Spring is in the air, and with it comes the Easter season! Yes, the annual springtime celebration is soon upon us, and will be hopping onto all our calendars imminently!

However, you might be wondering, how on earth did chocolate eggs become so central to this Easter tradition? Where was this idea ‘hatched’?

Why, here in the West of England, of course!

Yes, we live in the place where the hollow chocolate egg was invented. And this year, there’s a super egg-citing reason to celebrate, for it was exactly 150 years ago this happened.

In 1873, West of England chocolatiers, J.S. Fry & Sons introduced the first chocolate Easter egg we all know and love today. That’s right, the same Fry’s that produce your favourite Chocolate Creams and Turkish Delights!

They’re a proper West of England success story – with factories in Bristol, later moving to Somerdale, Keynsham, while the Fry family lived in Frenchay.

It wasn’t long before other chocolate companies, like Cadbury’s, got in on the act to sell them worldwide too. I love when the brilliance of our region’s businesses shines, and a great West of England idea goes global. As your Metro Mayor, I’m determined we keep that tradition going!

Now in recognising our local chocolate manufacturing history, we must acknowledge its odious history too, for we know sugar and cocoa grown on Caribbean plantations in the 18th and 19th centuries exploited people of African descent forced into slave labour. While Quakers in the UK, like the Fry family, helped lead the anti-slavery movement, this wasn’t so true of Quakers everywhere.

The West of England is today home to independent chocolate makers of all sizes.

And it’s this commitment to working towards a sweeter future that I want to celebrate. That’s why I’m “egging on” residents to donate their spare chocolate eggs to good causes like foodbanks. And it’s why I want residents to get behind the fantastic shops and attractions this Easter.

So let’s celebrate our region’s greatness by celebrating the chocolate egg’s 150th birthday, and together let’s make the sweet things in South Glos sweeter still.