Thorleys
Thorley’s Food for Cattle was writ large on their mill chimney. It was built in 1860 on a former lime kiln site east of Battlebridge and conveniently close to Caledonian Market. Their cattle cakes and ‘Ovum’ for poultry set the international standard for animal feed. Locust, or carob beans, were a key ingredient which Fred Heil pinched from the boats: ‘It was brown and horrible, it looked like a burnt cornflake, but we used to eat them, it didn’t do us any harm.’
Fred Rooke was: ‘the best swimmer, I used to swim across and throw the locust over to the other boys, you used to hear them shout ‘Ere you are Fred’. One day I heard a deep voice say ‘Ere you are Fred’ and it was my dad and I got a real good telling off.’
