In a recent exchange with a fellow contibutor the subject of favorite sweets of the past arose and it got me thinking about those wonderful corner-shops that were all over Birkenhead. Full to the brim with an endlesss variety of sweets and drinks, they were an essential part of the day, either to/from school or stocking-up for a day's play in the park.

So thought it may be fun to recall our favorite sweet shops of yesteryear and the preferred sweets you could just not resist. I'll start proceedings by nominating a shop known as 'Jacks', which was at the top of Park Road East, junction with Park Road South opposite Cole Street School. Choosing my best sweet is really toughwith so many contenders: McGowan's Highland Toffee, coconut mushrooms, american hard gums, the list could go on, possible finalists maybe either Aztec(exotic choccie bar) or Golden Nuggets (came in a small canvas 'cash-bag, cowboy style). Nor after a three hour game of footie could I resist either a bottle of cream-soda, or if it was really hot, a Jubilee...

I've said on here before, Uncle Joe's mint balls, but not this modern day prepacked rubbish, the ones that were stuck together in the jar and had to be eaten with most of the paper bag stuck to them.

You may be interested in this site, sweets from the past!

http://www.aquarterof.co.uk/

We used to go in that corner shop by Cole st after playing football in the park.I can remember frozen jubblys (jubilees?)
always wanted one like the slush you can get now not the really frozen solid ones you had bang against something hard to try to loosen up.Also Refreshers and Love hearts.

Bah, humbug!!

...I deffo think these Wikiwirral posts are turning into 'Carry On' comedy scripts.

You keep your Uncle Joe's sticky mint balls to yourself bert!

Reading this thread has flickered a brain cell or two into life, and with regard to the corner shop's as far as i know there are exactly none left from my youth.

All the ones i can think of are now either private houses or have gone alltogether, thinking about it now i can see that most of the owners where heading for retirement and when they decided to call it a day the shop closed !.

Like most kids I loved all the regular sweet varieties but also found myself buying things like cough drops etc., just to get the tins.

Anyone remember 'Zubes', or those tiny, tiny little tins called 'Tics'? Always very useful for keeping pet insects in ...like your favourite wood louse.

Bert's Uncle Joe used to keep his mint balls in tins also , but they were generally out of my price range.

The shop I remember best is still there, but very different now from the mid-70s. It was on Poulton Rd, between Lindeth Ave and Ilford Ave, and I used to go in there on the way out of Somerville Middle School. Was it called Brews? It was the penny tray that I liked - white mice, flying saucers, etc. Anyone remember a chewy sweet in a ?blue and white wrapper which was sweet egg-and-milk flavour? (Sounds disgusting as I write it here, but I used to love them.) There was another shop opposite and further along (corner of Clifford Road?) that had less stock but did ice pops (long plastic tubes) as well as the cupped ice drinks. Remember having terrible diarrhoea after one of those! Other memories - fizz bombs; a chocolate coated bar with a texture like Crunchie bars but different flavours (can't remember what they were called); coconut shreds like tobacco; and my favourite - cinnamon flavoured tictacs! They were only available for a short while.

Pineapple chunks, coca cola cubes, drumsticks, bon bons, treacle toffee, highland toffeE bars 5p small, 10p large

It was some shop for sure

4 shops for sweets I remember as a kid were
1 the one by Cole st when leaving the park after footie
2 the one at the bottom of Wilson st over the road from St Andrews Square
3 top end of Exmouth St when going to the 5d rush at the Astor saturday afternoons
4 Going the Ritz 6d on a saturday morning in Oliver st just on the corner of the side st(now Stairway block) opposite the Firemans' pub where you got a packet of broken crisps for 1d instead of smiths with the little blue bag of salt 4d?

ahhh yes the sweet tobacco

Used to love the little shop by my nan's - at the junction of Ingleby Road/New Ferry Road in New Ferry - Mrs Burnhams. Amazing rainbow coloured sherbert in jars! (Mrs Burnham herself amazed me - didn't matter how much she aged, she always looked the same, with her black beehive!)

...and Olde English Spangles and Texan bars! Yum!

The Sweet Box in Liscard (opposite the Tesco Express) has a few "yesteryear" favourites too: fruit mushrooms, japs, Pontefract cakes, spogs, bon bons, chewing nuts...

