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Sweets and Chocolate bars of the past !


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What were the toffees called that came in wrappers with a picture of a little girl saying to a cute puppy dog "They are too good for you Spot", think they might have been chocolate covered.

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Whoahhhh!!!....what a mouth watering topic!

So many memories of long lost favourites.

If you want to obtain some more permament memories of your favourite sweety blasts from the past,

you might like to tuck into one of these very tasty jigsaws.

I bought a couple from the Jigsaw Shop in Meadowhall recently, and they are also available from John Lewis.

A NUX bar anyone ?

Enjoy !...........

Interesting that the display goes from the 1940's to the 1970's.

Most of the well known chocolate bars today have been around since the 1930's (the decade before the display starts) and it is interesting to see how their wrapper designs have changed over the years.

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Five boys chocolate, think it was made by Frys, with the pictures of 5 boys in the chocolate their faces going from crying to laughing.

Wasn't there a word under each of the images of the 5 faces, all ending in -ation? (anticipation, exasperation ??? etc)

I can't remember what they were and as a kid eating the stuff had no idea what they meant.

Would be nice to see those faces, and the missing "-ation" words again to see if there was a meaning or message to it all.

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Wasn't there a word under each of the images of the 5 faces, all ending in -ation? (anticipation, exasperation ??? etc)

I can't remember what they were and as a kid eating the stuff had no idea what they meant.

Would be nice to see those faces, and the missing "-ation" words again to see if there was a meaning or message to it all.

Found it,

I was sort of half right about the words.

No idea what it all means though.

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Found it,

No idea what it all means though.

Desperation - He's upset (or probably being mardy)

Pacification - He's being pacified, (bribed)

Expectation - He's thinking there's a treat in store

Acclamation - He's expressing approval on seeing chocolate

Realisation - Even better it's Fry's Chocolate

That's what I assumed it meant anyway.

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Desperation - He's upset (or probably being mardy)

Pacification - He's being pacified, (bribed)

Expectation - He's thinking there's a treat in store

Acclamation - He's expressing approval on seeing chocolate

Realisation - Even better it's Fry's Chocolate

That's what I assumed it meant anyway.

Thanks for the explanation vox.

I would never have worked it out as when I was a kid no one ever tried to bribe me with a block of Frys chocolate. lol

If I remember correctly, Frys chocolate was quite a dark chocolate and it contained a white cream.

There was also a variation with coloured / flavoured creams where each of the 5 pieces was a different colour / flavour inside.

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Guest SuzyC

Thanks for the explanation vox.

I would never have worked it out as when I was a kid no one ever tried to bribe me with a block of Frys chocolate. lol

If I remember correctly, Frys chocolate was quite a dark chocolate and it contained a white cream.

There was also a variation with coloured / flavoured creams where each of the 5 pieces was a different colour / flavour inside.

Brilliant interpretation and quite correct. I had forgotten about the wording (too busy scoffing the choc I suppose). There was Frys chocolate creams in the appropriate covered wrappers, peppermint, strawberry and coconut.

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Guest SuzyC

Desperation - He's upset (or probably being mardy)

Pacification - He's being pacified, (bribed)

Expectation - He's thinking there's a treat in store

Acclamation - He's expressing approval on seeing chocolate

Realisation - Even better it's Fry's Chocolate

That's what I assumed it meant anyway.

What a wonderful word "mardy" is - well familiar to us Sheffielders but where does it come from. I have met Southern folk who have never heard of it.

Another term I remember is "he´s got a right cowboy on" meaning he was mardy but nobody seems to have heard of it. Any enlightenment out there?

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Guest SuzyC

Brilliant SteveHB - that´s the picture I have in my head. The toffees were individually wrapped in white waxed paper, bearing that picture. Thorntons eh? Must have been a posh Christmas present!!

By the way we lived next door to Mrs Thornton on Norfolk Road and she was allegedly related to the famous Thorntons. She lived with her daughter, Mabel, who had been something big in spying in the second world war. They were pretty freaky. Even as a kid I always wanted to go through the house, so many treasures there. Their slightly richer cousin had a house in Newquay, Cornwall right overlooking the harbour and lived there in very grotty circumstances for many years. The house was empty for years after she died but has been done up now and is a very des res.

I would love to know what happened to Mrs Thornton and Mabel. They didn´t sell out to the Council like my family when the dreaded tower blocks were put up.

