Over 150 Years Of Sweets
As old as the Salcombe RNLI, Sainsbury’s, and the Periodic Table of Elements-
First opened in 1869 by Mrs Cranch and her three daughters- Charlotte, Isabel, and Gladys, the sweetshop was then half the size it is now. The divide can be seen on the floor, with the blue and white tiles marking the original shop, and the all-blue flooring marks where the family lived behind the shop (the store counter being opposite the doorway, where the fudge is now on display). The ladies would sit in the back room waiting for customers. It is here, where the launderette was more recently located, that the hard boiled sweets were made in large copper pans- everything from Humbugs and Butterscotch, to Pear Drops and Fruit Drops.
Mike Yeoman bought the sweetshop off of Gladys in 1970, and it was Mike who knocked down the walls to increase the floor space, before taking on our Father, Victor Edwards, as store manager, and finally deciding to sell the business . So we decided to buy the sweetshop in 1980 along with Lena Hobbs (Auntie) and Betty Edwards (Mother), with Peter joining us a year later as Store Manager when Father retired. Over the past 40 years we have as a family created the Cranch’s Sweetshop you have grown up with and see today. We are still very much a locally owned, family run business with all our children having worked in the shop at some point over the years, and now our Grand Children, helping out where they can.
Things have changed over the years, different sweets rise and fall in popularity, and children’s view of sweets and the ease with which children have access to sweets has certainly changed over the years. Sweets are now available everywhere, from your local supermarket, and petrol station, to large national franchises and online stores based in vast warehouses- one thing that has not changed, is the look on a childs face when they walk in to a real, traditional sweetshop for the first time. It reminds parents and older generations in general of their own childhood.
We try to make sure we have something for everyone, with old classics like our Devon Fudge, Rhubarb and Custard Boiled Sweets, and Traditional Strawberry Bonbons (You know, the ones with a toffee in the middle, not the rubbish ones with a fruit chew in the centre!!) still proving very popular, and of course our vast Pick and Mix section proving a favourite with everyone
