Croupline products were sold worldwide

UNTIL a few years ago, Burnden was known to most people as the home of Bolton Wanderers.

However, in the past it had another claim to world-wide fame, the works of Roberts Croupline, Ltd.

The firm was known in particular for its cough medicine, but in fact the products included hair cream, brilliantine, aspirin tablets, headache powders, petroleum jelly, and Zubes. An article in the paper in May, 1963, told how the manager, Mr S.S. Brooks, had just returned from a trip to some of the areas where the firm sold its products, including Freetown, Accra, Lagos, Port Harcourt, Khartoum, Nairobi, Aden, Jeddah, Baghdad, Beirut and Damascus. Among other countries which imported Croupline goods were Thailand, Hong Kong, Burma, Fiji, Sarawak, Jamaica, Newfoundland, Canada, Cyprus and the Seychelles.

The works were just behind the Wanderers’ ground – at one time it had been Marsden’s Bleachworks – and the Bolton Evening News’ reporter wrote: “Mr H.A. Lancaster, assistant works manager, led me through various departments where women and girls were hard at work attending to bottle-filling and tablet machines. Others were busy packing what seemed to be millions of tablets of every shape and colour.

“We export 12 tons a day, usually about 320 packages of various types,” said Mr Lancaster. Eighty per cent of the firm’s total output went abroad, and in 1963 they were exporting 60 times more material than 15 years previously when they went to Burnden.

The firm closed in 1990.

Today’s pictures, taken in 1949 and 1963, show various parts of the production line at Roberts Croupline.