We have exclusive web access to a fascinating article about Joseph Rowntree Senior (the father of the more famous son)
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Joseph Rowntree
The Rowntree name is familar to all who have enjoyed Kit Kat, Black Magic, Smarties, Fruit Gums,Polo, cocoa, and many other Rowntree products. But many won't realise that Joseph Rowntree,
who built up the Rowntree company (which is now part of Nestle) was an extraordinary man - a
philanthropist, far ahead of his time, a progressive employer, a radical thinker, and a social innovator.
It's not surprising, then, that readers of the York Press voted him York's 'Man of the Millennium'
(alongside Dame Judi Dench as 'Woman of the Millennium')
His son, Seebohm, continued in the same tradition - his studies of 20th century poverty helped to
lay the foundations of the modern welfare state. His nephew, Arnold, was a very distinguished
Liberal Member of Parliament for York in the early years of the last century. All three men lived
and worked in York - Joseph began life in 1836 at 28 Pavement - now a branch of Pizza Hut,
renumbered 10 Pavement - in the centre of York. Joseph Rowntree died in 1925.
As his biographer wrote Joseph Rowntree 'belonged to the generation which stared at the last
stage-coaches in its childhood and the first aeroplanes in its old age'.
You can find out much more about Joseph, and the Rowntree family, by hitting the
'links' button on the left-hand side of this page.
