The miners of the Northumberland and Durham Coalfield worked in hot and dusty conditions where dry mouths were a constant nuisance. Their remedy was to suck on peppermint-flavoured balls of boiled sugar known as black bullets, which kept their mouths moist and their energy levels up. Every pit village had a bullet shop and they were so popular that “bullets” has become a generic term among Geordies for boiled sweets of any shape or flavour.
The confectionary industry took off on Tyneside at the beginning of the nineteenth century when sugar began to be shipped into the region directly from the West Indies. It was sold in bags to sweeten tea, but shopkeepers found they could make more money from it by boiling the sugar and making sweets. Marketing wasn’t a problem, English patriotism had reached fever pitch in the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars, and treats such as ‘Bonaparte’s Ribs’, ‘Wellington Sticks’ and ‘Soldier Buttons’ were sold in huge quantities.
The musket shot that killed the hero of Trafalgar was commemorated with ‘Nelson’s Balls’ and the ones sold on Tyneside were almost as lethal, a chemical analysis in 1824 was found to contain large quantities of lead. This didn’t bother the Geordie pitmen but even the most patriotic among them would have felt uneasy sucking on Nelson’s balls, so these were re-branded as ‘Nelson’s Bullets’ and eventually became ‘Black Bullets’.
The Industrial Revolution helped ramp up production and by the 1850s Newcastle had its first steam-powered confectionery machines, owned by McDonald & Co at their Steam Factory and Great Central Emporium on Dean Street. Quarter of a million men and boys worked underground when mining reached its peak at the end of century, with the region’s bullet factories keeping pace with demand.
Miners formed the backbone of the Northumberland Fusiliers and were well-armed with black bullets during World War I. In 1916 a local manufacturer called Maynard’s was criticised for “wasting” valuable sugar on the sweets; they said they’d received thousands of letters from Geordies on the Western Front asking for them to be sent there. The same year, another local bullet manufacturer was granted exemption from military service on the grounds his work was good for morale, despite the chairman of the tribunal saying these weren’t the type of bullets needed at the Front.
Black bullets were as popular with people underwater as they were with those toiling underground. They were enjoyed by submarine crews in World War II, and once again, Maynard’s met the demand. The company gave two-hundredweight of them to the Royal Navy, and Welch & Sons of North Shields donated a further hundredweight. Other batches were sent to local lads fighting in the deserts of North Africa, who knew they were perfect for combatting the hot and dusty conditions.
Black bullets are still hugely popular with Geordies but their favourite brand, Jesmona, is manufactured in Sheffield by a confectionery company called Maxons. It would take a fair amount of detective work to unravel the previous chain of ownership of this brand, as Jesmona was used to sell a variety of products in the first half of the twentieth century. What is certain though, is that Jesmona Black Bullets were first manufactured by Johnson Dodds & Co., in a warehouse near Newcastle’s Quayside.
The sweets remain hugely popular with Geordies and the most famous brand is Jesmona Black Bullets, which were originally manufactured by Johnson Dodds & Co. at their City Mills warehouse near Newcastle’s Quayside. They are currently produced in Sheffield by a company called Maxons, who bought the brand name in the 1960s.
William Johnson and Colonel William Dodds formed the partnership of Johnson Dodds & Company in 1887, operating as wholesale grocers and tea importers from premises in the Bigg Market. In 1891 they leased the huge City Mills warehouse which became the company’s headquarters until the 1950s. ‘Jesmona’ was first used in 1904 as a brand of photographic plates sold by a chemist called Alwyne Dyson from his shop on Grainger Street, it’s a reference to his home in Jesmond. It was registered as a trademark two years later in 1906 and used by a grocer from Berwick who exported tinned fruits and vegetables under that brand for the next few decades.
Johnson Dodds & Co acquired the brand name and began manufacturing sweets, publicising their new product in the summer of 1939 by distributing 120 tins of Jesmona Black Mints to dancers at the Oxford Galleries ballroom in Newcastle. These had become Jesmona Black Bullets by the 1950s, to distinguish them from black bullets made by competitors such as Dobson’s of Winlaton, and Welch’s of North Shields, whose most famous product these days is the television personality Denise Welch.
She makes the bizarre claim in her optimistically-titled autobiography, ‘Pulling Myself Together’, that the black bullet was invented by her grandfather in North Shields. An old Northumberland saying comes to mind: “I wouldn’t bet more than a black bullet on that, and I’d have had two good sucks on it first”.