Probably cheaper to buy in bulk from aquaterof et al, but not everyone wants 250g (just over ½lb).

Anyone else come across, all those years back, liquorice root?

The shop across the road from Brews (Brewsters??) in Poulton was called Collicks. They sold sweets as well as certain groceries. You could even go in and buy loose cigarettes, if I remember rightly. There was another sweet shop just before Brews called Nancy & Bills. But that was quite a long time ago.

Think the sweet tobacco you describe was called something like 'Spanish Gold'.

...if by liquorice root you mean the "real" twiggy sticks, you can still actually get them in places like health food stores.

Don't think I'd have bothered eating them though if I'd ever realized they were healthy...

precisely the twigs..they were sold as sweets during those days.

We used to call it 'sticky lice'!!! (Yukkk)

Collicks - how appropriate!!! (I'm still thinking about my diarrhoea!! )

hahah great name, I recall after the first rush of flavour, all you had left was a fibrous mass, sure not high up there in the swap a sweet trade in school

...on that basis, maybe I should have eaten the lolly-stick whenever I had a Fab.

Didn't know they were supplied as added roughage!

Anyone remember the penny bubblies?! they used to be big an thick an round an all wrapped separate, hard to chew at first but they lasted for ages an the flavour was lovely! got to blow some big bubbles with them too!

Were they pink, round gum?

Yes! you remember?

One of my favorite buys used to a tin of Top Deck shandy and a packet of Savoury Vinegar crisps, the bigger shops never seemed to sell either.
Come to think of it i've not seen them on sale for years but then i don't think i've realy looked !.

I know the chewy you mean and, yes, they were quite a gob full.

Kinda prefered Bazooka Joes though. I always liked the little comic that came inside the wrapper, even if the jokes were always garbage.

We used to go in there! we called it "nicco-nells" coz she was always smokin! an she used to leave all boxes of stuff in the window an theyd all fade in the sun!

Top Deck! Now there's a memory.

I liked the fact that after the sweet shops had all closed, you could still nip down the chippy and get a can of Top Deck (or Tizer)as well as a packet of crisps.

Anyone remember 'Ringos'???

You post brought back the memory

Another favourite of mine was Rhubarb and custard, also i had loads of aniseed balls, as recommended by my Doctor as a cure for travel sickness.

This will date me. I can just remember having to take my ration book just to buy my favourite pear drops at Mickleboroughs in Wellington Road. I'm sure I got more than I was entitled to !!

i used to love rosebuds in the 50s used to get them from shop on the corner of marion street and adelphi street. also the sweets that used to have football stories wrapped round them. so many sweet shops around.

Sherbit pips, Aztec bars, dipped flakes, an gettin beechnut chewies from the big machines on the wall outside the shop!

Some of this delectable stuff was made in Birkenhead!

i used to hate that wood liquorice.

remember a sweet shop in the 60's in Beach Grove of Holland Road Wallasey which moved next door to the Magazine (Mags) pub used to call in on the way to Vaughan Road school

Think the shop by the Mags was called "Eve's". Either that or the woman who ran it was called Eve. Couldn't say for sure though. Maybe somebody else will remember her.

Don't know about the Beach Grove shop, it was probably before my time. But there was certainly another sweet shop on the corner of Mariner's Rd (opposite The Pilot Boat), just a stone's throw from The Mags.

I'm fairly sure that one was called "Eve's Shop" and was run by Eve (Boumphrey?). Could be wrong, but I seem to think she was related to Ian Boumphrey the local historian.

The building still stands but is now a private house, and is easily identified by the old cartwheel which hangs up on the wall.

If the arrow on the knob was pointing towards you, you got two packets of chewy for the price of one. There was another one as well as beechnut but can't remember the name.

...I could be way off mark, but didn't the other chewing gum brand have an abstract name like XY gum, or XYZ? Something like that.

There was one with a name like that but think the other one was arrow something or other. One was in a white packet and the other green I think?

It was wrigley's arrowmint, there was also Bazookas, penny sambos, and penny bubble gum out of the (photo) machine, possibly xyz gum.

