Packing “Nell Gwyn” Marmalade at Tickler’s, c.1939

A busy scene inside Tickler’s preserve factory in Grimsby, showing women workers packing jars of “Nell Gwyn” marmalade. Long tables are crowded with filled jars as the women label, inspect and arrange them for packing, while a large piece of industrial machinery dominates the centre of the photograph.

The photograph was published, together with the original caption “Packing ‘Nell Gwyn’ Marmalade in a famous preserve factory,” in a large promotional booklet about Grimsby dating from around 1939. The women who worked at Tickler’s were affectionately known as “Tickler’s Angels”, and sometimes as “Tickler’s Fairies”.

The photograph offers a fascinating glimpse of working life inside one of Grimsby’s important food factories on the eve of the Second World War, and of the women whose work was central to the production and packing of Tickler’s preserves.

Lightly restored and colourised by Grimsby & Cleethorpes Museum.