Cracker Packers

Commissioned by Carlisle City Council, this public sculpture, celebrates the lives of the women who worked in the Carr’s (now McVitie’s) biscuit factory there and were affectionately known as ‘Cracker Packers’. The sculpture depicts two women biscuit workers, holding an imaginary conversation at the biscuit factory, one is from 1910 and the other from the present day, both are dressed in the respective factory uniforms of the period. The women are standing on top of a giant bronze Carr’s Table Water Biscuit. The sculpture is located close to the Pladis factory where Carr’s Table Water biscuits are produced. It is quite rare for working women to be celebrated with a sculpture in this way. When Cracker Packers was installed the sculptor, Hazel Reeves, commented that she hoped she had captured their ‘spirit, warmth, humour and camaraderie’, adding that to have produced a sculpture of ‘working-class women in particular is a real joy’.

Location: Caldewgate, Carlisle