Bang on with that gum name

Such a machine, on a stand, was outside a sweet shop, towards the top of Exmouth Street I recall, maybe near where the Fire Station was built. Anyway, the machine at that time had gum , but also badges of such great popsters as the Beatles, Herman's Hermits, Dave Clark Five etc. I remember there was occasional shaking of said machine to influence the outcome

the pink round bubblegum was anglo bubbly

Mr Felix's on Arglye St South on the corner of Helena St.
Penny sweets such as Mojo's, Fruit Salad, Black Jacks, Arrow Bars. A thin strip of Cadbury's chocolate wrapped in purple foil for 1/2d, sherbet dabs, sweet cigarettes, gob stoppers, sour grape chewys, toffee strips, cinder toffee, flying saucers, nougat bars that needed jaws like King Kong to chew.........Happy days...Most of them contained so many additives and E numbers that if you tried selling them today you'd go straight to jail

think it was arrowmint.

also further down there was passeys and later Harry took it over it stayed open later than Felix.

me mum always went on about frys coffee creme

Expensive tastes Was yummy indeed!

Flashback....arrow bars :)))

Ma Gorringe's in Price Street, she only had one eye and the other had a plaster over her glasses to shield it. Remember lemon sherberts when they first came out, fantastic. In those days though they actually had some sherbert in them not the things you get now with rock all in 'em. Sherbert dabs were another thing that came out once rationing finished. Liquorice sticks were actual bits of wood which we chewed on and they made your gob go black. Locust was another sweet substitute, this was a kind of dried bean pod and I think it was also used to make "Camp" coffee which was a coffee substitute because you couldn't get the real thing. Condensed milk was another sweet source. Toffee apples when you could get the sugar to make them. I think some people had a black market source of sugar because they would make toffee apples and flog them There was a crisp factory in Price Street as well and you could get a packet for a penny. All kinds of other stuff running through my bonce at the moment e.g. Wagon Wheels coming out and they were huge compared to the ones you get now.

the sweet shop by the magazine pub and before in Beach Grove was called Mrs Woods it must have had an extension to the front because the building now is slightly back from the kerb

pembertons shop oxton rd
Parma violets,
Spanish gold,
liquorice imps /imperial imps,(in little tins)
frizzells,
rainbow drops,
bazooka Joe's
fruit salads,
bulls eyes,
cough candy twists,
cough cops
Cherry lips

Remember too that sweets were priced for 2oz or quarters, all served from a big jar. No E numbers then either, just honest to goodness white death. When the rationing was lifted we didn't have much dosh to buy sweets anyway but made money by taking jam jars, pop bottles, beer bottles etc back for the deposit money, nice little earner.

We used to go to Lucy's, Wallasey Village at the bottom of Perrin Rd. (about where the Drs is now). Remember all those old sweets, Penny Arrow bars (loved those!) various 'Chews' (were they 4 for a penny?) - I seem to remember a milk-flavoured one?! And of course all the sweets in jars in rows on the shelves - sold loose, by the quarter (shopkeeper used to twirl the bag by its corners to close it!) or smaller amounts (2oz?) in little triangular shaped paper bags? And "Trebor" sweets - which we thought must be "Robert" spelled backwards!

One of the founders of Trebor was Robert Robertson, so yes, probably.

I vaguely remember the milk flavoured chews you refer to. Think they had a picture of a cow on the wrapper (?). Then there were Fruit Salads, of course, as well as Black Jacks. I don't suppose they'd sell Black Jacks nowadays - probably politically incorrect. Refreshers were also a very nice chew, particularly if you liked sherbet.

One of my favourite sweets were Midget Gems (especially the black ones). And you could buy Sports Mixtures loose and use the different shapes (boots, jerseys, bats & balls, etc)to make into little sports figures.

I remember the shop in Magazine Brow, would always go there on the way to play in Vale Park. I remember Fizz Bombs, Kola Cubes, Rainbow Drops and Rainbow Crystals which made my tongue sore because I ate too much. Those were the days.

I asked on another thread, but does anyone remember a sweetshop by Guinea Gap Baths? It was by the bus stop and we'd go in there while we were waiting for the bus back to school. Always a rush to be first in just in case the bus came!

Also - Mrs Worthington's at the Martin's Lane end of Greenwood Lane.

