My Childhood Fantasy...

...was to be locked inside a sweetie shop.





Yes, I was a greedy, sweet-toothed little girl!





This wonderful shop in Louth would have fitted the bill perfectly!

Let's step inside, out of the cold.

How wonderful is that! Over two hundred jars full of old-fashioned sweeties.

Flying saucers, fudge, Kola cubes, sherbet pips, Kali, rhubarb and custard...

bon-bons, mint imperials, sherbet dabs...





A lovely little gem of a shop which sells sweeties by weight, wrapped in lovely paper bags. The man who runs the shop must get so tired of people reminiscing about their childhood favourites - but he never, ever shows it!





To be perfectly truthful, it wasn't only the sweeties which I wanted. It was the lovely little shop scales.





I wanted to open a jar and carefully measure out the sweets, lift the shiny pan and tip the sweets gently into a small paper bag which I would then expertly twist round so that it would end up with a tiny 'ear' at each corner to keep the bag from opening. I was sure that it would be the best fun in the world!





I wanted to be able to count out black jacks, fruit salads and flying saucers, licorice sticks and gobstoppers! I wanted to take the money and ring it into the old fashioned cash till with the big drawer which would ping out to admit the money.





Although undoubtedly bad for the waistline, and your teeth, it is a wonderful place to have a trip down memory lane!





Gobstoppers is located in a lovely little lane, with lots of lovely independent shops around.

turn to the right and we are faced with

a newsagent/bookshop called Wrights of Louth. If you look at the sign above the door you will see that it is upside down.





There are a few versions of this story, but the gist of it is that the sign had to be either repaired or replaced but when the carpenter had finished and the shopkeeper came out to have a look, it was found to have been put on upside down. The shopkeeper decided that he like it that way and it has been a talking point for the many years since then.

Our next stop was at the Playhouse.





This was originally a chapel which was converted to a cinema in the 1920's. In 1935 a new frontage in the 'moderne' style was added.





Just peeping over the top is the roof of the original chapel.





It is now a three screen cinema - pretty good for a little market town like Louth! It is also home to the Louth Film Club.





So, there you have another little slice of the treasures of Louth.