The family making hard-boiled sweets for 200 years
BBCIn a factory in a residential area of Dudley, one family's top secret recipe for hard boiled sweets has been bubbling and boiling away in copper pots for the past 200 years.
"It is not a fad, it is iconic and people just love it," said Managing Director John Gray, whose great-great grandfather started Edward Grays, known locally as Teddy Grays.
It was an idea by him in 1826 to try and make money using his horse and cart that led to him buying and selling sweets.
Eventually he decided to make his own, and with the help of his family and son Teddy, over five generations of Grays have been producing their famous Herbal Tablets and other products ever since.
Located by Dudley Zoo and the Black Country Living Museum, the family still make the traditional sweets "the old fashion way", with pots over open fires.
"My great-great grandmother, she made the secret recipe in her kitchen when she was making medicines, so that is what we do to this day," Gray said.
He is determined to keep the tradition alive.
"Two people know it, me and my sister, it is not written down, it is all in my mind," he added.
As well as the Herbal Tablets, the factory makes old-school favourites like Strawberries and Cream and Rhubarb and Custard.
Although he is determined not to part with the exact recipe, Gray is happy to talk through the production process.
"What we do is boil the sugar up first, we add water, granulated sugar, brown sugar and glucose sugar and cook it to 310 fahrenheit" he explains.
When the mixture is tipped on to cooling slabs, workers in aprons and thick red gloves get to work cutting, folding, stretching and pulling.
It continues on the production line being shaped, snapped and sorted, before finally being tipped into different jars and packets ready to be tasted.
The factory also produces ice cream, old fashioned trays of toffee, fudges and nougat, all with the same hands-on approach that has kept people buying the products.
Grays has a theory for why: "People know it works, it is not a fad, it has been iconic for 200 years, people just love it."
Requests for sweets come from all over the world with customers craving a taste of nostalgia.
But it is the future of the business and rising prices which worries them, according to Sales Manager David Healy.
"Traditional sweet shops, tipping sweets out, is not really going to work, everything is going to pre-pack.
"The shops are just so quiet - we have a shop in Bewdley, we have a shop in Dudley, and we have a shop in Wednesbury, but the footfall of people just is not there any more."
The future of small businesses and Teddy Grays was recently raised by Sonia Kumar, the Labour MP for Dudley.
"Energy bills are a constant threat to their success, what steps is my right honourable friend taking to ensure Teddy Grays can enjoy another two hundred years of sweet success?" she asked.
Minister Chris McDonald responded by offering to meet with his Labour colleague.
Whatever challenges lie ahead, John Gray remains focused on keeping the family tradition going.
He is also partial to a Herbal Tablet himself: "They are a good seller to be fair, they taste lovely.
"People eat them by the jar for the month, they buy them every month regular."
Whatever the future brings, for now the pots are still boiling and Edward Grays of Dudley shows no signs of slowing down.
