Tudor Crisps was a brand of

potato crisp A potato chip (North American English; often just chip) or crisp (British and Irish English) is a thin slice of potato that has been either deep fried, baked, or air fried until crunchy. They are commonly served as a snack, side dish, or ap ...

s produced in

Sandyford Sandyford () is a suburb of Dublin, located in Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown, Ireland. Sandyford Business District makes up much of the suburb and encompasses 4 business parks: Sandyford Business Park, Stillorgan Business Park, Central Park and S ...

Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne ( RP: , ), or simply Newcastle, is a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. The city is located on the River Tyne's northern bank and forms the largest part of the Tyneside built-up area. Newcastle is ...

, England. Originally an independent firm, established in Newcastle in 1947, Tudor later moved to

Peterlee Peterlee is a town in County Durham, England. It lies between Sunderland to the north, Hartlepool to the south, the Durham Coast to the east and Durham to the west. It gained town status in 1948 under the New Towns Act 1946. The act also cre ...

to a new factory, which still exists but was closed in 2017. Tudor was acquired by

Smiths Crisps The Smith's Snackfood Company is a British-Australian snack food company owned by American multinational corporation PepsiCo. It is best known for its brand of potato crisps. The company was founded by Frank Smith and Jim Viney in the United Ki ...

in 1961, and Smiths’ new Salt & Vinegar flavour would first be tested by Tudor in their home market of north-east England before it was launched nationally by Smiths in 1967. The 1970s television advertisements featured a paper boy, bribed with a ‘canny bag of crisps’ to brave delivering his papers to a tall tower block (in reality

Derwent Tower Derwent Tower was a 29-storey residential apartment building in Dunston, Tyne and Wear, United Kingdom, opened in 1972. Due to its unusual shape it was nicknamed the "Dunston Rocket" during construction (even before its official Derwent Tower ...

Dunston, Tyne and Wear Dunston is a western area of the town of Gateshead on the south bank of the River Tyne, in the Metropolitan Borough of Gateshead, North East England (into which it was absorbed in 1974). Dunston had a population of 18,326 at the 2011 Census. ...

). In the 1980s, the ads gave cult status to their star, Allen Mechen, who played the adult paperboy who returned as an apparently successful and wealthy man, driving a

Rolls-Royce Rolls-Royce (always hyphenated) may refer to: * Rolls-Royce Limited, a British manufacturer of cars and later aero engines, founded in 1906, now defunct Automobiles * Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, the current car manufacturing company incorporated in ...

car and eating a bag of Tudor Crisps. The twist in the tale was when he donned a chauffeur's cap in the finale. Smiths Tudor was later bought by Nabisco, which also owned Walkers Crisps and later became part of the Walkers division of

PepsiCo PepsiCo, Inc. is an American multinational food, snack, and beverage corporation headquartered in Harrison, New York, in the hamlet of Purchase. PepsiCo's business encompasses all aspects of the food and beverage market. It oversees the manuf ...

. The Tudor Crisps brand was discontinued in 2003, when Walkers decided to focus on its core crisp range. The Smiths brand was also mostly phased out around the same time as Tudor, although some products such as Scampi Fries and Frazzles are still sold under the Smiths brand. Tudor salt and vinegar flavour crisps were sold in blue packaging and cheese and onion in green bags, like most other brands in the UK, but the move to Walkers crisps reversed the colours.

References

{{Reflist British snack foods Companies based in Newcastle upon Tyne Peterlee