Tastes of tomorrow with those from the past at The Sweet Shop in Taunton

The Sweet Shop at 14, East Reach in Taunton, has a unique selling point, this is ‘it is the most haunted sweet shop in Somerset’.

The shop which is run by self styled and self coined Lord Parker, has a ghost which has appeared in the shop during the early hours of the morning.

Not only has the image of a little girl who died in a fire in Victorian times been spotted on CCTV but she has also moved jars off the shelf and place them in a circle on the floor.

Lord Parker has heard footsteps coming down the corridor and has felt a cold chill near the front of the store and at the back of the shop.

But enough of ghostly going-ons, the sweet shop has been open for business since September 5, 2016, and is fast becoming the go to place in Taunton for sweets.

The business is run by ‘Lord Parker’, former teacher and he decided to open the shop after he hurt himself at school by injuring his knee which has left him disabled.

As a result he cannot stand for too long and had to give up teaching, hence he decided to follow his dream and open up a shop.

He did not know what type of shop to open but after doing some research he thought a good option would be to open up a traditional sweet shop in town.

The Old Fashioned Sweet Shop sells a wide range of traditional sweets from Bonbons to Yorkshire Mix.

And being an ‘old fashioned sweet shop’ is part of its charm as it has shelves lined with jars containing sweets of different size, colour and taste.

Explaining the impact the shop has on people, Lord Parker said: “When I was thinking about what sweets to sell I wanted to have retro old style jars and put the sweets people bought into paper bags. I looked around and saw there was not another traditional sweet shop so I decided to open it.

“I use four/five different suppliers to get the sweets I need.

What people like about coming in here is they see all the jars and remember all see a number of the sweets they used to have as children. What it does is bring back memories of when they were kids and I even open the jars so they can smell the sweets and that makes them want a bag of sweets.”

At present The Sweet Shop stocks 380 different types of sweets and Lord Parker is always on the look out for more.

The type of sweets on offer include foam sweets, lollipops, jelly/gummy, liquorice, rock, sherbet, sugar free, traditional boiled sweets, mints, chocolate and a 1970s,1980s and 1990s sweet gift box to name a few which are just the tip of the iceberg of choice.

He explained he has tested every sweet so when people ask him what a particular sweet is like he can honestly tell them as he has tried them all.

Lord Parkers hard work is paying dividends as the number of people coming to the shop is increasing as are his takings.

One of the biggest things to have boasted his shop has been ‘word of mouth’ with people telling their friends and their friends telling other people.

The shop does sell sugar sweets as you would expect but it also sells sweets for diabetics and these are proving to be a big hit with customers.

There are few places where they can get diabetic sweets and as a result they pop along to the sweet shop in Taunton.

Now he is looking forward to Christmas and has bought a large range of Christmas sweets which he hopes will fly off the shelf and be a big hit with customers both old and new.

The Christmas treats include a Santa sleigh loaded with chocolate, mini Mason jars which contain marshmallow snowmen with chocolate hats standing on a cookie. All you do is add hot water and it turns into an instant hot chocolate drink.

Reflecting on his decision to open a sweet shop, Lord Parker said: “I am really happy with my decision, 100 per cent happy.

“The plan is to get into town as I am a little bit out of the way as it would give me more footfall from customers.”

You can find out more about the Sweet Shop by calling in at 14, East Reach, Taunton or go online at sweetshoptaunton.co.uk