Yes Mrs Burnhams, she used to have 2 helpers, peggy and Audrey O'Gorman and sometimes Audreys daughter Ann O'Gorman. Mrs Burnham used to have a thing with a local Bookie Sid Butcher who used to have his shop in Marquis street.

mr felix was a miserable old git used to make you hurry up and pick your sweets to get you out of the shop

...was the shop near Guinea Gap the one on the street corner, directly opposite the baths but on the other side of Brighton Street?

Seem to remember there used to be a sort of shop/snack bar inside Guinea Gap as well. Although it probably got replaced by vending machines.

I only remember vending machines (this would be early 1970s). The taste of Pepsi always reminds me of the feel of chlorine on your face after a swim!

It was definitely on Brighton St opposite the baths, but I reckon it was next door to where the Londis store is now. (On Google street view it looks boarded up.)

caramac

Loved caramacs!
i remembered 'spangles' as fruit flavoured polo mints, if that makes sense. Obviously not! What were they called?
Unless its the illustrated packaging that i dont recognise?

Fussels condensed milk - not a sweet but mmmmmm
Then there were Mars Bars, Crunchies, Lion Bars

[quote=Roslynmuse]I asked on another thread, but does anyone remember a sweetshop by Guinea Gap Baths? It was by the bus stop and we'd go in there while we were waiting for the bus back to school. Always a rush to be first in just in case the bus came!

I well remember a sweetshop behind the bus stop on Brighton Street, near Guinea Gap Baths.
Possibly around 1955? There used to be a wonderfull glass ball machine that made fizzy drinks (before pop was invented I think)Just had a look on Google street view & it would have been in a row of shop houses behind where the traffic light is now for the pedestrian crossing & to the left of "Aqualogic". Think I have seen a mention somewhere about this drinks machine. I used to catch the number 2 I think back to Wallasey Village.

loved aztec bars spangles especially the old english lion midget gems I liked the black ones peppermint & spearmint chews black jacks fruit salad refreshers penny arrow bars frys chocolate cream they used to do a fruit centered one opal fruits marathon bar

Weren't they called Polo Fruits? Spangles were definitely square.

They were called Polo fruits, a fruity version of polo mints, i can recall the time i had a packet of polo mints and came across a polo fruit in the packet, strawberry flavor. In America, polo mints are called life savers, so a yank once told me, for obvious reasons i expect.

spangles clicky

Old English spangles were the worst and then there was Halls mentholyptus and Victory Vs if you had a clogged up nose.

Galaxy counters in a little packet, those blackjacks -youre teeth would turn black when you ate them!
I remember Ringo s and Ranchero s -yum!
we had a choice of either Smiths crips from the chippy, or Golden Wonder from our little corner shop. The golden Wonder had like 'little windows' in the front of the packet where you could see the crisps in the packet. I used to go through them in the box for the 'strongest' some of the smokey bacon ones would be bright orange with flavour!

"It's Victory V Weather again"

Remember the Smith's "Salt & Shake" crisps, with the little blue salt bag?

And was it the Smiths or Golden Wonder packets which always had a little Scotsman(?) character on the back?? Think he was a Scotsman as he always sported a highland bobble cap.

Weird the things that stick in the memory, isn't it?

old sweets no longer made clicky

http://www.doyouremember.co.uk/memory.php?memID=5250

kip!!! you do know I've got to buy some now x my eyes are like popping out my head.

anyone remember imps?

imps

When some of us were kids, all they had was plain crisps with a little bag of salt. Sometimes you got more than one bag of salt and we thought it was good. In reality we probably got less crisps!

My aunt and uncle once owned the shop by the baths. The small kiosk inside the baths used to do soup which was our favourite. Probably a tanner but maybe less? Memory going!

Wonder if they sold those crisps at the cinema? You could probably have choked to death on one of those salt bags if you were eating them in the dark!

Thanks for confirming my memory about the kiosk. It's nice to know I've not gone completely do-lally. Think I liked the hot Bovril more than soup though...

Mt dad always had a packet in his jacket pocket, there was beechnut and my dad's favourite was PK...he used to tell me it was made specially for him, becuase his intials were PK...hahaa

Here we are good old PK chewing gum...

The one I remember looked like this ...

