Locus Beans

[MBrennan]

Thanks for that, 

I was trying to read them. When I got to the lime one, I thought it said lime cordial then decided I must be making them up so gave up! 

On the subject of Turkish delight. I have mentioned to several people over the years that back in the 60s, Revels had turkish delight in - nobody remembers or believes me! 

I also remember getting everlasting toffee strips at the Boleyn ABC at Saturday morning pictures 
(they would be done under the trades description now!  )

Mark

[Will.B]

The one favourite sweet that i remember from the 1930s is the farthing Golly Bar which was just a little strip of wrapped toffee, I suppose the price was attracted as well as the taste, later there were Winter warmers which was like Bullseyes or brandy balls but were a strange triangular shape, also later there were imps which were very little black imps,I have a good reason for remembering them for one of my relations and his friends were shooting them at one and other, with a pea shooter and one went in his ear, they had to take him to hospital to get it removed.( I guess that game would not have been approved by health and safety).

[EX CUSTOM HOUSE]

Mark,
The Bar I remember only had six chocs'  (Price 2d and remember I am talking 37/38)


I see your wrapper say's New Size with nine delights.

After posting last time I remembered Turkish delight, Coffee, and Lime.

Glad you still enjoy them!

Louise.

[MBrennan]

Hi Louise,

Haven't tried milk tray for at least 25 years.

Looking at the photos on this site, it looks as if they changed the flavours at times. http://forums.doyouremember.co.uk/threads/10190-Milk-Tray-Bar

"Strawberry Fayre creme & Jam"  

"Cokernut"  


Mark

PS - Re the odd spelling of Coconut as Cokernut, According to Wictionary:

'This spelling was introduced by the London customhouse to distinguish more widely between this and other articles spelt much in the same manner.'  

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/cokernut

[Bert]

There are so many tastes of sweets that I can remember from about 80 years ago but I can't recall their names. One has just occurred to me, though - Acid Tablets. They don't sound appetizing but were very popular among we youngsters. They were colourless tablets about the size of a farthing with a lovely sweet but sharp taste. Remember them, Louise?

Bert.

[EX CUSTOM HOUSE]

 
Yes Bert most certainly I do! and enjoyed many a pennyworth of them.  Do you remember Eucalyptus? sweets, I believe thay were taken
off the market due to some chemical or the other being sold as sweets.? Not to all childrens taste but I loved them.

And how about Swizzels? tiny pretty coloured tablets, pink, yellow, green, wrapped in a tube of selophane.
and whilst eating them they sizzled in your mouth.
I did hear once they were made somewhere in Canning Town, Hermit Road area.?

Regards Louise.

[Bert]

Yes, I remember eucalyptus sweets and Swizzels. Weren't there also sticks of eucalyptus? I liked the taste. Another popular one has come to mind. A boiled sweet in the shape of a cushion, with black and white stripes. They could have been called mint humbugs. A good, long suck.

Away from the sweets subject but concerning eucalyptus, a very vivid memory has stayed with me. At Three Mills School, Abbey Lane I had a wonderful teacher named Mr Swatman. Can see him now. Well-built and manly, he always wore tweed plusfours. He would frequently pull out a handcerchief and breathe deeply through it. The whole class would then smell eucalyptus. Bless him!! He had served in the Gallipoli campaign in WW1 and contracted malaria. His hankie was his relief.It has been a great pleasure to praise the man.

Bert.

[MBrennan]

Louise,

You may well be right about Swizzels being made in Canning Town. I know they are made up north thesedays but it says here the company was started in London in 1928 http://www.swizzels-matlow.com/history.php

One of my favourite sweets at junior school was also made by them. It is called the refresher chew (not to be confused with refreshers sweets)

I remember when I used to buy them around 1969 when I was at Vicarage Lane juniors in East Ham. The wrapper had a flash on saying 'New' - to this day, the flash is still there. I have never understood this. 40+ years is hardly new by anyone's standards!  

I used to like all their sweets, especially Parma Violets, drumstick chewy lollipops, love hearts and others. I don't like any of them now! (except the refresher chews) - I think they are truly kids sweets  

In fact I was given a jar with miniature tubes of love hearts a few years ago and finally threw them out unopened a few weeks ago as they were out of date.

[Kathy Taylor]

Louise, you are right about Swizzels being made in Canning Town.

Swizzells, Love Hearts and Parma Violets. The production of these sweets began in 1933 with the formation of Swizzels Ltd., initially in factory premises at 25 Durham Road, Canning Town,  moving later that year to the larger premises at Drivers Avenue, Plaistow, (next to the Lord Raglan, Plaistow High Street).

Swizzels Limited specialised in the manufacture of fizzy sweets in compressed tablet form, Dimple Mints, Navy Mints, and Cach-O’s which developed into the present day nationally known range of Love Hearts, Sherbits, Fruit Fizzers, Double Lollies, Parma Violets, New Refreshers, Carlton Mints and Navy Sweets.

