and cut (with large scissors) into strips seven inches long ready for packaging. Film ends with a great C/U shot of a pile of circles, each reading ’London Rock’. No wonder they are famous! BRITISH PATHÉ’S STORY Before television, people came to movie theatres to watch the news. British Pathé was at the forefront of cinematic journalism, blending information with entertainment to popular effect. Over the course of a century, it documented everything from major armed conflicts and seismic political crises to the curious hobbies and eccentric lives of ordinary people. If it happened, British Pathé filmed it. British Pathé also represents the Reuters historical collection, which includes more than 136,000 items from the news agencies Gaumont Graphic (1910-1932), Empire News Bulletin (1926-1930), British Paramount (1931-1957), and Gaumont British (1934-1959), as well as Visnews content from 1957 to the end of 1984. All footage can be viewed on the British Pathé website.