I think the shop behind bus stop was Sadie's. Eric's used to be on the corner where the Londis shop stands.

Thanks, Janet!

Yep that's the one...hahaa...I couldn't find the pic!!!

went to lidl in rock ferry on Tuesday & spotted some bags of fruit salad & black jacks just eating them now, yummy

There's a new sweet shop in Bebington (next to the bathroom store where the solicitors used to be).

I went in there today, they have all the sweets in jars and sell them by the 100g (which from my childhood memory seemed a LOT less than a 1/4).

Lots of the older sweets in there and a fair few that I haven't seen in years, couldn't see any Bazooka Joe though...

...used to make my eyes hurt trying to read the tiny writing on the Bazooka Joe Comics. Seem to remember the writing got ridiculously small on the bottom couple of lines were they printed some great words of wisdom, or some kind of 'fortune'.

nerds I use to love as a kid or Apple Jacks use to go in to the shop on the Holmlands (forbuoys) and ask for 100 of them lol

ahh yes,Mrs Burnham,remember her well,and Talbots further along,and Shorrocks the news agent were we would get bundles of wood to light the fire[when we had coal fires],the chippy[still there],the chandlers next to Talbots,Mr Talbot always found a penny behind my ear!and he would draw a ring on my finger or he would give me the wrapper off a quality street sweet to wear as a ring! opposite Mrs Burnhams was the co-op----------all gone now---------all turned into flats----shame!

i remember uncle joe's mint balls,my Great Gran always had a bag of those in her bag and she would give me one, and yes they were the old type---sticky with the paper bag stuck to them, they always remind me of Great Gran.

Loved going to the sweet shop in Irby village which we called Donnas for some reason. They had a massive table in the middle of the shop full of penny sweets... Its a pet shop now...x

www.aquarterof.co.uk/advanced_search_result.php?keywords=wooden+box&x=0&y=0

DOES ANYBODY REMEMBER BETTY DUDDY,S SHOP AND REAGLE REENIES SHOP OVER THE ROAD FROM THE BLUEBELL PUB JUST OF CLEVELAND STREET BHEAD MERSEYSIDE MY 2 FAVOURITE SHOPS EVER RAINBOW DROPS WITH ADHD IN THEM AND WHAM BARS 1 LICK AND YOUD HAVE A MINI STROKE, AWSOME AND TOFFY LOGS 2P WATA CHILDHOOD XXX

yep sure do,i used to send my dog for the paper to reenies!

haha 2 oz
i still go to say 2 oz when ordering sweets for my kids now.....!!

Gay Cards on Borough Road, at the bottom of Clarence Road. The old version of the shop opposite the Plaza which used to be an out-and-out newsagents long ago (now a general late night shop)...even further back, do ANY of you recall a sweet shop opposite the Sportsmans pub on Prenton Road East, on the corner of a block of houses? Venetian blinds hid the goodies contained inside. A rare treat on the seemingly long walk home from Bedford Drive School for a 6 year old lad.

If you mean diagonally opposite the Sportsman's pub, where there is now a shop called the Prenton Pop-In, I certainly remember a sweet shop there. I sometimes used to visit it on my way home from Well Lane school. Can't remember Venetian blinds though.

Mrs. Waller's sweet shop in Wallasey Village for home made ice cream. It was close to the Phoenix.

I remember the sweet shop opposite the Sportsmans you're talking of yes, when I was about 5-6 (1967-68) we called it Lobo's because the man who owned it had a black labrador dog called Lobo. We'd go there on a Tuesday night after going to my Nin's ( nan) house in Everest Rd After Mr Lobo left it was owned by a Mr Charlesworth but the shop was never as well stocked nor was the new owner as friendly.
It's a house now and rumour has it that the place is haunted ( info from a friend of mine who used to live in it)

Does anyone remember Mr Morgan's sweet shop on Church rd just by the Black Horse pub? He made the most delicious ice cream. He would never give his recipe to my Mum who would ask him for it all the time

hi jubilee and spearmint lollies from oliveries conway street do you remember

Does anyone remember YZ chewing gum machines which were on the wall outside many sweet shops?

Their symbol was the head of an owl (wise head - get it?). The big selling point was that with every fourth packet of gum, an extra packet came down the chute.

