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The corner sweet shop

Blacksmith

Blacksmith

master brummie
Oh, hello. I didn't see you there. I was lost in thought. I was thinking . . . But tell you what, why don't you come with me and I'll show you what I was thinking?

Close your eyes and we'll soon be there. Open them again. It's a Monday in 1962 and we're standing in Medina Road, Tyseley. Just behind us is the Warwick Road. On our left is Yardley Grammar School and just up there on the right, on the corner of Havelock Road is Mr and Mrs Woolley's sweet shop.

Let's go in. The pupils are still in school so it should be empty. I love the sound of that bell over the door that jangles as we enter.

Yes, I know there's nobody serving, but wait a bit and Mrs Woolley will come from her sitting room at the back. In the meantime, feast your eyes on everything that's on offer. Woolleys is very similar to many other corner sweet shops in the 1960s.

Look at those huge jars of sweets - the multi-coloured rainbow caylie, the gob stoppers, the dolly mixtures - jar upon jar of them. I often used to buy 2oz of one of them. But today I've brought you for a special treat, my favourite. I've got 8d with me and I'm going to buy two frozen jubblies - one for you and one for me. What? You don't know what they are.

They are like huge ice lollies made of orange juice, but they don't look like regular ice lollies, they're shaped like a triangular prism and you have to work at the cardboard covering with your teeth to get in at the ice.

Yes, I know it's a bit of a pain, but it's worth it when you get to taste it. And it lasts and lasts. In fact, near the end you're sucking on just ice, because all the flavouring has gone.

There, I said you'd like it. What value for 4d.

Now, let's pop out of the shop and just wait, because the school lunch bell is about to go.

There it goes. Now stand back, here they come. At lunchtime Woolleys corner sweet shop transforms itself into 'The Tuck Shop'. Lots of boys are coming running across the road to get into the shop before the queue. Yes, that long lanky one does look like me. That's because it is me in 1962. I think the expression is 'There's more fat on a greasy chip.' The same can't be said nowadays if you see my belly.

I've been at the school since 1960 and I'll stay here till 1965, with the tuck shop being part of my daily school life as it was for generations of boys before me.

Watch what I'm buying from Mrs Woolley. It's a bottle of ice cream soda pop, my favourite flavour. Now, did you see me take a coin and use it's edge to scrape down the middle of the label? Well, watch now how I fold the label back on itself and write my name on the reverse. That pop bottle's got to last me the week, and Mrs Wolley will keep it behind the counter with the pop bottles that other boys have bought, and all I need to do is ask for my bottle when I come in each day so I can have a swig.

I wondered when you'd realise that. Yes they are all boys, even though it's a mixed school. The boys and girls have separate entrances and separate playgrounds. The girls have their own sweet shop near their entrance in Reddings Lane and the boys aren't allowed to go in there. But I reckon ours is the better one anyway, because Mr and Mrs Woolley are such nice people.

OK, it's time to take you back to 2010 now. Unfortunately, you won't be able to come back and view all this in 2010, because the school has long moved to a new building and there are houses where it once stood. What was Mr and Mrs Woolley's shop still remains but is now just a residential property.

I'll tell you what you can do, however.

Why don't you pop by this thread every so often and have a read? You could even add to the thread by telling us about some of the sweets, pop, ices etc. that you enjoyed buying from your own sweet shop, in those days long gone.

I will probably pop back myself to tell you of some more of the things I liked to buy.

It's been nice having you with me. See you again, soon.
 
hi blacksmith....ive enjoyed reading your memories so much....where i lived we used a couple of sweet shops to buy different things alas no longer there...one shop we used sold the liqourice roots and kaylie and the other sold the jubblies that you mentioned....did you know you can still get them ???? mind you they are a lot smaller than they were in our day...here is a pic of the shop that sold the jubblies....its on the right and you can just see folk going into the shop.....taken in 1960 at which time i would have been living there

thanks again....

lyn
 
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What I forgot to mention was what happened at the end of every half term, and I'm sure this will disgust you. Mrs Woolley used to get rid of the part drunk pop bottles that had not been claimed, but before she could do that we always used to check with her if there were any unfinished bottles left over. If there were she gave them to us and we would finish them all off. Yes, we drank other people's old pop. I guess young lads are greedy and disgusting, I'm afraid to admit.
 
