King’s has left us with nothing but sweet memories
Former business brought a real feel-good factor to the town
WHAT A TREAT THAT WAS
It’s been nearly 30 years since the giant sugar pans stopped bubbling at the factory on King Street.
After more than a 100 years in business, in 1990 King’s Sweets’ sorting machines stopped whirring, their wrapping paper ceased to flow and their vans stopped delivering.
But nearly three decades on, it’s clear that King’s Sweets still holds a special place in Wishaw hearts and minds after all these years.
The sweet memories, which travelled all over Scotland, were made from the famous Oddfellows, Carluke Balls, Broken Rock and Cherry Lips.
And no one remembers the buzz of the factory and the smell of the sugar boiling as well as Wishaw’s original oddfellows Ann Eley and Ruby Mcguinness – who worked for King’s at the height of their success.
Ann, who worked at King’s for more than 15 years in the 1970s and 80s, said: “I absolutely loved my years at King’s.
“It was a real shame when it closed down. It was always busy and we always had a lot of fun working in the factory.
“My sister worked there too and when she used to fill the sweet jars up I used to pour them all out so she’d have to start again!
“We were always up to mischief, but that made it such a nice place to work.”
Ruby, who made Oddfellows for nearly two years, said the best part of the job was munching on the job.
She said: “We couldn’t steal sweets to sell on, but we were allowed to eat as many as we wanted while we were working.
“That was brilliant! My favourites were definitely the Oddfellows, especially ytheorange the orange ones because they melted when they went soft.”
King’s history began n back in 1858, when Netherton farmer Alexander ander King moved into commercial jam production. tion.
As this was seasonal, he ediversifified diversified his business to also include making sweets. weets.
In 1860, the firm had premises in King Street and by 1883 had two shops, ops, one in Main Street and one on Stewarton Street. reet.
After Alexander’s death, h, the company came into the hands of his children dren via a trust.
In 1949, jam production ion ceased with the concentration moved solely onto sweet production and thrived before going into receivership in the late 1980s. 980s.
Ann revealed the King’s g’s workers were easy to spot due to their iconic conic uniform.
She said: “We had to wear blue overalls from head to toe. e. We had big blue turbans on and blue eoveralls overalls that wrapped around lots of times. imes.
“We were pretty easy to spot on the street!
“They had to be kept pt clean because you’d come home ome and they were always stinking ing from the aromatics.”
On the closing of King’s, g’s, Ann added: “King’s were lovely ely to work for.
“There was always a buzz uzz around the place and it was as a great shame for the town n when it closed.”
I remember the overalls and hats we used to wear in the factory – we had such a laugh and carry on in there! We used tomunch to munch the sweets all the time aswell. as well. Lynnmccormick Lynn Mccormick Heart of the town King’s Sweets Getting the name about King’s advertising on a Leyland bus in 1958 What a selection Popular tastes at the former store, above and right Cherished Billy Davie