Caernarfon & the "Inja Rock" trade

History has a habit of finding itself compartmentalised into tidy little boxes, all bearing neatly handwritten labels: Stone Age, Iron Age, Bronze Age, Roman,Norman, Mediaeval, Tudor, Victorian; but what is often forgotten is that history is all around us, each passing day has entered into history, what could be called recent history. It’s all well and good knowing what happen in the town in 1850, but is anybody recording what happened in 1950? If not, it will soon fade away and be forgotten.

An under-used source of historical knowledge are the minutes of the Caernarfon Town Council. Within their dusty covers one can find all aspects of the day to day running of the town all the way back to the early 19^th Century, and the Council Order Books stretch back even further.

During the 1930’s the Council held a series of discussions regarding a cottage industry that is little-known today, but at the time provided vital income to its progenitors, an industry beloved of all schoolboys at the time – the manufacture of rock.

‘Inja-roc,” as it was known, is a boiled, sugary, sweet, best known locally today in the form of the ‘No. 8’ from Pwllheli. But the minutes show that in 1938 a thriving cottage industry was present in the town, and it confirms a story my late father used to tell of coming into town after school and buying a piece of rock from a shop in Turf Square run by a ‘little old lady.’

In October 1938, when the subject was raised in committee, four tenants were said to be manufacturing the sweet in their homes. The result of this first discussion was that the Council resolved to find suitable, fully equipped premises in the town, and let them to the tenants for their business. The Property Manager was also to interview the tenants to see how willing they were to be tenants in this way.

A month later the Property Manager reported that the tenants all refused to consider the Council’s suggestion. In December one of the tenants, a Mr. James Roberts, was interviewed by the Committee set up to look into the matter. He requested permission to build a hut in the back garden of his home so that he could boil the rock. Mr. Roberts showed a sketch of the shed he proposed to purchase and build; a structure 9 feet by 6 feet, fitted with a chimney. A coke fire would be used to run the boiler and he was prepared to insure the hut and its contents against fire and, if necessary, to use a gas fire instead of coke.
After a full discussion it was resolved that ‘certain houses on the Ysgubor Goch and/or Maes Barcer Estates, with sufficient garden land attached thereto to allow of the erection of huts of standardised specification, be allocated for the occupation of persons engaged in the manufacture of rock.’ The Borough Surveyor was to submit a specification for a standardised hut.

In early 1939 it was recommended that No. 76 Maes Barcer and Nos. 52-68 Caer Saint be allocated to the rock makers. A standard hut was to measure 10 feet by 7 feet, constructed of timber, and have an asbestos roof.

In February it was resolved to interview the tenants concerned with a view to arranging an exchange of their tenancies with those properties mentioned. The builder of the original shed had been ordered to remove the structure but had so far ignored the order.

The final mention of the rock producers is in March 1939 when it was reported that the tenants in question had been interviewed, but each of them had strongly objected to moving from the house they currently occupied.

So there the matter ended; but did the huts ever get built, and did the tenants continue with their production line?

These relatively recent events are still within memory, perhaps there are those reading now who can remember the Caernarfon rock manufacturers?