Here is a potentially sweet purchase for anyone looking for a development project. Coming up for auction taking place in Ulverston, Cumbria, on 23 July is this former mintcake works in Kendal.
The substantial warehouse, which has a guide price of £200,000 plus VAT, comes with planning approval for complete redevelopment into seven two-bedroom cottages and is in an area of Kendal where there is already a number of interesting residential conversions.
Mint cake has been produced in the same traditional manner for more than a hundred years in Kendal. Three established manufacturers still make it by hand, heating and stirring the key ingredients – sugar, glucose syrup, oil of peppermint and water – in open-topped copper pans. Once it reaches a temperature of around 129°C, the thick syrup is poured into moulds and left to dry overnight before being wrapped.
Local legend has it that mint cake was originally created by accident when Kendal confectioner Joseph Wiper, intending to make glacier mints, took his eye off the cooking pan for a minute and then noticed that the mixture had started to “grain” and become cloudy instead of clear. When poured out, the result was mint cake.
Wiper started production in Kendal in 1869 and went on to supply Sir Ernest Shackleton’s 1914-17 Imperial Trans-Antarctic expedition. It has since become a popular survival food for expeditions all over the world thanks to its combination of refreshing minty taste and high energy content of 350 calories per 100 grams.
Agent Auction House, Cumbria
