Unless you had anything to do with retail confectionery in the 1950/60s the chances are you would never have heard of Graydon & Child of Ackroyd Place. They weren't a big company, but were one of Halifax's main suppliers of wholesale confectionery in that era.
The aroma is still with me after all these years and the back room behind the office every Christmas was a sheer wonderland – everything was there: Cadbury's, Fry's, Needler's, Terry's of York &c &c.
The one thing that sticks in my mind when I think of this period was the fraudulent activities of one individual who I am not going to identify. He was a real mathematical genius employed there who allegedly stole several hundred thousand pounds from them as a sales rep over several Christmases. Once detected he was, of course, duly sacked; not unemployed for long, he managed to secure work at the bowling alley before becoming a – ...wait for it... – a police officer in the Halifax constabulary!
Not very long after that, Harry Whitwam, an ex-Army caption who became the manager at Graydon & Child, retired due to ill health and died not long afterwards. I have no idea what happened to any of the others. Graydon & Child itself folded not very long afterwards; today the property is/was used by a builders' merchant suppliers
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