Farley’s Rusks

The famous Farley’s Rusks have been a staple diet for babies and young children for around 165 years and are still going strong. This book details rusk manufacture in Plymouth, from its humble beginnings, through its glory days and ultimately to its tragic demise.

For the best part of sixty years the Farley firm was run, and largely owned, by three generations of a single family. Memories still abound, not only from many of those who worked at the factory, often down several generations, but also from descendants of the last family directors who have fond recollections of their childhood interactions with factory staff and wandering around the ovens, lorries and paraphernalia of large-scale industrial food production.

Loved by generations, the story of Farley’s Rusks is vividly brought to life through a host of contemporary photographs and material taken from the comprehensive company archive to document one of the jewels of industrial history in the South West of England.