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Guest SuzyC

We still say that to our animals now when they are begging! Alas all they can hear is blah blah blah !!!

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Guest SuzyC

Anyone yet seen any Jap Desserts though? My mouth is watering just thinking about them :P

As I remember **** were sugary little cakes which we used to buy from Fretwell Downings (anyone remember them, I think at the bottom of London Road). They were a sheer joy of confectionery, little mounds of sugar and coconut that melted on the tongue. The ladies who served at Fretwells always gave a good little girl a much coveted chocolate from the display. Boy was I good in those days!

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If I remember correctly, Frys chocolate was quite a dark chocolate and it contained a white cream.

There was also a variation with coloured / flavoured creams where each of the 5 pieces was a different colour / flavour inside.

"Fry's Chocolate Cream" was the minty one in the blue wrapper -see 1960's jigsaw above.

The fruity one was "Fry's 5 Center" - see 1950's jigsaw above.

Both delicious !

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"Fry's Chocolate Cream" was the minty one in the blue wrapper -see 1960's jigsaw above.

The fruity one was "Fry's 5 Center" - see 1950's jigsaw above.

Both delicious !

Fry's was not the most famous or most popular chocolate manufacturer in Britain (I auppose Cadburys would claim that prize)

But they certainly made a wide range of very high quality, and very memorable, chocolate products.

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What a wonderful word "mardy" is - well familiar to us Sheffielders but where does it come from. I have met Southern folk who have never heard of it. Any enlightenment out there?

It all depends how far south you want to go.

Once into Derbyshire the word "mardy" quickly thins out and disappears.

All the way down from there to the south coast of England it is not undestood and may as well be a foreign language to them

But if you carry on southwards, across the channel and into France, suddenly it is a very common word again and readily understood.

Unfortunately the French think that the word "mardy" means "Tuesday" for some reason lol

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For information

Had this by email

Sir.

I have just come across a topic about boiled sweets on the Sheffield History forum.

Myself and my brother Chris are the 3rd generation of our family to own and run Maxons which has incorporated the brand Dixons since the 1940s when my Grandfather's company "Ralph Pitchfork Ltd" wholesalers merged with the Dixons Sweet Manufacturers to form Dixons Pitchfork Ltd. This was as the second generation of Dixons (Henry Dixon Jr) had no male heirs to take it over from him. The company is still going strong and exporting to Australia, New Zealand, Holland and the USA to name 4, including supplying bulk sweets to the Harry Potter world area of the Orlando studios resort in Florida.

Next year (2011) Dixons Mint Rock will be celebrating its 125th anniversary, although this was not the first sweet or confection to be produced by Henry Dixon Snr on starting his firm in the 1880s it is the first still being made to the same recipe now.

Maxons now produces 99% of its products with nor artificial colours and flavours and supplies to ASDA locally and Tesco along with the smaller old fashioned shops. If people are wanting to find Maxons we can be found at www.maxons.co.uk if people are trying to find the sweets they can be found in many shops in the city and if not in their local shop please point the owner to our website and we are happy to supply any shop in south yorkshire direct.

Its very nice to hear people remember the sweets with great fondness and they are still talking about them. Hopefully they can enjoy again the Dixons Mint Rock next year in some limited edition 125th anniversary packaging which is being designed at the moment.

Rgds

Richard

Richard Pitchfork

Director

Maxons Ltd

Bradbury Street

Sheffield

S8 9QQ

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Its very nice to hear people remember the sweets with great fondness and they are still talking about them. Hopefully they can enjoy again the Dixons Mint Rock next year in some limited edition 125th anniversary packaging which is being designed at the moment.

What a nice reply from one of our local sweet manufacturers.

As a kid my grandmother used to run a sweet shop on Devonshire Street / Division Street (Cuneos).

When we went round to see her we always got sweets, usually the ones sold loose from big jars stacked up on shelves behind the counter and weighed out on an old Avery scale into "quarters" (4oz.) into a cone shaped paper bag.

I always asked for mint rock, it was my favourite of the sweets in jars, and it was Dixons Mint Rock.

So hopefully I will be one of the people sampling the 125th anniversary limited edition original recipe mint rocks next year.

I'll have to be carefull with it though, I'm not a young boy any more and impending symptoms of late onset type 2 Diabetes has put me on a diet which limits my sugar intake somewhat.

