Romney's KendalMint Cake

Sam T. Clarke came home from the First World War and started making mint cake in Kendal in 1918; his great-grandson John Barron has been managing director since 2013, the fifth generation is already in the building, and the firm still boils over a hundred tonnes a year at the Mintsfeet works it has occupied since 1969. When rival Wiper's — whose recipe dates to 1869 — sold up in 1987, Romney's bought the name and kept the method running, so both of Kendal's historic mint cakes now leave one family's factory. Sixteen people make the thing that fuelled the 1953 Everest expedition, and visitors can watch them do it and buy from the outlet at the gate. A confection, a town, and a century of one family: the sum is the listing.