The prosperity of Thaxted was once built on the cutlery and wool trades but by the seventeenth century these had wained. By the nineteenth century, Thaxted was a depressed agricultural backwater. In 1870, George Lee opened a sweet factory in the town, which rapidly became the major employer. It saved Thaxted, became a major employer and led to the advent the light railway, with the support of the gin magnate, Sir Walter Gilbey. Because the railway was promoted by a gin distiller and a confectioner, it was known by the locals as “The Gin and Toffee Line”. The sweet factory closed in 1969 and its site, at the eastern entrance to the town, was used by a tea packing company and, from 1976 to 2013, by a pharmaceutical company. It has since been redeveloped for residential use.