The Great Vinegar Flood
The HP Sauce factory was a beloved part of Aston’s industrial landscape, but could the locals forgive it when it flooded their town with acid?
It must have felt like some horrifying new chemical weapon had been deployed. The first signal was the explosion that rang out in the December gloaming. This was followed by streams of liquid, mephitic in such quantity, slicing thinly through the streets, blackbrown and topped with a whitish spume. Then there were the fumes. Invisible clouds of bitter, acidulated vapour that summoned sinus juices from nasal cavities of anyone who got too close. Families, sitting down to their evening meal on a Friday in those doldrum days between Christmas and new year, were summoned from their tables by the shouts and calls of their neighbours. Something terrible must have happened. Something that smelled suspiciously like a fish supper…
It was Aston, Birmingham on the 28th December 1956. It was the Great Vinegar Flood.
HP Sauce is one of the UK’s most familiar brands. A tangy concoction of tomatoes, dates, tamarind, sweetener and spices, mixed into a malt vinegar base, it remains the best selling brand of the unprepossessingly named ‘brown sauces’ that are popular condiments in the UK and Commonwealth.[1] Generally used as a spicier…
