Wigan Album

On the old Camp Coffee bottles, (as in the advert), the gentleman in the turban was shown SERVING coffee to the gentleman in the kilt......on the current bottles the gentlemen are shown sitting side by side, BOTH drinking coffee.....political correctness!

My first ever coffee was Camp about 1950 on the ground at Woodhouse Lane.Didn't like it.

So funny, I was only telling an old friend about Camp coffee a couple of weeks ago. Anyway, back in the 40s, 50s, my Mam always made a cup of Camp coffee in the afternoon for herself and my Grandma( who lived with us) and as I got older I got a cup too.. I used to really like it back then.... Don't know what I would think of it now... Can you still buy it, having been gone for 37 yrs, I wouldn't know...

Yes, Janet, you can still buy it with the new-style label I described above. I think a lot of people use it in recipes, (coffee-flavoured cakes/desserts etc.), but I imagine some people enjoy it as a drink.

Amazing what is evoked by just an old crumpled envelope - wonderful wiganworld. Thanks for posting.

Thanks Irene... Back when I was younger, I didn't know anybody with coffee makers, Camp was the only coffee I knew.. used to have lots of sugar and milk in, not black like I do now...

Coffee ?
It's full of roasted Chicory.

It is without doubt the worst tasting drink, of so called coffee, I have tasted

This is the only coffee I have drunk for years,in summer it is nice with cold milk and ice for a long cool drink.

Gladys, I hope you dont mind if I venture off-topic here! I know you found this as it is in an old tin, but I wonder if anyone can speculate the origins of this note. That handwriting.. is it a common style from that era? Do you think the (envelope?) might have originated in Glasgow or elsewhere in Scotland? Thanks if anyone has ideas? Just curious..

I would say the signature is in the hand schoolchildren were taught in those days. Examples I have of my parents/grandparents signatures show the same, forward-sloping handwriting; in fact my own is similar, although not through being taught that way....I must have just developed that style. It is written in ink with a fountain pen rather than a biro. I would guess that the head office of Camp Coffee was in Scotland, hence the printed address.

Thanks for your thoughts on this handwriting Irene. Yes, a distinctive style of writing! Identical to my own grandma's (from Wigan originally). But her father also had this style, he was born in Scotland and only came to Wigan to teach after attending St Andrews University in the mid 1800's. I could never read my grandma's writing when I was a child, but she never varied throughout her life until she died at 93, and I still find it a struggle reading her old correspondence from many years ago in Australia written to my mum!