I arrived at Yardley Grammar in 1967 and, you are quite right, the Woolleys were truly wondrous people. Indeed I can still picture their faces, something I can't do with most of the teachers and many of the pupils!

Having read your extremely well written piece I'm now gasping for a Jubbly!
 
Anyone remember Horace Whittles sweet shop on Nechells Park Road.It was double fronted with two automatic chewing gum machines attached to the door that nobody used .He made is own ice blocks and changed his window display as per season displaying all the lollies in little glass dishes in the window.He was,nt quite on the corner of Malvern Hill Road ,the first shop I think was a chemist and later "the Cheap Shop",he was next door.Regards Polly
 
Can anyone remember Binghams on Ford Street, Hockley. I had a couple of favourite sweets and they were khalie with licquorice to dip in it and a square wrapped in paper and tasted of khalie but just a little sweeter.
 
Blacksmith said:
What I forgot to mention was what happened at the end of every half term, and I'm sure this will disgust you. Mrs Woolley used to get rid of the part drunk pop bottles that had not been claimed, but before she could do that we always used to check with her if there were any unfinished bottles left over. If there were she gave them to us and we would finish them all off. Yes, we drank other people's old pop. I guess young lads are greedy and disgusting, I'm afraid to admit.
Click to expand...
Hi
I was at YGS from 1958 to 1965 and for all of those 7 years, a lunchtime visit to the tuck shop after school dinner would be part of my daily routine.
Yes you are right about how we used to save bottles of pop by ripping and writing on the labels.
I also remember the frozen and even better the semi-frozen Jubbly's.

I also seem to remember you could buy single cigarettes (never tried, too scared)!!
 
Robert, I think you're right about the shop the girls used being owned by people called Jukes. Were you at Yardley as well?

Russell, you were a couple of years older than me, but I do remember your name.

Innquest, you came to Yardley Grammar a couple of years after I left, but it's good to see that you remember the Woolleys as affectionately as I do.

Also, how lovely to hear from other people about 'their' sweet shops. They made up so much a part of our young lives. I would love to hear about more of them, with photos, if possible.

Now, I've just checked in my pocket and found I've got just 1d, so I think I'll buy 4 shrimps (those pink sugary sweets). Anyone fancy sharing them with me?

Just imagine, only one farthing each!
 
No Blacksmith i didnt go to YGS as you can proberly guess by my spelling. But i do remember a lot of people that did from Yarnfield rd 1963 onwards.
 
Well, there I was, drifting off again and I was suddenly jerked awake by another memory of a sweet shop. Only this time, it wasn't a sweet shop as such, it was a house with stairs.

Confused? I bet you are.

Well this time, follow me again, but it's and earlier time, mid to late fifties, and i'm in my shorts. I was not old enough for long trousers. You had to be at least eleven before you got your first pair of long, grey trousers.

I'm walking from my home in Herondale Road, South Yardley and I'm turning left into Wensley Road. This time I won't collect caterpillars off the wooden fence, or go 'over the pond' before school. No, this time I'm heading for Sunnysides. This is the name of a house on the left before you get to Lyndon Green Junior School. But it isn't just any house. This house is a sort of sweet shop. Only it isn't really a shop. I queue up before the front door. Now it's my turn.

I look into the hall of the house, with the stairs on the left-hand side, and there, laid out on the stairs are the sweets. For a young boy of 8 years old, it is an Aladdin's Cave, but I haven't got a lot to spend today, only a penny, so I think I'll have four Black Jacks. Then, it's off to school before the bell goes.

Oh, well, just another memory. I wonder if that sort of house exists any more?

I don't know the name of the people who owned the house, so all I can say is, "Thank you, Sunnysides."
 
Hi Blacksmith,
I really enjoyed your opening post on this thread. Very well written. Me thinks there are a couple of other threads about school sweet shops? There may even be one of mine. In one of those posts there is a link to a sweet "shop" that is selling the self same sweets some 50 years later on the Internet!!
 
