'It's a bit of a dying trade - but it's my life': Factory manager of iconic Black Country sweets company devoted to 200-year-old business despite uncertain future
It's an institution of the Black Country, producing sweets that take many people back to their childhood, but as it celebrates its 200th birthday, the future is uncertain.
The herbal tablets, pineapple rock, rhubarb and custard and pear drops of Grays of Dudley, affectionately known as Teddy Grays, are sweets which give people a feeling of nostalgia, of going to the sweet shop and seeing the tubs opened and emptied on a set of scales.
Established in March 1826, the company remains a family run business, with John Gray setting up the company as he thought buying and selling sweets would be a good way of making money by travelling the area in his horse and cart.
Eventually deciding to make his own sweets, it was his son Teddy that took the business from strength to strength, with the famous Grays Herbal Tablet still made the same old fashioned way using copper pots and a top secret Herbal ingredient, and with Teddy Gray's children Julie Healy and John Gray the latest custodians of the family business.
There are three Teddy Grays shops operating in Bewdley, Dudley and Wednesbury, as well as the Edward Gray factory on North Street in Dudley, with the familiar scent of sugar and the herbal ingredient wafting in the air around the factory.
