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Sweetie shops

(92 Posts)
Babs03 Sat 17-Aug-24 14:15:07

Remember the old sweetie shops, with all the glass jars of sweeties measured out in quarters?
And there used to be a tray of assorted sweets, you could buy several for a big old penny. There were black jacks, fruit salads, fizzy planets, bubble guns, gob stoppers, and red liquorice laces.
My favourite from the glass jars would be a quarter of cinder toffee or brightly coloured sherbet with a stick of liquorice to dip in.

Casdon Tue 20-Aug-24 07:52:07

At the museum, in the village section of the grounds, not in the village of St Fagans.

SuperTinny Tue 20-Aug-24 01:17:45

Casdon

There’s a great sweet shop at St Fagans. I’ve tried to source my favourites, Toffee Crunch, which were hard and shaped like pillows, but they are no longer made sadly.

Do you mean the Museum of Welsh Life or St Fagans village proper?

Tamayra Mon 19-Aug-24 22:35:15

Scented cashews were my favourite & twisted barley sugar. A halfpenny went a looong way back then
Flying saucers Mouth watering with sherbet inside. I think I liked the soft colours of the cashews & flying saucers best smile Remember using ration book to buy them too

Casdon Mon 19-Aug-24 21:48:22

I used to love chewing nuts too, haven’t seen those for years either.
We had Kali, but it wasn’t the same as sherbet, it was more crystallised, and it came in different bright colours which did taste different - yellow, pink and orange if I remember correctly. We had a liquorice stick, and the Kali was in one of those paper bags like an elongated triangle, after getting most of it out with the liquorice you had to tip the bag up to get the last dregs out.

Fleurpepper Mon 19-Aug-24 21:45:42

Yes, there are a few left- but plastic containers now, sadly.

GrannyRose15 Mon 19-Aug-24 21:41:48

blue14

What is Kali? I don't remember that.

It’s another name fir sherbet.

Lizzie44 Mon 19-Aug-24 16:44:38

My Gran used to have a sweet shop and tobacconist in Birmingham in the 1940s and 1950s. It was a traditional corner shop and sold sweets, chocolates, cigarettes and tobacco. I remember it very well - the heavy screw-topped sweet jars, the ping of aniseed balls dropping into the copper scales, the crack of the metal hammer breaking toffee. There was no pre-packaging in those days. Beside the scales was the till, a simple wooden drawer with compartments for coins, notes and (in those days of rationing) sweet coupons. As a young child I used to count the coupons and learned how to add up! I haven't been back to Brum since the 1960s and Nanna's shop will long since have disappeared, but the memories remain strong.

Freya5 Mon 19-Aug-24 16:44:05

Freya5

We still have a couple of proper sweetie Shops in our area. One is in an old cottage, which was a sweetie shop back in the day.
My favourite,pontefract cakes, and pear drops.

Oh and sweet tobacco !

Freya5 Mon 19-Aug-24 16:43:44

We still have a couple of proper sweetie Shops in our area. One is in an old cottage, which was a sweetie shop back in the day.
My favourite,pontefract cakes, and pear drops.

4allweknow Mon 19-Aug-24 16:40:46

Clawdy Probably liquorice root. Lasted for ages chewing and chewing down the stick until no taste left.

Nell8 Mon 19-Aug-24 16:22:57

We used to love sweets we called lozengers that carried mottos. I offered one to Dad. It said "You are a flirt". There was a stony silence.

I had more fun with sugarelly, the hard liquorice. In class I'd suck a bit then give friends a black, frothy grin to make them laugh. Ah, happy days.

Cateq Mon 19-Aug-24 16:21:08

I remember callard and bowsers cream line toffees. On a trip to USA back in 70’s I found a shop selling them, I spent a lot of my holiday money buying them as I hated the American sweets

Dollymixtures Mon 19-Aug-24 15:42:31

I have spent years investigating if I could find Roocroft’s Nut Milk Cubes. Does anyone else remember them? They were sort of milky sweet nougat cubes. I assume the factory closed years ago but no one else but me seems to even remember them! Also Callar and Bowser Nougat in one of those packs. They were quite posh, covered in edible paper and you could peel the cherries out of them, delicious! I wonder if they have disappeared as well?

MissAdventure Mon 19-Aug-24 15:28:03

Army and navy lozenges (?)
Or maybe just sweets, but I liked them.

Fleurpepper Mon 19-Aug-24 14:01:02

I happened to pop in to a traditional sweet shop in town in the mid 80s and they were selling all the glass jars for £1. I bought 10, have given some to ACs, to a friend and broke one. They made the move abroad with us in 2009- and still going strong. Pasta, rice, lentils, and one has last year's sloe gin smile

Wish I had bought more.

madeleine45 Mon 19-Aug-24 14:01:00

I remember most of the sweets you mention above , but one thing I would not be allowed to do now is what I did years ago , when I lived in Damascus. Came back to England for various things and took 5 sherbert fountains, complete with licquorice suckers back for my husband. He was thrilled to get them and enjoyed them but these days I would have been carted off for carrying drugs no doubt!! Yes we had "Kali" that you dipped your wet finger into but oh dear the finger looked quite bright yellow so teacher knew what you had been eatining!! What about aniseed balls too? They were another 4 a penny sweety . Ah long time ago now!

Lambangel Mon 19-Aug-24 13:50:23

Loved space dust that cracking and popping . Fruit soft rock at the seaside. Happy days , not the same anymore and the smell of the shop itself. Red laces, dolly mixtures jelly babies. Don't taste the same anymore. Happy times though.

JaneJudge Mon 19-Aug-24 13:42:59

JamesandJon33

Aniseed balls in a paper cone.

these were my favourite too smile

Daisydaisydaisy Mon 19-Aug-24 13:34:28

Great post ...I used to run an old fashioned sweetshop which was on the front of Old Holborn Tobacoo 🙂

missdeke Mon 19-Aug-24 13:29:07

Clawdy

I remember sherbet lemons, and weird liquorice flavoured sticks that looked like twigs!

Liquorice root, we all used to call it Spanish Wood, shewed till it was tasteless then spat the rest out. Lovely stuff.

MissAdventure Mon 19-Aug-24 12:39:54

I used to get migraines from chocolate when I was little.
Not just headaches; th full works.

Babs03 Mon 19-Aug-24 12:36:09

GrammarGrandma

I don't like sweets. Only chocolate (the darker the better).

I adore dark chocolate but can’t eat it, within a v short time would get a cracking migraine. 😩

GrammarGrandma Mon 19-Aug-24 12:30:46

I don't like sweets. Only chocolate (the darker the better).

Fae1 Mon 19-Aug-24 12:26:46

Loved them especially the soft butterscotch 'gems' which are not being produced any more. 😢

Ohmygoodness54 Mon 19-Aug-24 12:14:36

Shelflife

Think Kali was in Yorkshire - I grew up there. Sherbet was finer , like icing sugar whereas Kali had the texture of sugar.

Brought up in Lancashire and in my parents shop they sold Kali and Spanish. I have often thought of it, and whenever I have mentioned it before no one knew what I was talking about. Weirdly I never knew how to spell it before reading these posts!