Dive in to Rowntree's history

As part of the Joseph Rowntree Centenary, The Rowntree Society undertook a research project to find out what happened at Joseph’s funeral.

In 2017, we created an exhibition on the life of Lawrence Rowntree for display in the Community Room at York Castle Museum, as part of the museum’s larger commemorative World War One exhibition.

In 2025 we are starting a project about Rowntree Political Connections and Influences. This built on our ‘New Rowntree Histories‘ project from 2022.

In February 2020, we began a new research project exploring the Rowntree company’s historic global supply chains. This project is part of our commitment to expanding the audiences for our work nationally and internationally.

These unique history walks were designed to enable residents and visitors to York to explore key landmarks and places in the city related to Rowntree.

In 2013 we received a Heritage Lottery Fund grant for an oral history project called York Remembers Rowntree.

We supported the historical research and accompanying outreach programme for Blood and Chocolate, a co-produced performance by Pilot Theatre, York Theatre Royal and Slung Low, written by Mike Kenny.

In 2012 we researched the history of 28 Pavement, the address in York where the Rowntree company began its life in 1828 as grocery business, and where Joseph Rowntree was born in 1836.

An index of named individuals in the Cocoa Works Magazine, the in-house magazine for workers at the Rowntree factory in York published from 1902 to 1971.

To mark the 30th anniversary of the takeover of Rowntree Mackintosh by Nestlé, The Rowntree Society put on an exhibition of cartoons that appeared in the national newspapers between April and June 1988 during the takeover period.

A project to create innovative digital performances inspired by the mass-observation-style interviews which informed Benjamin Seebohm Rowntree’s seminal 1951 study English Life and Leisure.