Thanks, Blacksmith, for that wonderfully evocative essay! My first primary school was at Fernhill Heath in Worcestershire (we lived in Droitwich). I can still remember the jelly motorbikes the tuck shop used to sell (I've never seen them anywhere else). Later in Birmingham I acquired my addiction for boiled sweets, and used to love pear drops (my favourite), acid drops, troach drops, pineapple chunks and so on. And gob-stoppers, which lasted for hours and changed colour as you sucked them. And do you remember the SMELL of the sweet shop? Heavenly!

After we moved to Australia in 1964, "sweets" became "lollies" (and "iced lollies" became "icy poles"!). I found an old-fashioned "sweet shop" recently (Gourlays in The Quadrant, Launceston, Tasmania). Just for "old times sake" I bought some pear drops (they cost a lot more than threepence an ounce!). They were OK, but nowhere near as good as when I was a kid!
 
I was at Yardley 1962 to 1968. I can still picture the Woolleys. I remember buy packs of 5 ciggies; in fact I recall buying single fags.

I dropped past the old place a few years ago and the school was closed and boarded up - sad.

A few months later it was GONE. Some swanky cluster-homes or some such.

I've given up the fags - but I still recall the shop and shopkeepers - she was cuddly and he had that pinched little face of a forty-a-day man!
 
Blacksmith, just happened on this site. Excellent opener.
Question : Why were most sweetshops on a corner ?
Our shop was on the corner of Deykin Avenue and Brookvale Road, Witton. Owned by Mr Williams and was even open on Sunday afternoons - unheard of in the 1950's. After Sunday lunch (dinner in those days), I was sent to buy my parents weekly sweet treat, a quarter of chocolate gingers for Mother and a bar of Cadbury's milk for Father. It was agonising coming to a decision as to what to buy for myself with my alloted tanner. My mouth is watering now, toffee/nut crunch, sherbert lemons, wine gums, American hard gums - the lines of those sweet jars seemed endless. Liquorice comfits I think this Sunday. A quarter please, weighed on the scales and slid into a small white paper bag. Further agony not to touch them until I got back to the house.......
 
Blacksmith enjoyed your posts,i went to Goden Hillock in 1960-65,and with my dinner money on a Monday i used to buy 5 park drive and get 5 matches from the shop on the corner ,just cannot remember the name i think it was Anderton Road ,but for one day i was the smoke king and the rest of the week the hungry fool,alas no jubbly for me .
 
How great that people remember these shops with such affection. They were so important to us kids in those days and really were Aladdin's caves with all the jars of sweets they had on their shelves.

Some of the jars looked so attractive as well. None moreso than those jars of rainbow caylie. Do you remember the stain of it on your fingers afterwards? And the gobstoppers that we just had to take out of our mouthes every couple of seconds to see if they had changed colour.
 
Our local shop in watery lane Bordesley was owned by mr & mrs Gaunt it was like Blacksmith said an Aladins cave we used to buy our blackjacks, jubblies and all sorts of mouth watering goodies. i remember the one thing that used to last for ages was a stick, i think it was called Spanish Root. It was about six inches long and you just chewed it. I think to some it was an aquired taste. Another shop in Kingston Hill was called Sheperds it was a small converted front room of a house we used to buy cheap pop which he made from khalie,they also had a machine with two hand grips which after putting in a halfpenny you squeezed the grips which administered an electric shock the harder you gripped the harder the shock, we used to see who could reach the highest level. Another shop we used was mrs Moles across the road from our school Ada rd, It was on the corner of St Andrews rd and Mona rd looking towards the Blues ground entrance in emmeline st. there we used to buy two cigarettes and a penny box of matches for sixpence. That was around 1963/4. nice memories. All the best formula t.
 
Wonderful memories. Thanks

I can't remember Spanish root, but I do remember licorice root, although I don't think you could buy that from Mr & Mrs Woolley's shop.
 
