What's in a name ... (part 2)?

So, in clarifying that Hunt’s Duke of Gloucester is a Puckrupp Pippin we stumbled upon the possibility that Hunt’s Duke of Gloucester may be related to the oldest chocolate bar in the world, Fry’s Chocolate Cream.

Joseph Fry founded Fry’s chocolate way back in 1728, in Bristol. When he died in 1787, his wife Anna ran the business, togeher with their son, Joseph Storr Fry. When she died Joseph went into partnership with a Dr. Hunt; for a short period the business was renamed Fry & Hunt. After Dr. Hunt retired in 1822, Joseph Storr Fry introduced his sons into the business, Francis, Richard and yet another Joseph.

Depsite Joseph and Francis despising eachother - they only communicated in writing - Fry & Sons became the largest chocolate manufacturer in Britain. In 1847 they produced the first ever moulded chocolate bar, in 1866 their most famous creation, Fry’s Chocolate Cream, was launched, in 1873 they made Britain’s first chocolate Easter egg, and in 1914 they can perhaps be forgiven for introducing Fry’s Turkish Delight to the world. After World War I, Fry’s merged with Cadbury. Production of chocolate continued in Bristol … until Kraft acquired Cadbury’s in 2010 and reneged on a pre-acquisiton promise to keep the factory in Keynsham open.

Somerdale, Keynsham, Bristol, where chocolate was made from 1847 to 2011, so before Dr. Hunt’s time.

That’s enough chocolate, what about apples?

Our Hunt’s Duke of Gloucester apple was first grown by a gentleman named Fry, in Gloucester, and a Thomas Hunt sent it the Royal Horticultural Society of London to be registered and recorded. These may have been the same Fry and Hunt of Fry & Hunt chocolate … but it might just be a coincidence. It’s perhaps of little or no consequence. Of greater significance is whether Dr. Hunt sent a small, yellow apple or a larger yellowing green (or greening yellow) apple.

What’s in a name? More than meets the eye.