I started working at Shuttleworth's in the 1960's, I started as a Contract Fitters mate my company was Stanley Engineering and was based in East London. We later became Newham Engineering, our main work was moving machinery from the factory in east London to Shutt's. The Whitfields factory was situated where the Dairy Box was produced before moving to Shuttleworth's and then to York.
My company moved a lot of machines to Shuttleworth's and I was working on this for five years.
I then decided to join Shuttleworth's as a sweet maker as I had been made redundant with Newham Engineering. I worked on the famous spearmint chew sold in Woolworths as part of their pick and mix. The factory was also home to the Lindt Chocolate and was were after eight mints was first produced. As a fitters mate one of the machines I worked on was the fondant maker. This machine made all the fondant used in the factory. We had to dismantle it and move it to the other side of the factory, before we did this it produced about half a ton a day and after we moved and serviced it, it produced five tons a day so much so that it started to be sent to York. This is also where Cadbury's Easter eggs were made and this was where I started by putting the cream in to the chocolate egg. I worked on most floors helping different areas off production it was a great place to work. I worked with a group of people whom came from Whitfields and where bused over from East London ie., Plaistow they were a great bunch. The factory was undergoing much change and had nowhere to expand to so the company decided to move everything to York. It took just over a year to move all the machines to York and was a sad day for the workers their. Shuttleworth's had a large number of people working there I think it was about near a thousand, it stood with five floors and offices in the yard, there was also railway yard's at the back and they where used for storage and one was used as a washing room for the trays and mould's.
When they decided to make after eight mints a production run was set up that from start to finish measured almost one hundred yards, a complete floor was cleared for this and when it started it's run it produced so much that it was decided to bring the launch forward by a few weeks.
As well as top Lindt chocolate, Melba chocolate was made here and many other sweets.
It was a few years later that peek freans biscuit factory closed and with other factory's closed the area lost a lot of jobs Southwark became a ghost town. I still live in the area and have seen many changes new houses new shops and businesses opening all the time its completely changed now.
