The Rowntree Legacy: Economic Contribution to York

York today might not be the same city without the Rowntree presence. The growth of the confectionery business was one of the catalysts for the city’s development from workshop based manufacturing to large factories, of which the Cocoa Works was a state of the art example.

Together with its subsidiary buildings and railway siding the factory complex was almost a small town in its own right. Alongside York’s growing identity as a railway town during the nineteenth century and fellow York based confectioners, Terrys and Cravens, today’s city has been indelibly shaped by chocolate and the railways.

Image: From originals held at The Borthwick Institute for Archives.