It's not often you get to spend time with members of two famous dynasties but last friday I had the pleasure of meeting with both descendants of the Cadbury and Fry families to talk chocolate, Kraft and all things Somerdale. If only I'd bumped into a Terry or a Rowntree, I could have made it a hat trick. Nevertheless it was a great and a slightly surreal pleasure which I look forward to repeating in the coming months.


Support for The Plant is gathering at a pace with Keynsham Town Council and Bristol Museums, Galleries and Archives officially signed up as partners. On which note, special mention must go to Clive Burlton and John Penny for sharing their archive expertise with us, allowing me to wallow in glorious hypnotic black and white footage of oozing chocolate, spruce whizzing machinery and thousands of dapper 1920s' ladies and gents pouring through the now deserted gates of Somerdale.  


Getting my grubby mitts on all this wonderful archive certainly is in the spirit of Fry's motto: Happiness in Industry. If only I'd considered the catastrophic consequences of beginning a project about chocolate and a diet at the same time. Having spent the last three days fantasising about a Double Decker I have a sinking feeling only one of these ventures will prove successful...