SEE HOW IT RUNS!

by Dave Roberts

Have you ever wondered why Cerebos Salt's catch-line was (and still is) 'See How It Runs!' illustrated by a picture of a child throwing salt onto a chicken's tail?

The wording is easily explained, because the fact that the salt was in 'powder' form and could be poured from a container was the product's great selling point.

Prior to its introduction people would buy salt in much the same way as they did sugar - i.e. as a 'salt loaf' - and scrape off what they needed.

This was known as 'cut lump salt' and was the major product of the Seddon's and Murgatroyd's works, and their predecessors, in Middlewich, although some works had crushing machinery to create bagged versions of the product

This kind of salt, however, was very prone to 'caking' as it absorbed moisture from the air and had to be dried out frequently.

In 1892, so the story goes, a French chemical engineer was advised to give his sick son calcium phosphate in order to add strength to his weak infant bones and, to make the substance 'more palatable', he added salt (obviously he had no sugar to hand). 

The chemist noticed that the chemical in the mixture had the effect of preventing caking of the salt.

The child's  restoration to health was attributed to the calcium phosphate and salt mixture, leading to the idea that the salt and chemical mixture had 'health giving properties'.

Note: There are  different versions of this story with the details (and the additives) varying and the chemist even changing nationality a few times, but the basic premise remains the same, with the actual salt itself always being given credit for the miraculous 'cure' rather than any of the additives.

UPDATE (March 2015)

The above account of the creation of 'enriched salt' was culled from various accounts on that fountain of truth and wisdom, The Internet. It was the disparities in the different accounts which led me to err on the side of caution and to follow suit in being rather vague about the truth of the matter.

However, Maurice Baren, in his excellent book How Household Names Began (Michael O'Mara Books Ltd 1997), is much more authoritative and his version has the ring of truth about it:

"George Weddell was born in 1855 and later became a chemist with Mawson, Swan and Weddell in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. As his daughter was a poorly child, George decided to add something to her diet to strengthen her bones and teeth. Although vitamins and trace elements were unheard of at this time, he mixed small quantities of magnesium carbonate and calcium phosphate with the family's household salt. He was so pleased with the result that he felt it would be good to supply this 'enriched salt' to the general public".

Given that, according to Maurice Baren, George Weddell later became chairman and managing director of Cerebos Salt, I think we can take this as the definitive account. It's interesting to note that Maurice doesn't seem to think that the claims about enriched salt being 'healthy' were in any way spurious. It would be useful to hear the opinion of a present day chemist on this, particularly in the light of the dire warnings issued by health professionals about the dangers of 'too much salt'.

The book also features a neat little rhyme, which I haven't heard before,  about the origin of the company's name:

'Ceres' is Greek for the goddess of grain,

'Cerebrum' stands for the best of the brain,

'Bos' is an ox, and 'Os' is a bone -

A rare combination, as critics will own.

Thus free-running salt came into being and 'enriched salt' started to be manufactured by a new company, Cerebos (the name, as indicated above, being derived from Ceres, the Roman goddess of the wheat harvest, and 'os', a French word for bones').

The idea that this new type of salt was, somehow, 'good for you' led to some rather quaint claims for Cerebos Salt, which look a little strange in this day and age:

So the phrase 'see how it runs' is a simple reference to the free running qualities of the new table salt.
For what it's worth, I always had a vague and unresolved idea that it was somehow related to the nursery rhyme Three Blind Mice (see how they run), but how the  child sprinkling salt on a small bird fitted into that idea was anyone's guess.

In fact it is related to a nursery rhyme, but a completely different one.

There's an old wives tale which claims that if you sprinkle salt onto the tail of a bird it will be unable to fly, making it easier to catch.

Quite why isn't clear. 

One theory is that the salt makes the bird's tail feathers heavier and thus he is unable to get off the ground.

A likely story, of course.

And there's an old saying associated with this which says, 'If you are close enough to a bird to put salt on his tail, you're close enough to catch him'.

In other words, the whole exercise is rather pointless.

The idea of using salt to catch birds was immortalised in the nursery rhyme Simple Simon who, you'll recall, met a pie man going to the fair.

Simon

...went to catch a dicky-bird,

And thought he could not fail,

Because he had a little salt,

To put upon its tail.

So the energetic young gentleman shown on the Cerebos packaging through the years is really there just to demonstrate that consuming Cerebos salt gives you energy and strengthens your bones, enabling you to chase small birds and sprinkle salt on them, should you wish to do so. Your sprinkling will be made easier if you use Cerebos, of course..

In this ornate (and probably highly collectable) version of the Cerebos packaging the small boy appears to be very young indeed, and looks very close to catching the chicken.

