The story of one of Stone’s most famous sons – the creator of Hovis bread – was told on the BBC’s Victorian Bakers this week.
The BBC2 programme – which sees four modern bakers plunged back into the world of 19th century baking – told the story of Richard ‘Stoney’ Smith and his invention at The Mill in Stone. Stoney’s story only featured for a few minutes, but it’s a huge part of Stone’s history – and of the history of baking in the UK.
Richard ‘Stoney’ Smith was born in the mill house opposite The Mill in 1836. Today, The Mill is a popular restaurant, hotel and wedding venue. Back then, it was a working mill, and it was where Stoney worked his days as a flour miller.
When he was 50, Stoney perfected a method of steam cooking that preserved wheatgerm in bread without destroying its nutrients. For generations, the wheatgerm had been discarded with the bran when making white flour. Stoney’s genius was to steam it before adding it to wholemeal flour, producing a new kind of bread with three times the natural germ but without the grittiness that was associated with other wholemeal breads at the time.
It was a real breakthrough.
Smith’s Patent Germ Flour, as it was called, was patented in 1887 when Stoney teamed up with Macclesfield millers Fitton & Sons to develop his new product.
Hardly trips off the tongue does it, ‘Smith’s Patent Germ Flour’? So a national competition was launched to find a new name, with a £25 prize for the winner. Herbert Grime’s name was chosen. He shortened the Latin ‘hominis vis’ (strength of man) to Hovis.
One year later, with Hovis selling the flour to bakers to make more than a million loaves a week, Fittons changed their name to ‘The Hovis Bread Flour Company’, with Stoney sitting on the board. And the rest, as they say, is history!
Stoney died in 1900 and was buried at Highgate Cemetery in London.
[box type=”info” ]The episode of Victorian Bakers featuring Stoney Smith and the story of Hovis is repeated on Saturday 23rd January at 5.50pm. You can also see it on the BBC iPlayer until 18th February[/box]
7 comments
Kath
Are there any photos of Stoney? Is the nickname associated with his birthplace or the miller’s stone?
John Moss-Norbury
The ‘ YANKS ‘ used Norburys bakehouse in the afternoon when Mr Newbold had finished, the ‘Yanks’ were in Stone from 1942 to 1945, I remember going up to the Rec on VJ Day 1945 with my aunt & a YANK ! On the side of the Bakers van it had George Norbury & Son, my dad was the ‘son’ but he had moved on to his own business in Stafford by then.
Tony Dunn
I take it you are related to Eleanor Monica Moss-Norbury who was born in Stone on 13/3/1912. Her mother was ‘Williams’ but Eleanor worked in Norburys bakers in Stone in 1939. She married William Henry Scrase whose mother was Gertrude Dunn of Stafford, my great aunt. I am assuming the Eleanor was illegitimate and adopted by George Norbury hence her surname. Her husband William Scrase became a consultant surgeon in Birmingham, He died in 1991. I am trying to find out more about the family as the Dunns lived in Stone being there from c1817 to 1875 when my great grandfather moved to Stafford. The family originated in Maer in 1650. Is there anyway I can contact you? I live in Kidderminster but can get up to Stafford or Stone. I have pictures of the Scraces in 1913.
John Moss-Norbury
No MATE ! Percy Moss died in Stafford 1918,Granny later married George Norbury, ( about 1925 ) , Percy Moss had 4 kids Mary,, Joseph ( my dad ) Nora & Monica who married Bill Scrace. Eleanor is one of their kids. Monica worked in the shop at Norburys, later married Bill Scrace, they had two kids the younger one was Eleanor.. Got a photo about 1928 of the family in STONE. I see yer live in Kidder, well Mum and Dad moved to Crossway Green in 1934 ! Banked at Kidder, Years later 1955 Mum was t at Great Witley ! And now I enjoy ‘ We love Stourport ….’ on FACEBOOK ! Small world ah ? I live in Melbourne since 1970.
Tony Dunn
Hi John
Thanks for clearing up the lineage, my father Jim Dunn knew Monica and Bill Scrase well as we lived in Birmingham from 1964. He was a civil servant in the building trade with the RAF. In fact he was promised as apprentice to Bill Scrase when they were Scrase the builders., but there were no vacancies when he left school in 1938. Can you tell me your grannys maiden name? Was it Williams?. Any dates of birth or death would be useful to track the connections. Was Ann Norbury the baker who made the first Hovis George Norburys wife or mother? Perhaps they will let you publish the old photo of the Norburys in 1928 in Stone on this site as it is related? I know Stourport well ,get there at least once week,
My family in Stone comes from Francis Dunn who was a shoe manufacturer next door to the Bank of England in 1841 and later owned the Wheatsheaf pub & coaching house (recorded as a pub back to at least 1818) as well, next door to the Black Horse. Both sadly demolished now.. He died of TB in 1856 common in those days. Thanks
John Moss-Norbury
Well ‘ Stoney’ took the flour to Ann Norbury , Baker High Street Stone and she baked the first wholemeal bread from flour from ‘ Stoney’s ‘ mill.
Got A nice photo of George Norbury & my granny, my father and his sisters at Sherwood House, High Street, Stone, taken in 1928. I was born in Stone a bit later !
Frankie Patterson
I grew up in Swynnerton and went to St Dominics’s Priory school in Station Road. I have lived in Hampshire for many years now. Last year I joined a women’s group and met another woman from the Stone area. I sent her this article and she has printed it out for her dad who can no longer use his laptop.
Your page travels far and wide!