Historical information

C & G Harding Pty Ltd opened a $350,000 crumpet-making factory in Wigg Street, Wodonga on 18th March 1977. The company director and plant manager was John Harding. They initially employed 20 local employees. At its peak the business baked hundreds of thousands of crumpets every week, producing 7,200 crumpets per hour. As well as being exceptionally popular in Wodonga, they shipped their products as far away as Sydney, The business closed in the 1990s.

The Sarah Harding Baking Company originated in Richmond, Victoria. William Harding was convicted of sheep stealing in 1846 and sentence to 10 years transportation. Harding was lucky he was not sentenced a decade earlier - he trained in carpentry and arrived a free man. In 1852, he was working on the foundations of a new home when his neighbour - the wealthy politician William Highett - gave him a loan to build the Kingston Hotel in Richmond where he was the licensee in 1854. It was successful, but Harding drank and gambled much of the profits and when he slighted Highett in a card game the loan was foreclosed.

The Hardings were saved by wife Margaret and daughter Sarah, the eldest of their 17 children, who started a successful crumpet business - the Sarah Harding Baking Company. The company operated for over 100 years, carried on in several locations by descendants and relatives of the original William Harding who died in Hawthorn, Victoria in 1904 after a long and colourful life. The Wodonga business was the first C & G Harding bakery to be established outside of Melbourne.

Significance

This item is significant because it represents a successful Wodonga business.

Physical description

An advertisement for a Wodonga business. It includes a business logo and an image of the premises.

Inscriptions & markings

Sarah Harding's Crumpets
THE PERFECT PARTNERS FOR MURRAY VALLEY DAIRY PRODUCE
C. & G. Harding Pty. Ltd.
WIGG STREET, WODONGA, 3690
Telephone: STD 060 24 4205