Now, my other grandparents had a slightly different taste in sweets.

My grandad would always offer me a Hall's Mentho-Lyptus sweet (or a mentholatum as he called them)

Occasionally this would be altered to a Victory V lozenge instead.

Quite a powerfull taste for a kid, more of an adult sort of sweet.

But I quite liked them and I rarely suffered chest problems, sore throats or colds, which is why I think he had them.

Drew the line at Fishermans Friend though, - they were awful.

Had to eat half a bag of wine gums after to take the taste away. lol

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Guest skeets

Interesting that the display goes from the 1940's to the 1970's.

Most of the well known chocolate bars today have been around since the 1930's (the decade before the display starts) and it is interesting to see how their wrapper designs have changed over the years.

My favourite in my younger days was Mint lmperials anyone remember them l have no seen them mentioned skeets.

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I've looked for this a couple of times before with no luck - any ideas

I used to deliver to a sweet factory on Attercliffe Road. That would have been 70's / 80's

I'm sure it was somewhere within a couple of hundred yards of Washford Bridge on the left going out of town.

(To me and Dave, that was "Under Ferodo Bridge, past Princess Street and then somewhere on the left.")

No Idea of the name of the place,

It was a very old brick building, not modern.

They made, (amongst other stuff I suppose) boiled sweets, they usually gave me a few before I left.

You got the sweet smell as soon as you parked outside.

I never went much further than the entrance where the time clock was, so I don't know how big the place was.

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My favourite in my younger days was Mint lmperials anyone remember them l have no seen them mentioned skeets.

I'm fairly sure that you can still get Mint Imperials skeets.

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Guest carlie167

Can't find any Jap Desserts, but I have just scoffed my way through a bag of Coconut Mushrooms.

Well, I ate the mushrooms and my dog ate the stalks.

Mmmmm, we both enjoyed them.

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A good little trick to play on guests at Christmas.

Have a bowl of plain almonds without shells.

When somebody puts one in their mouth you say -

"Do you like those things" ?

Obviously they reply in the affirmative.

Then you say " I don't - I just like to suck the sugar coating from the outside"

================

Sugared Almonds - Yuck

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I've looked for this a couple of times before with no luck - any ideas

I used to deliver to a sweet factory on Attercliffe Road. That would have been 70's / 80's

I'm sure it was somewhere within a couple of hundred yards of Washford Bridge on the left going out of town.

(To me and Dave, that was "Under Ferodo Bridge, past Princess Street and then somewhere on the left.")

No Idea of the name of the place,

It was a very old brick building, not modern.

They made, (amongst other stuff I suppose) boiled sweets, they usually gave me a few before I left.

You got the sweet smell as soon as you parked outside.

I never went much further than the entrance where the time clock was, so I don't know how big the place was.

The building on your map marked as manufacturing chemist was Carter & Sons (of Carters Little Liver Pill) fame. They were in a dirty brick building by the side of the road. I used to travel past twice a day on my journey to & from work.

There was a peculier smell from the premises not unlike that from Simpkins in Hillsborough 'so perhaps they also made (medicated ?) sweets.

HD

Edit- I've been looking on the t'internet and apparently Carters Little Liver Pills were an american patent medicine consisting of a laxative "dulcolax" . I'm not sure if the Attercliffe Carters were connected. Mr. Carter certainly lived in Sheffield. There is a partial photo on Picture Sheffield at V02954 but I cannot remember how to post a link, perhaps a fairey will help ?

HD

As if by magic

Carters

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The building on your map marked as manufacturing chemist was Carter & Sons (of Carters Little Liver Pill) fame. They were in a dirty brick building by the side of the road. I used to travel past twice a day on my journey to & from work.

There was a peculier smell from the premises not unlike that from Simpkins in Hillsborough 'so perhaps they also made (medicated ?) sweets.

HD

Edit- I've been looking on the t'internet and apparently Carters Little Liver Pills were an american patent medicine consisting of a laxative "dulcolax" . I'm not sure if the Attercliffe Carters were connected. Mr. Carter certainly lived in Sheffield. There is a partial photo on Picture Sheffield at V02954 but I cannot remember how to post a link, perhaps a fairey will help ?

HD

As if by magic

Carters

Very possible HD

The sweeties they used to give me may have been the "cough drop" - barley sugar type things. I don't remember. Just remember getting a few boiled sweets whenever I went.

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