In this chic French version, complete with accents on the Es and a highly stylised rendering of the drawing, he's grown up a bit and obviously slowed down a lot as the bird, which by now is no longer a chicken and could be a canary by the look of it (or is it one of the Three French Hens?), looks like it is getting away from him.

On this modern packaging we see the 'classic' version of the boy managing to get a fine flow of Cerebos out of his salt cellar. It's hard to see what the bird looks like. Perhaps he's smothered it in salt and it has breathed its last.

In this very up to date version from South Africa adorning modern supermarket packaging the boy has been simplified. He's lost his scarf and his baggy shorts are now slimline as he scores a direct hit on the unfortunate bird. Since 1995 South African law has made it compulsory for all table salt to be iodised (or 'iodated' as it says on this package). This is part of a world-wide initiative to combat iodine deficiency, particularly in children.

The original Cerebos factory was in Greatham near Hartlepool.   Middlewich's long association with Cerebos began when the company bought the Middlewich Salt Company after World War II. For many years the Greatham and Middlewich works worked together in developing new products and manufacturing and packaging them.

There was even, as can be seen from comparing the picture below with this one, a sort of 'family resemblance' between the two factories.

Like their Middlewich counterpart the Greatham works were found to be surplus to requirements and were closed in 2001.

In 2011 the buildings were in such a bad state of repair that the Greatham Salt  Works, like the Middlewich Works before it, inevitably passed into history.

UPDATE

11th December 2023

Here's a Cerebos Salt package from 2023. If you look carefully you'll see that the Cerebos branding is mostly cosmetic. It's actually a Premier Foods brand. A peep round the back shows both boy and chicken in full flight and still going strong.

Photo: SAINSBURYS

Cerebos Salt Works, Greatham, under demolition in 2011

Cerebos Salt, however, is alive and well and is one of the most recognisable and well-known brands all over the world.

SEE ALSO: GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN: RHM

                                                           CEREBOS SALT PACKAGING 2004

First published 1st May 2013

Re-published (with updates) 1st April 2015

Re-published 30th November 2016 (to avoid anyone taking a feature dated '1st April 2015' as an April Fool joke!)

Updated and re-published 11th December 2023

GONE, BUT NOT FORGOTTEN - RHM

RHM Foods, as it was in 2009, shortly before demolition

by Dave Roberts

A warm welcome to photographer Glen Leigh, who was born in Middlewich in 1970 and has always taken a keen interest in the town and its history.
Glen recently sent us this photograph, taken in 2009, of an iconic Middlewich building which it is still hard to believe no longer exists.
The security fencing seen on the left of the picture gives some inkling of the impending end of the RHM building, by that time owned by Premier Foods who had taken over RHM in 2007 and closed the Middlewich site one year later.
In truth there was a time when it seemed almost impossible to keep up with the acquisitions and de-acquisitions associated with RHM and the name seemed to change on a regular basis, the factory also being known variously as Centura Foods and (after its most famous product) Bisto Foods Ltd.
I'm  not sure in which order these names came - perhaps someone could enlighten us, just for the record?
Now, when travelling from Middlewich to Sandbach, the traveller sees that the  familiar footbridge remains in place but it still, after four years, comes as a shock to find that it leads not to a thriving and bustling food factory, but to a desolate open space, forlornly awaiting  the promised development which, presumably, the footbridge will one day give access to.
UPDATE (27th April 2020): Sadly the rumour that the footbridge was to be retained to give access to some future housing development turned out to be just that; a rumour, and the footbridge was finally dismantled in 2019)
Prior to 1968, when RHM (Ranks, Hovis, McDougall) took over the firm, this building, fronting onto the Trent & Mersey Canal and Booth Lane, was even more iconic, as the home of Cerebos

Cerebos were manufacturers of fine table salt, stuffing for your Christmas turkey, and the nation's favourite gravy.

For many years the Bisto Kids were as famous as the gravy they advertised (in fact, they're still going strong today) and they had a long association with Middlewich.
You could even hire Bisto Kids costumes for fancy dress parties from RHM.
When the building was finally demolished Middlewich Heritage Officer Kerry Fletcher managed to save a priceless mural of the kids which once graced the reception area and it can now be seen in Middlewich library, together with information telling the story of their long and illustrious career.

If you've studied the Middlewich Diary at any length (and, I'm told, many people have) you'll know that my Dad, Arthur Roberts, was foreman electrician at Cerebos for many years, having taught himself electrical engineering by correspondence course.

He normally makes an appearance in the Middlewich Diary on Father's Day, but his picture is included here now because of his long association with Cerebos in the days when it had its own generator room producing electrical power not only for the factory but also to feed into the National Grid.