I can't recall how much a packet cost - probably about 6d. You could hang around the machine and wait until three people had used it, then nip in and get two packets for the price of one. Failing that, you could club together with three pals and make sure of the bonus packet.

It was when the arrow on the twist knob was pointing forward, that you got the two packets of YZ gum. Yes, we used to keep an eye on the one outside the sweetshop at the bottom of Woodchurch Lane. Ready to pounce when it was about to cough two packets up!

I may be wrong, but I "think" it was 3d a packet when I was at school (?) (Late 50's)

The arrow pointing forward - of course! Thanks for reminding me. It's brought back memories of us kids watching that arrow like hawks (not owls!)

And you're right - 6d sounds a bit dear. That was quite big money for a kid in the late 50s. Threepence a packet is much more likely.

Williams's towards Beb Station or Jones's Beb village were my sweetshops (Newsagents)of choice.

Anyone remember Toffee Buttons (circa 1967-71) as advertised by Rolf Harris.


The best ice cream you could get was from Buckley's Dairy in New Ferry .....mmmmmmmmmm ...

The best one I remember was Allisons owned by Mr Allison it was between the Coop on the corner of Conway Place and the Church on the corner of Eldon Street next to the chip shop the gentleman always wore a tweed coat tweed trousers and always had a smile for everyone including the kids who invaded the shop before school and after school.

I must send my apology the sweet shop i was talking about was owned by Mr Ashworh not Allison I must have had a senior moment, Mr Ashworth lived above the coop and the entrance to his house was in Conway Place near the stables. sorry

memories of Gaycards on borough road sweet counters either side as you went in and cards and gifts up the steps at the back of the shop. my eyes would be on organ stops as a kid when I used to go in at all the sweets. I used to get penny sweets in the week but my treat at the weekend if I had "been a good girl" was a fry's turkish delight - they cost a whole 6d!
Anyone remember the advert for Treets - they melt in your mouth not in your hand. The hand with a white glove on showing they didnt melt!!

'Love to think the memories of Gay Cards live on, despite the word having a completely new meaning today...I recall two actual moments in the shop - one in the upper level of the shop when I'd been to the GP as a boy of 7 or 8 yo and nagged my mum a little for a Enid Blyton book [Famous 5 etc, kids go to a farm story] which I never actually read in the end (oh! the guilt!)
The other two or three years later, at the lower shop level, aged 9, trying to find out what my sisters (then 22 and 16) were plotting) ...it was my mum's surprise 48th birthday party (she was 48 on January 8 1973) which dates it, and they were unsure whether to tell me as they didn't trust whether I could keep the secret!

Bryants... my mum used to go there armed with a bag of sugar. I'm not sure if that got her a discount or it took away the need for ration coupons, but I know there was definitely an advantage to it.

PINK CREAM SODA SHERBERT MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

a penny arrow bar / 4 black jacks/4 walkers or fruit salads

Cadburys Bar Six, for 6d. Made at the Moreton factory in the 1960's. They were rather like a KitKat, but the six 'bars' went the opposite way to KitKat's 'fingers'.

Staff could buy the mis-shapes in a plain brown wrapped pack of 12 for 2/6d. The mis-shapes tended to have too much chocolate covering or filling to pass quality controll.

spearmint mojos 2 for a penny

This thread tickles me because I own a sweet shop and we still have a lot of the ones you are remembering - many in jars that are sold in 100gs yet we still call them quarters.

I remember Jacks opposite Cole Street School (my primary). You could get a glass or plastic cup of ginger beer for 2d if my memory serves me correctly.

I used to get sweets from Mrs. Bunces on Greenway Road/Derby Road and there was a shop at the top of Fountain Street that had a round silver tray of penny sweets that they would bring out on a request that we wanted to see the Penny Tray. As someone else mentioned Cadbury did small bars of chocolate for 1d or 2d.

My favourites were 4 Walkers toffees for 1d or 2 black jacks and 2 fruit salads for 1d.

Does anyone remember the solid squares in orange or raspberry that you used to dissolve in water to make a drink? Weren't they a form of Creamola Foam? We had a new version of Creamola Foam in the shop before Christmas but no one could remember the solid squares.

anybody remember the hedgehog flavoured crisps?how did people come up with these ideas?