The factory was bombed out during the Blitz in 1940 and  both companies evacuated to a disused textile mill in New Mills, Derbyshire where it has stayed to this day. It was initially a temporary move but after the war ended the company realised that they had a well-trained workforce which they didn’t want to lose. Also a number of peripheral companies had sprung up in the area which relied on Swizzels, so they decided to remain loyal to the town.

Directory entries:
Matlow Bros., Mfg Confctnrs, 69 Adamson Road, London E16 ,ALBert Dock 2434       in 1928, 1933, 1934

Swizzels Ltd, Confectioner, 25 Durham Road, London E16 ALBert Dock 1770 in Nov 1933, (This is where the road bends and is in the corner)

Swizzels Ltd, Factory, Drivers Avenue, London E13 GRAngewood 3070  in 1934, 1938 (This is next to the Lord Raglan)

Kathy

[MBrennan]

And not forgetting Swizzels necklaces 

I can clearly remember after being stitched at A&E at East Ham Memorial and my dad asking what sweets I wanted and asking for a Swizzels sweet necklace (I WAS only about 5!  )

I'm guessing Cach-o's were those funny sweets that were like cheap perfume? - I'm sure they had a name like that?

Mark

[MickG]

I recall 5 boys chocolate when I was young, with the faces of five boys on the wrapper that changed in stages from a grimace to a smile. At first it tasted awful and then as it gradually dissolved in the mouth, the flavour changed to something quite nice. I am not surprised it is no longer made as people want their choclate to taste nice all the time.

[EX CUSTOM HOUSE]

Kathy Hi,  this is the strangest story.  One day after school I went to visit Grandma in Hermit Rd. and was busy
undoing my "Swizzles" i had just bought. They make them somewhere round here you know says Grandma!
Talking of fav.sweets on occassions as the Forum does I have been going to ask about my Swizzles, but thought
who would know about them they were not even wrapped attractively to jog posters minds.

Sweets up again, and something that Bert said about Acid Drops made me think, he might knowthem.
Low and behold he did and so did other posters which amazed me.

Then came your post re Factory being in Durham Road, No.25, I was actualy living there from 1934 to 1939
and played in the area of those large Green gates at the fork of the two roads many times.
Never saw any one go in or come out, never any transport, and certainly no smells (As I remember having lived
close to Trebors in 1949) so we played there with no trouble and used the gates for Ball games etc.,.
It must have been closed Kath as you say moved later end of 33.and why we saw or heard no activity.
When Grandma said round here somewhere she had no idea they were almost on my door-step at No.14?

lThank you so much for your post.  Louise

[EX CUSTOM HOUSE]

MBrennan, never dreamed any-one had heard of my swizzles and knew nothing of the other varieties they made.

Yes they were made in Canning Town, re Post from Kathy to-day on my doorstep in fact.

I lived in Durham Road pre-war and must have moved in just as Swizzles were off somewhere else.

Very interesting facts under Locus Beans - Swizzles posted to-day bye Kathy.

Regards Louise.

[MickG]

Ii was not until I was seven years old that I was given my first packet of sweets, a tube of refreshers. I think this was due to sugar rationing that went on for some time after the war. Rather than devour them all at once as I had never tasted a sweet before, I took them to school still unopened to show my school friends. I made the big mistake of showing them in class to my school mate who sat next to me on a two-seater desk. As I was showing them off, the sweets suddenly disappeared out of my hand, confiscated by my female class teacher looming over me who was a bit of a martinet.

I was speechless as the first sweets in my life were taken away from me meaning I still had never tasted a sweet.

When I went home lunchtime I told my mother what had happened, she did not say anything. During afternoon classes the door of the classroom suddenly flung open so hard that it slammed against the wall. Framed in the doorway was my mother and I think I froze in disbelief. My mother simply marched over to the teacher, held out her hand and said in a very authoritarian voice, "My sons sweets please". I could not believe it when this normally bossy and often stern teacher simply opened her desk and meekly handed over my tube of refreshers without a word. My mother simply said thankyou in a tone that meant don't you ever dare do that to my son again. She then turned around and marched out of the class without another word leaving the door wide open.

It was one of the few times I wished the earth could have opened up and swallowed me as I was now fearful of the terrible retribution I knew would come from my teacher. To my surprise she said and did nothing and I never heard another word about it all from her.

When I got home after school my mother simply gave me my tube of refershers again and then carried on as if nothing had happened.

I think that was my first lesson in life to never be intimidated by authority figures.

[EX CUSTOM HOUSE]

 
MickG.
How wonderful to have a Mother who could stick up for you like that and to show you were not going to be
intimidated bye the likes of her. (Over a packet of sweets)

No wonder the teacher never mentioned it again, expect she was too scared!!!


PS Think the shortage of sweets for so long, was why we were all so much slimmer?? I know as a young
Teen-ager none of my friends were fat, we might have had some meat on us, but not fat or obese.

Louise