Sweets we used to eat

think rod means sour plums!

Oswaldthwistle, Lancashire (20 miles north of Manchester), is the home of the worlds LARGEST PEARDROP!

Here goes Brenda,

Sweet tobacco was a rather dry, sweet flaky confection often sold in imitation tobacco pouches “just like Dad’s”. It tasted okay then, but I doubt if many children would go for it anymore. My father used to smoke Baby’s Bottom tobacco in his pipe and the tin had a great many pictures of………….baby’s bottoms!    

Sticky Lice was liquorice root sticks, sold in sweet shops at the time of food rationing when there was very little to buy. We used to buy a couple of sticks and suck & chew for ages, enjoying the sweet taste, ending up with a stringy, soggy twig. It was grown traditionally in Yorkshire in the fields around Pontefract. I used to really enjoy it and bought it way beyond the austere days of rationing.

Locust was “locust bean gum” a sweet that I did try but not really go for, again mainly sold when there was nothing else. If my mind can go back that far, it was a sticky mess of a sweet. It may have been sold here in Liverpool mainly due to the nearby docks. 

Five Boys was a small chocolate bar (Fry’s ?) with five pictures of boys (or different shots of the same one?) with different expressions from tears to joy as I recall.