Hello Blacksmith the licorice root was probably the same thing its just what we called it. Reading your posts brought back some good memories. Oh to be young again, Thanks again All the best formula t.
 
in the mid 50's there was a small shop in Adams Hill Bartley Green just before you reached the Woodgate Lane it was on the right, about 50 yards from the "Birmetals" site entrance, this shop (cannot remember the name) looked old really old to a small child, but it was an aladin's cave and sold every sweet and candy bar you could imagine, (as a child I could imagine a lot), there was a dear old lady who looked as old as the shop, and we spent our twopences there my sister and I before we went into the old infants school which was across the road then. The old lady always gave us an extra chew or pontfract liquerice cake for free with our order, funny how these shops still hold a magical memory for our age group, (64) wether it was because of sweet rationing or that we did'nt have much money so these were real treats then I don't know.
regards all
Paul
 
Not sure what the shop was called but it was at the Yew Tree and my Great- Uncle used to take me on the bus from Station road in Stechford to the library at the Swan, then back to the Yew Tree to choose sweets, my favourites then were Fairy Satins or coconut mushrooms. My younger brother had wine gums and for my mom, there was a box of Newberry fruits! We had moved to Tamworth by then - late 60's - where there still remains a brilliant old fashioned sweetie shop with row upon row of jars of sweets and kayli, Kendal Mint Cake and lots of single decorated chocs, called Whyles in the town centre - making me feel a visit coming on tomorrow yum yum
 
Oh Sistersue, you've brought back more memories for me. The Yew Tree and South Yardley were my neck of the woods. From the Yew Tree to the Swan, on the corner of Church Road and Coventry Road, there used to be a bakery and I can still remember the lovely smell of that newly baked bread even after all these years. Gorgeous!

You also mention the library at The Swan. How well I remember that. We used to go there and do our homework from school sometimes, and there was this girl! Well, to cut a long story short, I quite fancied her and I used to gaze at her as she walked round the library. Did I ask her out? No, but my friend did. Faint heart never won fair lady.

I'm not so shy now. Just past it! - And a good job, my wife would say!
 
Hello, that was a really enjoyable opening thread as were the follow ups and replies. Unfortunately I don't remember any of the shops mentioned but I do remember a very tiny sweet shop in Nechells owned, I am told, by my maternal great grandmother Alice Emma Moores nee Ingram. It was more than 50 years ago now and we didn't live in Birmingham then so I didn't see her much. All I remember is her long white hair in a bun and of course - the sweets.
Does anyone else remember this shop, although there isn't much to go on?
 
Hello Blacksmith, just wander back with me thirty years, when Adolf was starting to get a bit active, and take a look in Carrie Wainrights shop in Gladstone Street, Aston. There was a long fly paper hanging up which changed once a week, but during hot weather it was more flies than paper. There was a powder called Kali which you'd suck up out of the packet and it would fiar take your breath away and make your face screw up like sucking a lemon. Then of course home made toffee apples and big glass jars with gob stoppers that really filled gobs up to the point of jaw ache. Much much more but time to go into my garden for another 'Thunk'. Regards, David.
Blacksmith said:
Oh, hello. I didn't see you there. I was lost in thought. I was thinking . . . But tell you what, why don't you come with me and I'll show you what I was thinking?

Close your eyes and we'll soon be there. Open them again. It's a Monday in 1962 and we're standing in Medina Road, Tyseley. Just behind us is the Warwick Road. On our left is Yardley Grammar School and just up there on the right, on the corner of Havelock Road is Mr and Mrs Woolley's sweet shop.

Let's go in. The pupils are still in school so it should be empty. I love the sound of that bell over the door that jangles as we enter.

Yes, I know there's nobody serving, but wait a bit and Mrs Woolley will come from her sitting room at the back. In the meantime, feast your eyes on everything that's on offer. Woolleys is very similar to many other corner sweet shops in the 1960s.

Look at those huge jars of sweets - the multi-coloured rainbow caylie, the gob stoppers, the dolly mixtures - jar upon jar of them. I often used to buy 2oz of one of them. But today I've brought you for a special treat, my favourite. I've got 8d with me and I'm going to buy two frozen jubblies - one for you and one for me. What? You don't know what they are.

They are like huge ice lollies made of orange juice, but they don't look like regular ice lollies, they're shaped like a triangular prism and you have to work at the cardboard covering with your teeth to get in at the ice.

Yes, I know it's a bit of a pain, but it's worth it when you get to taste it. And it lasts and lasts. In fact, near the end you're sucking on just ice, because all the flavouring has gone.

There, I said you'd like it. What value for 4d.

Now, let's pop out of the shop and just wait, because the school lunch bell is about to go.

