Favourite chocolate?

M&S chocolate buttons

Your standout moment from Sweet Legacies?

It’s been a privilege to collaborate with so many incredible people, from artists to community members. Visiting so many different groups has been especially meaningful—it’s where we’ve seen just how diverse and powerful creativity can be. The project has shown us that creativity doesn’t fit into just one box, and my highlight has been watching confidence and expression shine across the community in so many different forms.

A Rowntree fact you like?

I love hearing about how some of the women played with gender in their amateur dramatics society, even wearing trousers!

Favourite chocolate?

Chocolate pretzels

Your standout moment from Sweet Legacies?

This project has been so joyous, I can’t highlight one! For me it’s about the community coming together, whatever that looks like for each group. The smiles and laughter have been incredible.

A Rowntree fact you like?

My favourite thing about the Rowntrees is their varied approach to supporting their workers, in all areas of their life. Especially the images of the fun sports and arts clubs they founded!

Favourite sweet?

Currently obsessed with chocolate honeycomb!

Your standout moment from Sweet Legacies?

I can’t choose. Meeting the participants to the writing groups I worked on and getting to hear their writing and the amazing stories that inspired it.

A Rowntree fact you like?

That they gifted Homestead Park to the people of York.

Favourite chocolate?

KitKat 70% Dark

Your standout moment from Sweet Legacies?

“Now, where are the cups?”

A Rowntree fact you like?

The Elect Cocoa barge which joined the University boat race in 1897, towed along by mechanically propelled swans.

Favourite sweet?

Pear Drops

Your standout moment from Sweet Legacies?

So hard to pick one, but I loved the peacefulness and mindfulness of the writer’s workshop at the Pavilion in Homestead Park.

A Rowntree fact you like?

They employed 14,000 people in York at their peak.

Visit James website: www.james-drury.com.

Favourite sweet?

Quality Street Green Triangle

Your standout moment from Sweet Legacies?

When the group imagined a flower shop and school while dreaming up their ideal community.

A Rowntree fact you like?

The Rowntree founders were Quakers—and their values shaped everything from worker welfare to the company’s kind-hearted ethos. Sweet inside and out!

Favourite chocolate?

Dark chocolate (any type!)

Your standout moment from Sweet Legacies?

Music is for everyone: getting to make music and collaborate with so many brilliant folk in our local community to create musical moments has been fantastic. The idea collection part of the projects has been a particular standout – getting to learn about people’s favourite songs/pieces of music and what it means to them (and finding ways of incorporating elements of it into the work!).

A Rowntree fact you like?

For a company that would become a world leader in branding, for the first 50 years, the Rowntree thought that quality products should and would sell themselves (they then went on to become brilliant marketers with some cracking jingles!)

Favourite chocolate?

I love a very dark hot chocolate!

Your standout moment from Sweet Legacies?

Our wonderful time at the place for their family day! It was such fun playing games together.

A Rowntree fact you like?

That the left-over chocolate made the smarties.

Favourite chocolate?

Crunchies

Your standout moment from Sweet Legacies?

Meeting lots of new young people, and seeing communities come together.

A Rowntree fact you like?

That they grew a pineapple in Homestead Park.

Favourite chocolate?

KitKat

Your standout moment from Sweet Legacies?

Watching people laugh and having fun even when things went wrong!

A Rowntree fact you like?

The rivalry between Rowntree’s and Cadbury’s inspired Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory!

Favourite chocolate?

I love mini eggs.

Your standout moment from Sweet Legacies?

I love seeing what young girls wanted to change within the world.

A Rowntree fact you like?

My favourite fact is that Seebohm Rowntree use to make sure his workers were happy and healthy with gym lessons!

Favourite sweet?

Fruit Pastilles!

Your standout moment from Sweet Legacies?

Hearing first hand stories from so many participants about their experience with Rowntrees has been beautiful and really shows the impact Rowntrees has to this day.

A Rowntree fact you like?

The factory staff would only have a 10 minute toilet break once in the morning and once in the afternoon, all at the same time so the factory lines would be switched off. I also love the whole story surrounding the creation of Rowntrees Park and why it was built.

Favourite chocolate?

Snickers

Your standout moment from Sweet Legacies?

Seeing people getting stuck into the colouring sheets, and enjoying good, old-fashioned arts and crafts!

A Rowntree fact you like?

Smarties used to be called ‘Chocolate Beans’.

Favourite chocolate?

Reese’s peanut butter cups

Your standout moment from Sweet Legacies?

Watching the participants have fun and get creative whilst interviewing each other on a teeny, tiny microphone at YIKS!

A Rowntree fact you like?

I love how the Rowntree family were so ahead of their time, and strived to be as eco-friendly as possible.

Favourite chocolate?

Any chocolate that has hazelnut, peanuts, or pistachios. I’m nuts for it!

