It is just an ordinary little shop. Or at least that’s how it looks from the outside.

Peep through the window, though, and this is a treasure trove, a step back in time to childhood.

This particular establishment is at Whitby and it sells, among other things, a wide selection of the sort of sweets that kids once invested their meagre amounts of pocket money on each and every week. Not so much a sweet shop, then. More a magical memory tour.

It was not until 1953 that the first un-rationed “goodies” first appeared and what a treat that was.

Clutching our sixpences we would head off to the local shop to gaze in awe at what soon became a huge variety of sweets. Deciding which ones to buy was a major decision.

Perhaps readers will recall just a few of those which tempted us half a century or so ago.

A big favourite (probably because there was a lot of it for the money) was McGowan’s toffee. It cam plain or chocolate covered and the chances were that you would never finish it because it always became too sticky and picked up fluff when you tried to re-wrap it to carry in your pocket.

Maybe you enjoyed Nipits, those tiny and very strong aniseed and liquorice pellets which came in little tins or liquorice root which you sucked until it became a straggly and tangled and very soggy mess.

Liquorice featured strongly in those days – remember the bootlaces you could buy?  Or the pipes made of it which usually formed part of boxed “smokers’ outfits?”

Then, of course, we sampled Pontefract cakes (eat too many and you really did suffer!) and, of course, liquorice allsorts.

Talking of smoking, we all enjoyed those Basset’s sweet cigarettes, which usually came five to a pack, each one tipped with a red die so you could pretend to having a puff as you wandered home.

Swizzles (lollies) came in pink and yellow and a firm favourite with just about all were those delicious little sweets they called fruit salad.

Who still remembers buying two ounces of kali, watching as their fingers and tongues went yellow?

We ate our way through quarters of chocolate lines, pear drops, acid drops, nougat and, of course, the great favourite with all ages – Spangles.

More sedate were dolly mixtures, but for real enjoyment you would plump for a gobstopper. Heaven help you if you swallowed it, but how many actually ever finished one?

Then, of course, we had chewing gum – XL or Wrigley’s being he main brands. Packets of Juicy Fruit and spearmint in tablet form were widely available in machine outside newsagents’ shops.

There was also the terrible bubble gum which came in large pink chunks. To start with it was disgustingly sweet and kids would march around with jaws pumping to get it into the state where bubbles could be blown – the bigger the better. You had to watch it though for if someone hit you in the face and burst it you would spend half an hour removing the sticky residue!

These were all kids’ sweets. But as soon as rationing ended other varieties soon appeared, among them Mars Bars, a real treat to be cut into slices and enjoyed by several people who would manage a single piece each.

Happy days.