There it goes. Now stand back, here they come. At lunchtime Woolleys corner sweet shop transforms itself into 'The Tuck Shop'. Lots of boys are coming running across the road to get into the shop before the queue. Yes, that long lanky one does look like me. That's because it is me in 1962. I think the expression is 'There's more fat on a greasy chip.' The same can't be said nowadays if you see my belly.

I've been at the school since 1960 and I'll stay here till 1965, with the tuck shop being part of my daily school life as it was for generations of boys before me.

Watch what I'm buying from Mrs Woolley. It's a bottle of ice cream soda pop, my favourite flavour. Now, did you see me take a coin and use it's edge to scrape down the middle of the label? Well, watch now how I fold the label back on itself and write my name on the reverse. That pop bottle's got to last me the week, and Mrs Wolley will keep it behind the counter with the pop bottles that other boys have bought, and all I need to do is ask for my bottle when I come in each day so I can have a swig.

I wondered when you'd realise that. Yes they are all boys, even though it's a mixed school. The boys and girls have separate entrances and separate playgrounds. The girls have their own sweet shop near their entrance in Reddings Lane and the boys aren't allowed to go in there. But I reckon ours is the better one anyway, because Mr and Mrs Woolley are such nice people.

OK, it's time to take you back to 2010 now. Unfortunately, you won't be able to come back and view all this in 2010, because the school has long moved to a new building and there are houses where it once stood. What was Mr and Mrs Woolley's shop still remains but is now just a residential property.

I'll tell you what you can do, however.

Why don't you pop by this thread every so often and have a read? You could even add to the thread by telling us about some of the sweets, pop, ices etc. that you enjoyed buying from your own sweet shop, in those days long gone.

I will probably pop back myself to tell you of some more of the things I liked to buy.

It's been nice having you with me. See you again, soon.
Click to expand...
 
With all these wonderful memories I wonder if there are any of this type of shop left, where you felt the people were your friends and the service really was 'service'.

And how fascinating to see the thead from stivesbay, which takes the Woolley's shop back even further. I wonder if other ex Yardley Grammar schoolboys remember it in the days of Mrs Trueman. I say boys because, as I've mentioned earlier, the boys and girls had different 'tuck shops' and ne'er the twain should meet.

It would be nice if photos existed of all the shops mentioned above. Perhaps Carl Chinn will bring out a book called 'The Sweet Shops of Old Brum'.

And David Weaver, what a great reply about Carrie Wainwright's shop. I can see it in my mind's eye from your excellent description. I can remember those old fly papers. In fact, I seem to remember them hanging up at home. And, following on your memories of the sweets, I've added my own memories of the same ones:

Kali - In rainbow colours, poured from a big glass jar into a triangular shaped bag.
Toffee apples - Look great, toffee tasted great. But the apples? Yuk! They always seemed to use apples that had no taste or that had grubs in them.
Gob stoppers - We kept taking them out of our mouthes at regular intervals to see what colour they had changed to. And then, you ended with the tiny aniseed ball at the centre.

I hope you thunked well in your garden, and that you come back with more memories. When you do perhaps we'll sit down and chew some licorice root while we chat it over.
 
polly kettle said:
Anyone remember Horace Whittles sweet shop on Nechells Park Road.It was double fronted with two automatic chewing gum machines attached to the door that nobody used .He made is own ice blocks and changed his window display as per season displaying all the lollies in little glass dishes in the window.He was,nt quite on the corner of Malvern Hill Road ,the first shop I think was a chemist and later "the Cheap Shop",he was next door.Regards Polly
Click to expand...

message for Polly kettle: (dolly?)
The bubble gum machines when filled, you had to rake the packets of gum with your finger, so they wouldnt stick together and jam the machine! It was a treat to have the hot nuts in winter, from the sunpat machine heater, as you say the "ice cream" was made in the shop by a long black machine with 3 sections that was purchased about 1930/33? the ice cream powder was made by the a small italian firm in aston. The best displays was easter time when the large cadbury's eggs were on display before being delivered to those who ordered. Horace whittall was on nechells park road, the corner shop was the chemist and owned Mr & Mrs Hind.

with fond memories - stephen whittall
with ref: library Barry Anderson
 
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