Sweet rush

Nearly eight years after Victory in Europe, the limit on jelly babies, pastilles, liquorice, barley sugar sticks, lemonade powder and chocolate bars was finally lifted - and a nation of schoolchildren cheered.

Britain sorely needed some good news. Just the day before, hurricane-force winds combined with high tides to swamp the sea defences along Eastern England. Hundreds of people drowned in the worst hit area, between Lincolnshire and Kent.

North Yorkshire got off lightly in comparison, but there were still scenes of devastation. One hundred beach bungalows were smashed to matchwood in Scarborough as the gales caused £50,000 of damage.

Bridlington's Spa Theatre was left under five feet of water and three Whitby families had to be evacuated as the tide reached 12 feet above normal.

In York, one ton of stone crashed to the earth as the top half of a pinnacle on the North East corner of the Minster gave way.

Given such a major disaster, it is not surprising that the Ministry of Food's decision to end sweet rationing did not dominate the headlines.

It still received widespread coverage, however, partly because the decision came as a total surprise. The 1953 New Year's Day edition of the Yorkshire Evening Press contained a gloomy item. "Millions of housewives who thought that rationing would end before the Coronation are going to be disappointed, for the Food Ministry has ordered ration books for 1953-54," it reported.

So, despite the weather chaos, the Evening Press did find a spot on its front page on February 5, 1953, for news that was particularly heartening in this chocolate city.

"York confectioners report that sales of sweets today - the first day of derationing - have been higher than on a normal Thursday," the paper reported.

"One said that he had taken as much in the morning as he usually took in the day.

"Customers bought pound boxes of chocolates where they had previously bought quarters and halves. An assistant at a large store said that the highest sale of the day was two-and-a-half pounds of sweets."

FM Mennell, the sweet shop in St Michael Street, Malton, was one of several specialised confectionery retailers in the town half a century ago.

Started by Frances Mennell in 1926, it is still going strong under the stewardship of her daughter, Cynthia Wheater.

She remembered clearly the privations of rationing, and the impact on the family business.

"We were closed quite a lot of the time," Mrs Wheater said. "We had quite a lot of 'back door' trade; a lot of regular customers, farmers and that sort of thing.

"We had very little to sell. Once upon a time we only had about one box of Fry's Creams, and that was it. You daren't put anything in the window."

Sweet rationing began in July 1942, and limited each customer to two ounces of sweets and chocolate bars a week. After the war this was increased to four, and then six ounces.

One of those responsible for its introduction was William Wallace. He was chairman of Rowntree and Co, president of the Cocoa, Chocolate and Confectionery Alliance and, during the war, the director at the Ministry of Food responsible for the confectionery industry. In that latter role he was credited with being the "father" of the personal points ration.

"This was not solely because supplies at the time were insufficient to meet demand," he recalled in 1953. "It was also because the vast majority of those engaged in the national war effort, working long hours, simply had not the opportunity to shop.

"The result was that an undue proportion of the limited supplies tended to go to quite the wrong people.

"This was at the height of the submarine menace, when men were losing their lives daily to bring in supplies, and this maldistribution just didn't seem right."

It took a while for shops like Mennell's to get back up to speed once rationing was lifted, Mrs Wheater recalled. But everyone was delighted by the move - particularly schoolchildren.

"We got a lot of children because we had a school opposite. Where the library is now was the National School.

"In the break time, they would hop over the wall. They weren't supposed to, but they did.

"Once we got going again, it was back to normal. For the children, there was a lot of stuff they hadn't seen before."

In the Evening Press, York wholesale confectioners Stanley Bros were quickest off the mark. "End of sweet rationing," its advert stated a few days after the announcement. "Cold? Well Winter Nips still 9d per Qtr. The ideal sweet for winter weather. Also be sure to ask for Stanley's Pure Boiled Sweets (Pre-War Quality)."

The change had provided "amusing shopping sidelights", an article elsewhere in the Press observed.

"Men can be seen taking on almost the aspect of boys as they approach the counter to buy - in many cases - their first chocolates or toffees for years, while boys...

"Well, I can only say that one youth I saw a few evenings ago kept a crowd of people waiting while he made purchase after purchase of his favourite sweets - and then signed a cheque for no small amount of money!

"The men most harassed by this 'happy release' are cigarette smokers. Whereas previously they were able to enter their local shop and get served with 'smokes' right away, numbers of them have been seen fuming in queues of late, while sweets buyers made their lingering choices!"

Evening Press columnist John Blunt remembered when sweet rationing had ended in April 1949, only to be later re-imposed as demand for all things sugary outstripped supply.

"Don't you agree that it would be a downright shame if gluttonous adults force the Government to inflict the joy-killing points system yet again? I wouldn't like the task of explaining it to the children," he wrote.

"But I know how fatally easy it is to buy more than we need. This morning I called at a central confectioner's shop to see how sales were going. And although I was there for business, I just couldn't keep my eyes off the tempting jars of sweets and gaily coloured chocolate boxes."

Don't lay in big stocks, he pleaded, and then everyone will get their fair share.

"Today a lot of schoolchildren will open their grubby diaries and write: 'Sweets came off points. As many sweets as I like from now on'.

"Let's see if we can't keep that entry true, shall we?"

Mercifully for children and for York's confectionery industry, the promise was kept. Sweets were not rationed again.

Updated: 11:32 Monday, February 03, 2003