Price's Candles, founded in 1830, is a United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 manufacturer and retailer of candle

Candle

A candle is a solid block or cylinder of wax with an embedded wick, which is lit to provide light, and sometimes heat.Today, most candles are made from paraffin. Candles can also be made from beeswax, soy, other plant waxes, and tallow...

s. Its full name is Price's Patent Candles Ltd. The firm is headquartered in Bedford

Bedford

Bedford is the county town of Bedfordshire, in the East of England. It is a large town and the administrative centre for the wider Borough of Bedford. According to the former Bedfordshire County Council's estimates, the town had a population of 79,190 in mid 2005, with 19,720 in the adjacent town...

 and holds the Royal Warrant

Royal Warrant

Royal warrants of appointment have been issued for centuries to those who supply goods or services to a royal court or certain royal personages. The warrant enables the supplier to advertise the fact that they supply to the royal family, so lending prestige to the supplier...

 for the supply of candles.

It is now the largest candle manufacturer in the UK. They hold an important place in the technological history of candle making

History of candle making

Candle making was developed independently in many countries throughout history. The earliest known candles were made from whale fat by the Chinese, during the Qin Dynasty . In early China and Japan, tapers were made with wax from insects and seeds, wrapped in paper. In India, wax from boiling...

.

History

Price's Candles was founded by William Wilson in 1830, and originally consisted of a candle factory at Vauxhall

Vauxhall

-Demography:Many Vauxhall residents live in social housing. There are several gentrified areas, and areas of terraced townhouses on streets such as Fentiman Road and Heyford Avenue have higher property values in the private market, however by far the most common type of housing stock within...

, London and a crushing mill upstream at Battersea

Battersea

Battersea is an area of the London Borough of Wandsworth, England. It is an inner-city district of South London, situated on the south side of the River Thames, 2.9 miles south-west of Charing Cross. Battersea spans from Fairfield in the west to Queenstown in the east...

, York Road. Palm trees from West Africa

Africa

Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...

 were used for their palm oil

Palm oil

Palm oil, coconut oil and palm kernel oil are edible plant oils derived from the fruits of palm trees. Palm oil is extracted from the pulp of the fruit of the oil palm Elaeis guineensis; palm kernel oil is derived from the kernel of the oil palm and coconut oil is derived from the kernel of the...

, and George Wilson used sulphuric acid to remove the brown colour. Limited dockside facilities at Battersea caused the factory to be moved to Liverpool

Liverpool

Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...

. In 1840 there were 84 staff, and by 1855, 2,300. By 1900 it was the largest manufacturer of candles in the world.

In 1919 the company was bought by Lever Brothers Ltd. In 1991, Shell, the eventual owners of the company, sold it back to a private buyer. It is now the largest candle manufacturer in the UK. However, the Battersea site is now closed.

There were 130 different types or sizes of candle and 60 different permutations of material.
Price's Candles supplied "edible candles" for Captain Scott

Robert Falcon Scott

Captain Robert Falcon Scott, CVO was a Royal Navy officer and explorer who led two expeditions to the Antarctic regions: the Discovery Expedition, 1901–04, and the ill-fated Terra Nova Expedition, 1910–13...

's final expedition to the South Pole.

By Products

As well as the manufacture of candles, Price's were the first to introduce and produce "Cloth Oil" which was extensively used in machinery of the wool spinning industry. As gas engines began to be developed, they introduced, in 1877, "Price's Gas Engine Oil", which was still in use in the 1930's. For the petrol engine, they produced "Price's Motorine" in 1905 for Rolls Royce amongst others. In 1910 this product was improved to "Price's Motorine de Luxe".

Owners

William's son, James Wilson, was concerned to provide all the boy employees (over 1,000) with a bible, a hymn book and an arithmetic book in their own locked drawer. James was an evangelical Christian and, by providing free breakfasts and suppers and free baths, a pioneer in workers' welfare. The famous novelists Elizabeth Gaskell

Elizabeth Gaskell

Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell, née Stevenson , often referred to simply as Mrs Gaskell, was a British novelist and short story writer during the Victorian era...

 and Harriet Beecher Stowe

Harriet Beecher Stowe

Harriet Beecher Stowe was an American abolitionist and author. Her novel Uncle Tom's Cabin was a depiction of life for African-Americans under slavery; it reached millions as a novel and play, and became influential in the United States and United Kingdom...

wrote enthusiastically about these reforms. In time, a model village was built adjoining the Bromborough Pool Works near Birkenhead.