Sweet Memories - with Squirrels
On a visit to Crich Tramway Museum in Derbyshire – well worth a visit – I was taken right back to my childhood in the traditional sweetshop on the station platform.
The days of penny sweets and pocket money choices. Tins and glass jars arranged on the shelves with their tempting display. The lady who ran our corner shop who made us all be sure to take turns.
I was also reminded that many of my favourites came from a firm which links to our very own community magazine. The Squirrel Chocolate & Confectionery Company, founded in Stockport in1832, originally as a grocery business. A range of sweets was produced starting in 1930.
Who remembers fondly such delights as Cherry Lips and Floral Gums, produced by the Squirrel company? Still available, and sensory nostalgia in the face of more modern sour sweets and foam pieces shaped as pigs and the like.
And the containers too. The company took pride in how it presented its products. During the late 19th century it was very common to find images of famous paintings or works of art adorning chocolate, sweets and biscuit tins; this trend was carried well into the 1950s and 1960s.
Our picture shows a Cherry Lips tin adorned with a colourful rendition of Sir Edwin Landseer’s ‘A Piper and Pair of Nutcrackers ‘(1864). Landseer is most famous for his portraits of animals, in particular his painting ‘The Monarch of the Glen ‘, which features a large stag; but also his sculptural work, including the lions at the base of Nelson’s Column in London. Distinguished company indeed for my pocket money treats.
Such tins are now collectors’ items and worth a bit more than the sixpence (2.5p) a quarter I probably paid for my favourite sweets.
Other brands are available, of course. Once I started my thoughts rolling back, I recalled the bags of lemon sherbet to finger dip and lick, liquorice sticks, aniseed balls, and Bluebird toffees. Don’t think today we would get away with the sweet cigarettes, pretend tobacco (I think coloured shreds of coconut?) and chocolate pipes. If you recall the 1960s Blackjack chews wrapper, that would also not be acceptable today.
Cherry Lips and Floral Gums have survived!
Wonder what were your childhood favourites? Still are?
Christine Brown