| Hazlewoods bought the factory from the receivers in 1982 after LLoyds Bank foreclosed on the Bacon Curing Factory. They were a Derby based company in a similar line of business. They continued to process pork products on the site up to about '91 when they closed the old factory, after having got planning permission to demolish it and build houses on the footprint. They refurbished the new factory (where the new flats/houses are being built at present) and used it to make fruit pies, trucking the raw material in. Isaac Hillier built the first Newmarket factory in about 1820, having operated previously from the, since demolished, Nodes Mill for a short period. By 1865 he owned virtually all of Newmarket valley and all of the houses in it, so he was a fast moving top entrepreneur of his day. His younger son Peter was following in his footsteps, and was already running the factory, and living at the Nodes, when he was run over and killed by a horse drawn cab in London. Shortly after this the day to day management of the factory passed to a new manager, Mr Thomas Abbott, who later bought the Nodes house and much of the surrounding land from Hillier. Isaac's son in law, Henry Hogg King, had emigrated to America, but returned to help out following Peter's death, and set up his own engineering business, initially in the Nodes Mill and then in "King's", or what is now known as Terrett's. His son Hubert continued that business up to his death in 1952 when it was sold, and then resold to Redlers and by the mid-60's absorbed into the Dudbridge works. The company initially specialised in machinery for water mills, especially clutches which allowed the new beam engines to be connected and disconnected to the old shafting in addition to the water power. They also developed winding gear and coal conveyors for coal mines, and fabrications and other devices for malting. One of their more novel and long selling products was a sausage stuffing machine! |