Your standout moment from Sweet Legacies?

Getting to work so closely with the professionals across YTR and Tang Hall Smart has been such a fulfilling, rewarding experience. They’ve been so welcoming towards my quirks as a neurodivergent professional, and in turn I’ve welcomed their mentorship and expertise at every step. The young people I’ve met at Tang Hall Smart have brought so much joy and sparkle into my life, and I can’t help but feel that the founding Rowntrees would be thrilled at how this project has brought communities together.

A Rowntree fact you like?

I love how radical the Rowntrees were for their time, and that they innovated a lot of worker’s rights which are seen as ‘given’ today such as sick leave!

Favourite chocolate?

That’s a tough call, but probably smarties.

Your standout moment from Sweet Legacies?

It’s altogether been so wonderful to support so many fabulous projects with historical and archival research. One particular highlight was reading the WINGS radio play for the first time and seeing how inspirational the past had been for them!

A Rowntree fact you like?

Pineapples were grown in York in the Rowntree’s tropical plant house – it just seems so unexpected for a century ago. I’ve loved taking Pete the Pineapple Plant with me to sessions and asking people why…

Favourite chocolate?

Pick and Mix! I can’t say no to a pick and mix, including chocolates…I guess that’s kind of cheating but I have a very sweet tooth so it’s hard to choose just one favourite!

Your standout moment from Sweet Legacies?

Seeing the pride in the young people as they shared their work – especially those who began by saying “I’m not creative!” It was amazing to watch them collaborate, support each other, and create something they were genuinely proud to show off.

A Rowntree fact you like?

Both of my husband’s grandads worked at the Rowntree’s factory, one of them put the bubbles into Aero chocolate (which inspired one of the Sweet Legacies sessions!). The other now lives at the Rowntree’s New Lodge development in New Earswick. I love that personal connection and the way the Rowntree legacy continues to foster community and care in York.

Favourite sweets?

Drew – Jelly Tots

Hannah – Giant Strawberries

Your standout moment from Sweet Legacies?

We’ve got to dance with so many people so far and create some really fun responses to old chocolate commercials. ‘It’s the centre’s!’ is a tagline that is used in all the dairy box commercials. Just like a box of chocolates has different flavours, fillings, and shapes, communities are full of different people, backgrounds, personalities. Some people are sweet, some are nutty, some are surprising — but they all belong in the same box.

A Rowntree fact you like?

We love that Joseph Rowntree used his wealth and status to improve society, for equality and fairness and we wish the businessman of today shared more of his philanthropic values to make the world a better place!

Image credit: Bec Hudson Smith

Favourite chocolate?

A really good bar of vegan dark chocolate

Your standout moment from Sweet Legacies?

Being able to attend all the wonderful, community sessions and film the beautiful moments that so many amazing people are sharing together.

A Rowntree fact you like?

It was a hostile takeover from Nestle.

Check out Jessica’s website here

Favourite chocolate?

From Brazil: Batom Garoto, a milk chocolate that I ate during my childhood

From UK: Tony’s Chocolonely dark chocolate

Your standout moment from Sweet Legacies?

When my theatre group performed their show in the Studio, it was a magical experience and a significant moment of pride and joy for everyone involved.

A Rowntree fact you like?

Homestead Park was gifted to the city by Seebohm Rowntree, with the initial intention of providing a space for school children to play.

Favourite chocolate?

Raspberry dark chocolate

Your standout moment from Sweet Legacies?

Our 8-11s Access All Areas learnt a wonderful scarves dance to ‘Imagination’ from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. It was great to see them think about improvising creative movement as their characters as they explored their dream chocolate factory.

A Rowntree fact you like?

Dancing bees were used in the early marketing for Aero!

Favourite chocolate?

Divine dark chocolate with raspberry

Your standout moment from Sweet Legacies?

Listening back to the market-stalls soundscape we had just made with the group I was working with, all enjoying the what we had created together in such a short time using just our voices and memories.

A Rowntree fact you like?

I can see the old Rowntree’s chocolate factory from my bedroom window.

Favourite chocolate?

A Starbar or Fruit & Nut.

Your standout moment from Sweet Legacies?

I’ve loved seeing artwork, songs, poems, plays and much more flood in. It’s been a huge pleasure witnessing how much fun people have had in Sweet Legacies. Just how many people have been laughing, sharing and making together.

A Rowntree fact you like?

A fact that we all really loved in WINGS is that the women of the Rowntree factory in WWII sang as they worked. What an amazing thing – I think it evoked images, soundscapes and emotions for us immediately.

Favourite chocolate?

Dark mint chocolate, darker and mintier the better!

A Rowntree fact you like?

Rowntree’s Fruit Pastilles were invented by a travelling confectionery salesman, Claude Gaget, and the product turned the tides of the business!