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Henley Sauce set for return after nearly 200 years

Richard Hill A glass bottle of black sauce with a Henley Sauce logo on the the label. The label has a dark blue background and text in yellow, red and blue.Richard Hill
Richard Hill has already designed a proposed bottle with a new Henley Sauce logo

A man is trying to bring back a table sauce which disappeared almost 200 years ago.

Richard Hill, from Binfield Heath near Henley, came across an advert for Henley Sauce while leafing through an old 1838 travellers' guidebook to the Oxfordshire town.

It is described as containing "essence of anchovies" and would be suitable for "fish, steaks, game and gravies".

It inspired him to recreate it in a way which would appeal to a 21st Century consumer and is appealing for help to make it happen.

Richard Hill 2024 Photograph of pages from the old guide book, including the advert for Henley Sauce which is written in prose. The green cover of the book is in the top left of the image and is illustrated with an ornate stone arch. Richard Hill 2024
The original advert for Henley Sauce was seen in a Victorian guidebook

Mr Hill found the advert in a copy of A Guide To Henley Upon Thames And Its Vicinity published in May 1838.

He had never heard of the sauce and there were no details of the recipe.

"Like all great secrets of the kitchen they didn't actually say specifically," he told the BBC.

"It may be that because ingredients might have been a bit harder to get they just put a bit of this in, or a bit of that in - who knows, there may not have been a recipe, I just don't know.

"I would love to bring it back. If someone would be able to help me to bring it back it seems like such a lovely idea, re-imaging something which you haven't seen on the shelves for what, 180-odd years.

"To come back and end up on the dining room tables of the good folk across Oxfordshire would be lovely."

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