Didcot’s fruity industrial past by Eugene Coyle

ON Thursday, October 5, 1989, the Herald announced that Pickerings Foods of Didcot was closing down after 57 years of canning fruit and vegetables.

On the previous Friday, 165 workers – mostly women – left the Pickerings site led by the TGWU representatives and walked up Park Road to the Georgetown roundabout and then to the Job Centre on the Broadway.

The management of Pickerings Foods, now Premier Brands, stated that a further 114 workers would be make redundant by January, and that the factory would finally close in April with the loss of the managers and senior supervisors.

This gave a total of 279 local Didcot workers laid off, including many whose families had worked there from the 1930s.

Finally, in April 1990, Premier Brands announced that the five-and-a-half acre site would be put up for sale for housing development at an estimated value of £3.5m.

The original factory had been founded in 1933 as a co-operative by Reading business man Arthur Samson and Alan Morphew a local farmer Brightwell-cum-Sotwell whose orchard was on the site.

It was named Samor Pure Foods Co-Operative (a combination of the two surnames) and consisted of two factory sheds with a tall chimney, a water storage tower, and a boiler house.

The planning application had been vigorously opposed by residents and Didcot Parish Council on the grounds of traffic and air and water pollution.

For the next 50 years Didcot residents regularly complained the factory chimney belched out smoke rich in the aromas of cooking fruit and vegetables.

During the 1970s Pickerings was prosecuted and fined when the town’s water supply was contaminated with food waste.

The planting of poplar trees separated the site from view of the newly opened Edmonds Park together with a high wall and large iron gates on the frontage of Park Road.

In 1936 a large sign by Samor Pure Foods erected on the wall proclaimed that it was a ‘Country Garden Factory’ in an effort to appease local environmental issues.

Initially, the factory was small enterprise, processing mostly peas and locally-grown seasonal fruit, and employed between 80 to 100 women.

During the war, the Ministry of Food controlled Samor Pure Foods and most of its canned foods was supplied to the Army.

In 1946 Samor Food was returned to its original owners who expanded their business and built new sheds and offices.

However, by 1963 it was in serious financial difficulties and was firstly sold to Wander Foods of Reading, then to Heinz Foods – a subsidiary of Pickerings Foods.

It was after this takeover that the unique Samor Pure Foods label disappeared and was substituted by the Heinz and the Pickering Foods logo.

For the next 22 years the business at the Park Road site saw tankers and lorries transporting ready-prepared foods such as beans to be canned for Sainsbury, Tesco and Somerfield supermarkets.

Eventually Pickerings Foods (Didcot) was taken over by Premier Brands Ltd in 1988 and within 18 months was closed down due to the ‘extended losses’ in the canning industry.

Today, Samor Way Estate stands on the site of Samor Pure Foods factory at Park Road and is home to 150 residents.