Creamola Foam. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Yummy !

Old Mrs Gorringe's on Price Street, with Jones's another sweet shop opposite. Mrs Gorringe had one good eye, the other being covered by a plaster. Jones's sold out to someone else but I can't remember who. Used to buy a bag of sherbert, or there were penny toffees. Sherbert Lemons came out, which were a bit of a revelation at the time. Sticks of wooden liquorice, sherbert dabs, home made toffee apples, barley sugar twists, cough drops, bullseyes, liquorice allsorts. There wasn't much we could actually get, sugar rationing after the war kept sweets to a minimum as far as I can remember. No obesity for kids or attention deficite sydrome then , you was either fat or thick.

Remember them well along with Berts barley sugar and sherbert dabs.

Love Hearts...how many generations have they been about for?

Has cinder toffee been mentioned yet? Wrecked our teeth and I think it's still around.

The only fat kids in my school in the '50s (Riverside in Seacombe) had dads who were either a docker, butcher or chipshop proprietor.

Swizzles and flying saucers.
Does anyone remember 'duck,new potatoes and peas'? Yes, they were sweets!

My great grand parents ran a sweet shop in Grange Rd [ No 164 ] in the 1890s - named Cartlidge - - Any photo,s PLEASE

Yes granny I remember all of the sweets you mentioned I liked flying saucers but on tasting them now there foul, how our taste buds change.Our sweet shops in Oxton rd Birkenead were Peberdys and Mays and on the way to Cole st school there was the corner shop on Henthorne st, next was Jacks opposite the school yard. I used to like Everybodys mix they were a mix of boiled sweets .black jacks and cough candy twists.Also my mum would get me some cheese straws from Reeces these were my favorite and they still taste the same today as they did then, when I was five back in 1963.

Happy days i used to be the paperboy at mays shop in the 80s and then move up oxton road to Heycrofts which was oppiste Alec green bike shop.Remeber Mrs May giving us sweets for free.She look after her Paperboys.

Also Valli i got two box of sweet from my works as i was leaving

I remember the sweet shop opposite cole st school being called the Park Mecca. We used to go there on the way home from the Yozzers or Mr Mathers academy for young gentlemen as we used to call it.

Yes it was the Park Mecca but we always called it Jacks, Maybe because it was easier for me to say as I was only a tot when I first went there.Happy days, I loved my childhood growing up down town. Birkenhead lost a lot of its character when they knocked down all the little streets, but memories are precious.

Ah Jacks was the spot alright, seem to recall that 'sweet tobacco' was a fave at one time, along with sweets called I think 'golden nuggets' that came in a little bag with a dollar sign

Jacks indeed!

Yes, I remember that sweet tobacco, "Spanish Gold" and of course there were also sweet cigarettes, but my favourites were chocolate cigarettes that looked like real cigarettes. If I remember rightly, you could eat the white paper that covered the chocolate cigarette. Does anyone remember the chocolate smoker's kit that was usually sold around Christmas that contained a pipe, cigar and lighter and a couple of other smoking-related things? - all made of chocolate, of course. I imagine the politically correct brigade would have a field day if those kind of confectionery items were available today.

On the subject of sweets of old and old sweet shops... Does anyone remember a sweet shop a little further up from the Essoldo cinema, Claughton Road (and heading towards Argyle Street). I can't remember the name of the shop but they sold homemade sweets and had all these mouth watering delights on display in their window. My favourites were their blocks of Coconut Ice and a quarter of Coconut Fudge (fudge generously covered in flakes of coconut... Absolutely scrumptious!) My brothers and I would make a beeline for the shop, especially if we were going to the pictures to watch the Saturday Matinee.

ahhhh 'Spanish Gold'

Does anyone remember the little sweet shop on the corner of Leander Rd, close to Oldershaw School?

Back in the late 70s the lady that ran the place would sell looseys to kids, I used to be in there every day on the way to school. It's been converted back to a bungalow now.

Bandycoot reminded me of Gorindges Sweetshop ....they also sold Peanut Toffee Brittle .....and he's absolutely right about the size of Wagon Wheels .....they were big...you really felt that you had something to chew on ....they also sold iced mint white mice.....everything your dentist told you not to eat.