Edwin Samson Moore, the authors great-great grandfather.

In 1874 Edwin Samson Moore a young man of 25 years  established the Midland Vinegar Company at Aston Cross Birmingham.

His uncle Edward Eastwood, the cousin of the Victorian railway and canal engineer, Thomas Telford,  had by this time become a multi-millionaire thanks to his railway waggon and carriage building business in Chesterfield.

Edward financed their joint business enterprise which would become the largest producer of vinegar in the world.  In 1899 they purchased the secret recipe to the Nottingham grocer Frederick Gibson Gartons HP Sauce under mysterious and dubious circumstances.