Hewitts Of Dursley

I dream about this place. Fellow Dursley Massive will understand this — it’s the childhood sweet shop of (actual, real life) dreams and I don’t think I’ll ever shake the excitement I get when stepping in here. It’s almost more powerful than nostalgia, because I get to re-​live being a kid for real when I’m there.
I’m getting carried away with the poetics. This shop was where we would get a weekly treat after going for a Saturday morning swim at the pool. I think we’d be allowed £1 each to spend, or maybe £1.50, and this was better maths practice than any times tabling.
Penny sweets — black jacks, fruit salads, cola bottles of all incarnations, cherry lips, milk teeth, liquorice torpedoes, blackberries and raspberries, mini gummy lagers (I know, right?!), chocolate buttons, jazzies, fried eggs, love hearts, jelly beans, foam shrimps and bananas, and more — would be counted diligently.
Large cola bottles and Walnut Whips would be budgeted in, along with strawberry laces, lengths of liquorice, and other shiny treats. Nerds and dweebs. Millions. Quarters of cough candy twists, barley sugars, lemon drops, and bon bon bon bons. COLA CUBES! PUSH POPS! LETTERS! JELLY KEYS! CANDY NECKLACES!
This shop had it all. And, folks, it still does. Unless I’m merging the old with the new, I could swear the shop has barely changed in 20 years. The counter is still on the right, the good shit is still behind the glass at child height, and there is jar upon jar of excitement behind the counter. Magazines, etc, but whatever — you want the sweets.
Basically, everything you could dream about is still sold here. I went in over Christmas and the guy who’s now in charge was pretty bemused — I explained that I’d not been in since I was about 15 and I had to buy a little bit of everything. I walked away with several quarter bags of behind-​the-​counter sweets and a tooth-​destroying, epic baggie of penny sweets.
It was simply amazing. I think I barely even spent a tenner and I had about four bags.
Still seems family run, even if it’s a new family, and it’s still somewhere you can go and feel that unfettered joy that one almost exclusively feels as a child. Dursley — I never thought I’d say this, but you win this round. There’s nowhere in Yorkshire (that I’ve found) like Hewitts.