Carlisle City Council’s Regeneration Team was awarded a grant to bring to life the stories of the Carr’s / McVitie’s factory in Carlisle and those who worked there. In particular, the female factory workers who were affectionately known as ‘Cracker Packers’.

In 1831 Jonathan Dodgson Carr, son of a Quaker grocer walked from his home in Kendal to Carlisle and established Carr and Company in a shop in the centre of the City of Carlisle. Six years later Mr Carr bought a plot of land in Caldewgate, built his factory and began making biscuits, eventually becoming a global brand.

The project worked alongside current women workers and the pensioners group at the McVitie's Factory to design and develop an interpretation panel at the site of a commemorative ‘Cracker Packers’ statue. Archive material from the Factory, Tullie House Museum and Carlisle Archive Centre was collected and oral history workshops allowed for engagement with the local community.