I often have people approach my stall asking “Where’s the marmalade then?” I laugh and tell them there’s no marmalade and my name isn’t Emma either. Marmalade Emma was a tramp who lived in the town where I was born, Colchester in Essex, from around 1900 until she died in 1917. Where she came from nobody really knows for sure, although it’s thought she was born in Great Horkesley in 1860. There are a number of stories about why she was called ‘Marmalade Emma’. Was it that she loved marmalade and went about clutching a jar of it (like in the photo below), or was she sacked as a house maid for stealing some. Or was it her hair, which some claim was ‘marmalady’. Maybe the cat, which she kept tucked in her coat with its head sticking out, was a marmalade cat. We’ll never know for sure. But she and her devoted friend Teddy Grimes walked the streets of the town, begging for food, arguing, and swearing profusely. Emma died of bronchitis in the ‘Common Lodging House on Vineyard Street’, unsurprising given her way of life. You can read a bit more in the article at the link at the bottom of the page.
Marmalade Emma and Me
When I was a little girl, my family made up a rhyme using my name and that of Marmalade Emma. Probably because I liked keeping my treasures and collections in carrier bags – many of them! (and still do, my husband would say). The rhyme was sung at every opportunity, by most members of my extended family, much to my annoyance, so when it came to choosing a name for my jewellery business, Marmalade Emma it had to be.
Marmalade Emma 