Brown & Polson: Paisley's Patent Cornflour

Each major claim carries one of three labels. established means supported by primary records, official bodies or several independent reliable sources. shared means the core fact is sound but sources disagree on details, dates or interpretation. traditional means widely repeated but not traceable to a primary or independent source.

The main sources for the early history are William S. Murphy's Captains of Industry (1901), reproduced by Grace's Guide, and company material used by Carol Foreman in Made in Scotland (2nd edn, 2010). Both are sympathetic to the firm. We have not seen the 1854 patent itself, and the sources do not give its number. Dates for the takeover by Corn Products (1935 or 1936) and for the end of Paisley production (1996 or 2002) differ between sources. Some popular accounts give 1855 or 1856 for the first sale of cornflour; we have not found evidence for those dates and use 1854 for the patent.

The biggest claim, often repeated, is that cornflour was "first produced in Paisley". That depends on what is meant. Maize starch was already being made in the United States, and was sold for food there in the 1850s. What Brown & Polson can claim is an early British patent, the trade name "Corn Flour", and a brand that taught British cooks to use it.

Muslin and starch

established Paisley in the 1840s was a textile town of thread, shawls and fine muslin. Muslin had to be bleached, scoured and stiffened before sale, and starch was part of that finishing. In 1840 two Paisley muslin firms, William Brown & Son and John Polson & Co., formed a joint enterprise to do the work. Foreman says the partners were William Brown and John Polson the elder, that the Brown firm had recently moved from Glasgow, and that their works were at Thrushcraigs, near Paisley.

shared According to Foreman, John Polson the elder found that a mixture of sago and flour made a starch that could stand up to bleaching, and saw that it might sell to households. In 1842 the firm introduced "Powder Starch", first sold in Edinburgh in penny packets. Foreman says it was called powder starch because earlier starch came in "pipes" or crystals, and that it won a certificate of merit at the Great Exhibition of 1851. Paisley Heritage also dates the firm's experiments with sago starch to 1842.

shared Foreman says John Polson the elder died in 1843, aged 43, and that the two firms were then merged as Brown & Polson. Paisley Heritage says the business moved to larger premises at Carriagehill within a year of 1842. William Brown died in 1851, according to the partners' history in Captains of Industry.

John Polson the younger and the 1854 patent

established John Polson the younger was born in Paisley on 5 February 1825. He went to Paisley Grammar School and the Andersonian College in Glasgow, where Captains of Industry says he studied with distinction, and then joined his father's business. About 1853 he began to study maize, then usually called Indian corn, as a source of food.

established In 1854 Polson patented a process for separating the oily and husky parts of maize from its starch. The result was a pure white starch with little taste, which he called "Corn Flour". Foreman describes the discovery as finding that, once the fatty content was removed, what remained was a palatable pure starch. The firm sold it as "Brown & Polson's Patent Corn Flour". It was later written as one word, "cornflour", which is still the usual British name for what Americans call cornstarch.

established The new product suited Victorian cooking. It thickened sauces, soups and gravies without lumps if mixed with cold liquid first, and set milk into blancmange and custard. Brown & Polson promoted it for puddings, for children and for invalids, and published recipe books. The firm's reputation rested on the purity of its starch.

Did Brown & Polson invent cornflour?

established No, not in the sense of being first to make starch from maize. In the United States Thomas Kingsford is credited with a process for making corn starch in 1842 in New Jersey; his firm moved to Oswego, New York, in 1848 and made both laundry starch and food starch. Hendrick and Elizabeth Duryea opened corn starch plants at Glen Cove on Long Island and at Oswego in 1853. Duryea's products later included the Maizena brand and won awards at the 1862 London International Exhibition.

established What Brown & Polson did claim was the name. A Brown & Polson advertisement in the Evening Star of Dunedin, New Zealand, in November 1869 stated that the firm had been first to use the name "Corn Flour" and warned customers against products sold under that name that were not made from maize, including one said to be made from rice. That is a narrower and more defensible claim than "first to make cornflour".

shared Bird's Custard, devised in Birmingham in 1837, is often described as cornflour-based, which would predate Polson's patent. Early custard powders were made from various starches, and the exact original recipe is not well documented. The point stands that edible starches were in use before 1854, and that Brown & Polson's achievement lay in purity, branding and scale.

The word "Patent"

shared "Patent" on the packet told shoppers that the product was protected and new. A British patent of the 1850s gave protection for a limited term of years, so Polson's patent would have expired in the 1860s. The firm kept "Patent Corn Flour" as a brand name for decades afterwards. That was common in Victorian trade, where "patent" had become a selling word as much as a legal one. Readers should not take the word on later packets as evidence of a patent in force.

