RETRO SWEETS

How about this for a test of memory? Which can you remember from being a child that you can no longer buy, or not as easy to get hold of? To start off, here are four of mine.

Liquorice torpedoes
Spangles
Sherbert Lemons
Penny arrows

Milk chews ,sherbot fountains, midget gems, jelly babys, gob stoppers PK chewing gum, lucky bags, pear drops, fruit gums, fruit pastels , black jacks,

I bought a sherbet fountain not long ago. You can buy Maynard's midget gems, but they're nowhere as good as Lion'ses. I've got a packet of Rowntree's fruit pastels here at the side of me.

Some more I've not seen in a while:

Fruit Salad
Floral Gums
Liquorice Gums
Pontefract Cakes

Mollie there is a sweet shop in Ashton" Mrs Mac's" which sells a lot of the old traditional sweets. She has a web site so you can look up what sweets she sells

Thanks for that Peter. I'll have a look.

Here's one that is hard to find but, is still available at a price, Mu eldest likes them but, He can buy his own

coconut mushrooms

Now, I was never keen on those, Tom. Tried 'em once but, I've never been a fan of coconut anyway.

Y'know what. When Peter told me about Mrs Mac's, I looked up the shop in Ashton. There is a virtual video so I had a look around the town and was amazed. I've never been to Ashton Town Centre before, and it looks like a lovely place - much better than Wigan. I wish I'd known it was like that years ago.

Mrs Plum favours Ashton over Wigan because, Wigan has no food shops , Ashton has and, better than Ashton is Leyth but, its a lengthy bus ride, I refuse to go tripping to Leyth when, On our door step we have, Sainsburys, Asda, tesco, Iceland, B+Ms and people flock to our area, I just don't get it

I do. You don't need to go shopping anywhere else if you have all that on your doorstep as you don't have the hassle of finding a car park, or taking a long trip on the bus. I've heard Leigh is good as well, but I've never been there either! Guess I don't get out much at all.

There is a stall in Wigan market but Wiganers seem to hate Wigan and go elsewhere and then wonder why it is failing.

Mollie the council have been given £6.6 million to spruce Ashton up and make it more inviting to visitors. Part of this is to reinstate stalls and work units back onto the market square. The big bone of contentment Is where is the extra parking going to be (the market square is now one large car park) after this work is done and the amount of traffic HGV'S which go through the town centre

I can imagine a huge dog, lying outside Caine’s butcher’s shop in Garswood Street, contentedly chewing on a big bone. Meanwhile, on the market square, councillors and planning officials argue, in contention, about the lack of parking!

There's loads Mollie...most big towns have a retro sweetie shop...victory V gums was a favourite of mine and Barrats Hard liquorice...

I remember the sweet shop next to Holgate Junior School when I was a kid. Shelf after shelf filled with jars, my favourites were the Pear Drops, Pineapple Chunks and Blackcurrant & Licorice.

Cherry Lips , Imps.

Peter, Whoosh?

Mmm some good ones there. A couple more I've remembered. Spearmint chews, liquorice gums, kaylie (sp) with a hard liquorice stick to dip in, fruit salad. All these smashing sweeties, and what do they replace them with? Rubbish! That's what.

I wish I could get to some of the places mentioned, but it's probably as well that I can't.

timl...."Polly Hawkers" sweet shop...I went to Holgate. juniors 65-69...it was taken over by the Georgeson family until it was compulsory purchased for the Jam Butty estate.....

I loved liquorice allsorts, especially liquorice torpedoes. Bassetts of course. They just don't seem the same now.

Jathbee even Uncle Joes Mintballs don't taste the same

Nothing tastes the same as they used to. Those Liquorice Allsorts by Maynard's (?) aren't nearly as good as Bassett's, but they are cheaper. When I buy them, I peel the outer sweetie stuff off and just eat the liquorice!

Another thing with liquorice were the blackcurrant and liquorice boiled sweets. Love anything with liquorice.

does anyone know how big a KitKat used to be ?

Bigger than that.

To my fading memory, it was longer fatter and thickerer by a good deal and Chepper,,,,,,,

Yes that's right, as were Mars Bars and all the rest of them. I don't like choccies though - well - not milk choccies.

The wheels of the wagon are a smaller diameter too.

Its like a lot of things you buy nowadays its called shrinkage the item shrinks but either the price stays the same or goes up

We used to get liquorice sticks - literally a piece of the root of the plant ! You chewed it until you'd drained it of all it's flavour, then spat it out. Ah, the simpler days.