Cannock Soroptimists were entertained at their meeting on Nov 22nd by Emma Barran-Scott who ran the sweet shop at the Back-to-back houses in Hurst Street, Birmingham for five years. The title of her presentation was “Sweet Heritage”: she told the group all about the history of sweet making in Birmingham and the Black Country, from its beginnings in the Victorian era through to the present day. Along the way we were reminded of almost forgotten sweets such as aniseed balls, sweet tobacco, sherbet and kali crystals in a paper bag. It was a revelation to many of us that some of these sweets are still made locally while others such as Bluebird toffees, remembered with such fondness by members, are no longer made in Birmingham.
We also learned that herbal sweets were some of the earliest sweets to be mass produced, probably because the working conditions and polluted air in the industrial areas meant that workers needed help with their coughs and bronchitis and as a visit to the doctor cost money, two ounces of cough sweets were a cheaper and more pleasurable alternative.
Emma bought sweets for us to try with rhubarb and custard being a great success while old fashioned acid drops were extremely acidic and something of an acquired taste. She also introduced almost all of us to throach drops which were made in Birmingham and known by everyone in the city but almost unknown everywhere else. Only one member who’d grown up in Birmingham remembered these aniseed flavoured boiled sweets, but we all enjoyed tasting them.
Lilian Hyde echoed the thoughts of us all when she thanked Emma for a most entertaining and well researched talk which had bought back childhood memories for us all.
