Q&A

What was the Bradford sweets poisoning?

On 30 October 1858, William Hardaker – known as “Humbug Billy” – was selling peppermint lozenges at Bradford’s Saturday market. As usual, he had bought them from sweetmaker James Appleton, who was employed by Joseph Neal. When Hardaker fell ill after sampling one of the humbugs, though, he did not make the connection that something might be wrong with the sweets, so his stall stayed open all day and more than 1,000 humbugs were sold.

By Sunday morning, two local boys had died suddenly and dozens more people were gravely sick. Police quickly made