Dad at work in the generator control room at Cerebos, circa 1949

He's here because he had very strong views  about a feature of that now-demolished building which older members of the Middlewich community may remember.

All along the frontage of the building, until some time in the 1960s, were large neon signs proclaiming what the business was all about.

One of them, over the entrance, said CEREBOS in blue neon, and on either side, at intervals, were other brightly coloured electric signs saying SAXA, SIFTA (who remembers Sifta Sam?), PAXO and BISTO.

These were all done away with in the 1960s (I can't recall whether it was at the time of the RHM takeover or before that) and Dad always thought it was a huge mistake on the part of the management.

Because up until that time salt, and foodstuffs containing salt, were what Middlewich had been all about and in Dad's view the Cerebos building, with its neon signs, was as much a part of what made Middlewich the town it was (and, let's not forget, still is) as the church tower itself.

Dad thought that Cerebos was never the same once those signs were taken down. I wonder what he'd think now that most of the  buildings which made up the factory have  gone for ever?

Google Earth still shows the RHM Factory as it was before closure and demolition and it is easy to see why British Salt Ltd was built right next door to it in 1969.

A large conveyor belt can be seen connecting British Salt and RHM together so that salt, which was packed on the premises and was also a a vital ingredient in many of  the products manufactured by RHM, could be delivered straight to the place where it was needed.

In the insane world of modern economics it would appear to make more sense for the salt to be transported hundreds of miles by road (not even utilising the perfectly placed railway line, with its sidings just yards away) to produce Britain's favourite gravy.

UPDATE (JAN 2015) We caught this picture just in time. Google Earth has now been updated and shows nothing but an ugly scar where the RHM factory once stood.

Many thanks to Glen for the photo.

Bill Eaton writes to say:

This photo brings back memories.

In 1953 I was the butcher's boy at Dewhurst and from Monday to Friday I delivered meat to the canteen at Cerebos, sometimes before school, or at lunch time. With a large basket of meat I had to climb the stairs and cross the footbridge, climb even more steps and walk along to the canteen, which was on the top floor at the Middlewich end of the photo. Bill

                                              

Facebook Feedback:

Robert Sheckleston: Sending salt by tanker to Worksop to be packed when you have a supply next door seems a bit silly.

SEE ALSO: 'SEE HOW IT RUNS'

First published 26th April 2013
Re-formatted and re-published 11th June 2018

CEREBOS/RHM WORKERS THROUGH THE YEARS

Photo: GEOGRAPH

An old friend of the Middlewich Diary, Carole Hughes, writes:

I hope you enjoy looking at these photos from Cerebos/RHM days.

I didn't work there, but my Mum, who is on the photos, did. Her name is Judith Sant.

Please feel free to tag anyone you know.

Many thanks to Carole for sharing these great photos, which all appear to date from the 1960s and 1970s.

As Carole says, please feel free to tag anyone you know (or yourself, if you're there!) on any of the Facebook groups and pages this finds its way to.

Alternatively, if you recognise any of the people in the photos, you can let us know the names by emailing us at the Middlewich Diary:

Middlewichdiary@aol.com.

For convenience, we've numbered the photos so we'll know which one you're referring to.

Dave Roberts

Editor

PICTURE ONE

PICTURE TWO

PICTURE THREE

PICTURE FOUR - CHRISTMAS 1972

CEREBOS SALT PACKAGING 2004

This Cerebos Salt drum was, rather surprisingly, bought as recently as 2004.

 In fact, this style is still used today for Cerebos Extra Fine Iodised Table Salt.

Great prominence is given to the company's Royal Warrant showing that the company is a supplier of table salt and pepper to Her Majesty The Queen

 What is intriguing is that as late as 2004, which is not only well into the RHM era, but also within sight of its end, the company was still proudly proclaiming the fact  that Cerebos Salt was -

- with no mention of RHM Foods, which had taken over the company in 1968, or its short lived successors. The modern bar-code shows that the packaging is indeed of recent origin.

Also on the packaging is the familiar 'boy and chicken trade-mark, which we talked about here and much is made of the iodine content of the salt. Iodine is vital for health, although there are some people who are iodine intolerant and have to stick to non-iodised (or iodized or even iodated) versions of the product.
By now the original calcium phosphate anti-caking agent which had enabled free running table salt to be introduced in the nineteenth century had been replaced by the (presumably) more efficient magnesium carbonate and sodium hexacyanoferrate II, and the important iodine trace of 1150 microgrammes per 100g was added to the product in the form of potassium iodide.

SEE ALSO: SEE HOW IT RUNS!