Published in Windlesora 12 (1993)
© WLHG
Shortly after the Second World War we used to eat Caley’s Chocolates and wonder whether the manufacturer, Caley’s of Norwich, had any connection with Caley’s of Windsor. By that time the relationship was lost because the Norwich firm was sold to John Mackintosh & Son in 1932 and the Windsor firm was sold to Harry Gordon Selfridge in 1919 and then to the John Lewis Partnership in 1941, but the chocolate firm was started by a younger brother of the famous Windsor family. Of course the name lives on in Windsor but the chocolates seem to have disappeared.
The Norwich firm was started by Albert Jarman Caley (1828-1895) who was the son of John Caley and Mary Ann Caley and grandson of John William Caley. It was John William who first moved the linen drapery and silk mercers business to 19 High Street. John Caley brought two of his sons (Albert’s brothers) into the firm and changed the name to J. Caley & Sons and they changed the name to Caley Brothers in 1851.
Perhaps Albert did not want to be the junior partner in the family firm because he left Windsor to become apprenticed to a chemist and druggist in Maidstone, Kent in June 1847 and three years later passed the minor examination of the Pharmaceutical Society. He then returned to Windsor and set up his own business at 29 High Street. His name appears in the 1851 census returns for Windsor, when he was living with his parents, who had retired. It also appears in Billings 1854 Directory of Berkshire under the heading of Chemists. In 1856 the Pharmaceutical Society issued a list of members and the name of Albert Jarman Caley is number 77 and once again his address was given as Windsor. Sometime before 1863 he moved to Norwich and had his own chemists shop at 31 London Street, because at that date he entered into a business partnership with an eminent pharmacist, Octavius Corder.
In common with many other chemists of the day, Caley started a sideline manufacturing mineral water at the back of the shop and was so successful that he left the pharmacy in 1874 to add the manufacture of ginger beer and soda water to his range of products. These were hot weather drinks and so he started to make cocoa to sell in the winter and keep his workmen employed. He then brought over a chocolateur from France to teach him how to make the chocolates and formed A.J.Caley and Son Ltd. The firm had many successful ranges of chocolates including “Marching Chocolate” which was advertised as “instant calories” for the young soldier carrying a heavy pack during the Great War.
Pamela Marson
References:
Burnby, J.G.L., Pharmacy and the Cocoa bean from Pharmaceutical Historian Vol 14. No. 3 January 1984
Phillips, Margaret, The Norwich Quakers — Some Links With Pharmacy and Medicine from Pharmaceutical Historian Vol 16 No 3 September 1986
Inventory of Caleys High Street Premises dated February 24th 1851 and various bill heads supplied by John Lewis Partnership Archives.
Windsor Local History Group 