In The Soup Kitchen Girl, one of my characters, Ruth Hodgson, helps her father to run his confectionery shop. Rather than this being a place to buy bread and cakes, as you might think, it was actually a sweet shop.
There’s nothing quite like an old fashioned sweet shop, with sweets in glass jars, ready to be weighed out on the scales and then poured into a paper bag that closes with a twist. As I was writing these scenes, I was reminded of my time working as a Saturday girl at a local post office. I loved reaching down those heavy jars from the shelf and weighing a quarter of sherbert lemons or aniseed balls. I think it might have been my dream job.
My reason for including a confectioner in my story was inspired by the true of story of James Boyle of Blackburn, better known as Toffee Jem. He was chairman of the relief committee and donated the use of his boiler, normally used for preserving fruit, to the soup kitchen that was set up on Cleaver Street to make the meals that would feed the poor and unemployed. At a meeting of Blackburn Council, he said that the soup was of a quality, declared by many who had tasted it, to be put on any gentleman’s table.
James Boyle was born in Astley Bridge, Bolton on 22nd October 1804. His father was a handloom weaver. He began work at the age of eight in the spinning room at Garnet Taylor’s mill in Astley Bridge. When he was fourteen, he moved to Blackburn to be apprenticed to William Hodgeson, a barber and confectioner. But, being short sighted, it soon became apparent that barbering was not for him, as many clients refused to let him shave them.
In 1822, with a few shillings savings, he set himself up as a confectioner in ‘Old Phoebe’s’ shop on Salford. He worked hard to build his business – reputedly rising at four o’ clock in the morning and never going to bed until his work was done. With the help of his children, he eventually opened more shops in the town and his business continued until 1921 when James Boyle & Co Ltd ceased trading.
Of all the sweets he sold, he’s probably best known for his Boyle’s Original Jap Nuggets – made with coconut, cream, honey and malt according to the vintage tin I saw advertised for sale on ebay for a huge amount of money. If you have one tucked away at the back of a cupboard, don’t throw it out!
This image was originally posted to Flickr by Glen Bowman at https://www.flickr.com/photos/10978503@N00/312415018. It was reviewed on 19 May 2014 by FlickreviewR and was confirmed to be licensed under the terms of the cc-by-sa-2.0.
Libby Ashworth - author 