Wigan Album
Platt Bridge
17 Comments
Photo: RON HUNT
Item #: 35584
A PROPER TOFFEE SHOP...IF YOU HAD A 3d BIT TO SPEND. ON 2oz OF TOFFEE., AND YOU WERE A KING..
A great photo..do you remember when the toffee was slab that came on a oblong metal tray & it had to be broken with a small metal hammer ?
There are 2 local sweet shops here whose windows are just like the one in the photo !
I didn't live in the Abram/Platt Bridge area back in the 1950s/60s but I know where Ball's shop was, (in fact, I think it's still there but no longer a shop), and I have heard many stories of lads and girls going for toffee and glasses of Vimto. I still have some original three-cornered bags that would have held 2oz of toffees or some Kali and a Spanish, and I also have some shop bags advertising Brooke Bond Tea, and a brown paper carrier bag with string handles. Old packaging fascinates me! I think you can still buy the toffee that has to be broken with a little hammer, Helen. I have a toffee-hammer in the kitchen drawer.
I loved the smell of toffee shops. I’m trying to think of the various combinations of Liquorice, Spearmint, Aniseed, Peppermint, Caramels and Chocolate. Then there was a whiff of tobacco which if I remember had to be cut and weighed. Unless I’ve dreamt it. Toffee shops were everywhere in those days. They don’t look tempting at all now in Supermarkets in the sealed bags and they don’t even taste the same. I never even think of picking a bag up. I can’t remember the last time I had a fruit drop or a piece of that brown striped curly whirly that made your teeth stick together. When the lids of the toffee jars were opened that’s when the smells escaped.
R. Ball toffee shop was at 683 Liverpool Rd, now demolished and replaced with McDonalds.
Could this be Richard Ball with his Daughter Ellen and son in law William Horton?
My apologies, Phil.....I thought it was on the opposite side of the road, near to what used to be The A and O Supermarket.....I didn't live locally at the time. I remember the shops where McDonald's were.....Webster's Butchers, Seth Ratcliffe's Fruit and Veg Shop etc, but Ball's must have gone by then.
I bet the advertising signage would be worth a few bob now.. Just noticed is that a 1d Weighing Machine behind their heads?
Name Richard Ball
Gender Male
Nationality Resident
Marital Status Married
Age 33 Years 2 Months
Relation to Head Head
Estimated Birth Year 1888
Birth Place Tunstall, Staffordshire, England
Residence Date 1921
Residence Street Address 77 Walthan Lane, Hindley
Residence Place Hindley, Lancashire, England
Occupation Coal Miner, Hewer Underground
Occupation Code 042/8
Employer Moss Hall Coal Company, Out of Work Richard Ball 33 Years 2 Months Head
Mary Ball
28 Years 9 Months
Wife
Phyllis Ball
2 Years 2 Months
Daughter
Two or three would clamber on and off one of those weighing machines trying to weigh each other for just the 1d, though you had to do it before the pointer swung back to nought.
I was intrigued with 'Koray' in the window and there's a 'Koray' First Aid kit on ebay, and looking at the contents they wouldn't get very far if they tried selling one of those today.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/202760586104?mkevt=1&mkcid=1&mkrid=710-53481-19255-0&campid=5338722076&customid=&toolid=10050
Is the old style toffee shop still on Pole Street at Standish? - I haven't seen it advertised for a while so it may not be.
Name Richard Ball
Gender Male
Marital Status Widow
Birth Date 16 Apr 1888
Residence Date 1939
Address 683. Liverpool Rd.
Residence Place Hindley, Lancashire, England
Occupation Cinema Manager Phyllis Ball( Corbett) Female 1919 Unpaid Domestic Duties
Ellen Ball ( Horton)Female 1931 Student
Richard Ball Male 1888 Cinema Manager
The slabs of toffee that you broke with a hammer, especially the treacle toffee, was the best tasting treacle toffee ever. There was also Peanut Brittle and a Caramel tasting one, Did they call it INVALID TOFFEE? Later you could buy similar toffee in small approx. 4" x 3" slabs. I remember there was a picture of a long horned highland cow on the wrapper.But it didn't taste the same. Best thing ever for removing fillings out of your teeth. The fillings there in the first place because of the toffee..
They all look so proud of the shop and their window display and quite rightly so which invites you to 'step inside', they would have been very familiar faces and respected people to locals..
These days such shops are run by people who hardly speak English, windows plastered with cheap tacky posters hiding what's inside, in other words 'Enter At your Peril'.
Not a racist comment, just a fact, catering for a new and very different generation.
I remember the toffee bar with the highland cow on the wrapper, Ron, and I remember Santus's toffee stall in Wigan Market Hall selling "Invalid Toffee". As a child, Peter used to love some toffees called "nutty nibs" which were weighed out from a big jar onto and then put into a paper bag; sadly you never see them now. Grocers' shops had three lots of scales....huge potato scales on the floor of the shop, white "Avery" scales on the counter next to the big red bacon slicer to weigh cooked meats and cheese, and little toffee-scales to weigh a quarter or 2oz of toffees.
If anyone wants to buy some of original toffee
That we all used to enjoy,there is one in Gérard Street
Ashton.
I can remember Webster's,Ratcliffe's and Delaney's ( grocery) in that row of shops when I worked at a bank nearby 1969- 1971.
Ron, the toffee bars with the Highland Cow on the wrapper was McCowan's Highland Toffee:
https://ourstoriesfalkirk.com/story/a-history-of-mccowans-highland-toffee-
https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=mccowans+highland+toffee&qs=n&form=QBIR&sp=-1&lq=0&pq=mccowans+highland+toffee&sc=4-24&cvid=CFF07C97587449358FA8BB8123A29D15&ghsh=0&ghacc=0&first=1
Eddie is the toffee they sell still 3d for 2oz.?
Did they have a shop on Throstlenest Avenue at Springfield at one time?