The Royal Starch Works

established In 1866 the Carriagehill works burned down. The firm rebuilt on Falside Road, Paisley, as the Royal Starch Works. Paisley Heritage says the company was official starch maker to Queen Victoria from early on, which explains the name. The works employed more than 200 people by 1871. The 1881 census recorded 277 employees, of whom 174 were boys and girls.

shared Foreman says the works were described in 1881, in a treatise on starch manufacture by Robert Hutter of Philadelphia, as among the largest of their kind. She also quotes an 1896 claim that the sacks of maize crushed in a year, piled on top of one another, would form a column 80 miles high. These are period boasts. She adds that Brown & Polson workers were recognisable in Paisley by the white dust on their clothes.

established In 1873, Paisley Heritage says, John Polson introduced one of Scotland's first profit-sharing schemes. Foreman describes it as a yearly bonus paid into each worker's account at the local savings bank, provided the worker had not been guilty of misconduct. Polson was also active in Paisley public life. He wrote pamphlets on poverty, supported the town's fine art exhibitions and choral society, helped restore Paisley Abbey, and gave prizes for the study of botany. He died on 10 August 1900, aged 75, and was buried in Woodside Cemetery, Paisley.

Products and advertising

shared By 1900, according to Foreman and the burial record of John Polson, Brown & Polson was the largest maker of starch products in Britain. Its products included Patent Cornflour, "Paisley Flour" and "Raisley" self-raising flour, blancmange and custard powder. Later the firm made Mazola cooking oil from maize, and in 1934 it advertised "Zesto" corn flakes made in Paisley, with the line asking why buy imported flakes. Foreman also records cookery booklets promoting cornflour and "Raisley", with recipes such as Paisley Rolls and Paisley Diamonds and price lists of kitchen utensils.

established Brown & Polson advertised widely in Britain and across the Empire. Its 1869 New Zealand advertisement recommended cornflour for children's diet, for breakfast and supper with milk, and for custards and puddings. Twentieth-century advertisements kept the same themes, with recipe offers and assurances of smoothness.

Corn Products and the long decline

established John Armour Brown and his sons ran the business after Polson's death. It became a private company, Brown & Polson Ltd, in 1920; Paisley Heritage gives its capital as £500,000. In 1923 it acquired two other starch makers, William Wotherspoon and William Mackean. Foreman says Lord Rowallan, connected to the Polson family by marriage, later joined the board.

shared By the early 1930s the plant was old and needed capital. Brown & Polson became a wholly owned subsidiary of Corn Products Company, a British affiliate of the American Corn Products Refining Company, which already had a works in Manchester. Foreman and Paisley Heritage give 1935; Grace's Guide gives 1936.

shared Under its new owners Paisley made a widening range. Foreman says the Royal Starch Works were enlarged in 1950, that Knorr soups and stock cubes were made there from 1962, and that baby foods followed with the American firm Gerber. Other products made at Paisley included Frank Cooper's marmalade, Hellmann's mayonnaise, starch-based adhesives and Dextrosol glucose. All starch making moved to Manchester in 1964.

established At 6.40 am on 5 June 1964 an explosion destroyed the firm's animal feed plant, in Braids Road. Four men were killed and four were badly injured. Paisley Heritage says the likely cause was a grain dust explosion. Foreman quotes a police officer at the scene who said he had seen nothing like it, even in the war.

shared From the 1970s the Paisley works lost jobs in a series of redundancies. Foreman and the burial record of John Polson say the Falside Road works closed and were demolished in 1996. Grace's Guide and Paisley Heritage say production in Paisley ended in 2002. The dates may refer to different parts of the site.

Unilever and Premier Foods

established Corn Products became CPC International and later Bestfoods. Unilever bought Bestfoods in 2000. Unilever Bestfoods then sold the Brown & Polson and Ambrosia brands to Premier Foods, a deal Grace's Guide dates to 2003.

shared Premier Foods still sells Brown & Polson cornflour, and its website describes Brown & Polson as the UK's number one cornflour brand. That is the owner's own claim. The cornflour is no longer made in Paisley.

• Brown & Polson began as a starching business for Paisley muslin.
• In 1869 the firm advertised in New Zealand that it was first to use the name "Corn Flour".
• The 1881 census recorded 174 boys and girls among the firm's 277 employees.
• The firm introduced one of Scotland's first profit-sharing schemes in 1873.
• Brown & Polson made "Zesto" corn flakes in Paisley in the 1930s.
• Knorr soups were made at the Paisley works from 1962.
• An explosion at the animal feed plant on 5 June 1964 killed four men.
• Americans call the same product cornstarch.

• Myth: cornflour was invented in Paisley. American makers produced maize starch, including food starch, before or alongside Brown & Polson. Polson's 1854 patent and the name "Corn Flour" are the firm's real claims.
• Disputed: the patent dates from 1856. The sources we have seen give 1854; we have found no evidence for 1855 or 1856.
• Myth: "Patent" on the packet meant a patent was in force. The patent would have expired in the 1860s; the word was kept as branding.
• Disputed: Corn Products took over in 1935. Foreman and Paisley Heritage say 1935; Grace's Guide says 1936.
• Disputed: the Paisley works closed in 1996. Foreman says the Falside Road works were demolished in 1996; other sources date the end of Paisley production to 2002.
• Disputed: Brown & Polson is the UK's number one cornflour brand. This is the owner's own claim.