Accrington Web - Sarsparilla

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Can anyone remember having sarsparilla delivered by Stanton's,I think they were based in Clayton-le-Moors,they were stoneware bottles.

Yes....I do.
Stantons used to come to the bottom of Riley's Hill every Friday night and we used to trade an empty stone jar for a full one...it was one of the few treats we got.
Ma used to buy Sarsaparilla and ginger beer....i think they did other flavours too, but we never got anything other than these.......I lie!
Sometimes we got Dandelion and Burdock.

They did D & B also a Lemonade along with sarsaparilla and GB. I think it was 1 shilling per bottle providing you returned an empty one. That was in the summer of '54 and they were based at the top of Oswaldtwistle then - Summer job.

I remember it well ... and the ginger beer was good too.

the ginger beer was damn fantastic...especially when drunk straight form the bottle neck(though I have to say this practice was severely discouraged by a clip round the lug'oil).

My mother used to use the bottles for hot-water bottles .

That was my spending money when I was in my late teens- delivering Stantons.
He was a very short, quite fat man, the recipe was secret, nobody was allowed in the mixing room except him and a little old man.
We set off at 6am at the latest(we'd loaded up by then). The wagons were red and black Bedfords and the drivers drove like demented F1 drivers- all over Lancashire and Yorkshire. They were on some sort of bonus system and could make good money so you had to learn how to run up and down streets delivering 4 stone bottles at a time- they were heavy but you could hook each index finger into two bottles if you tried.
I remember running up streets in Yorkshire ducking under rows of washing, even in Accrington you never saw that.
Back 10 or 11 pm, shattered. I remember if the drivers were pleased with your efforts they'd buy you pies for lunch(and free Stantons).
Without that money I couldn't have taken my girlfriend to the Con Club on a Saturday when I wasn't delivering- the good old days!
I think when he retired(or died) the business closed down.

My family hadn't much money, we'd never have afforded Stantons( 1 shilling a bottle? Can't remember but you had better have the right money at the end of the day).
But I remember, even as a thoughtless teenager, wondering, on those little narrow cobbled streets with the run down terraced houses and the worn out washing, 'How can these people afford three or four bottles of Stantons every week?

We only ever got one bottle......and not every week.......it was our treat, and we savoured every drop

We used to like the Dandelion and Burdock

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gordon Booth (Post 1122382)

Yes, I remember Bradford, Bingley and all sorts of foreign towns. Seem to remember his daughter took over the business but I moved away so not too sure of dates.

I am sure this is mentioned on another thread - I worked with a German ex-POW, Hans, who had married a local girl. Probably Cashy will provide some details on this.

There was a similar firm, also based in Ossy, called Beech's

My dad used to brew a large plastic barrel full of sarsaparilla when we were kids and it tasted fantastic. He also used to make dandelion and burdock too, I still love the taste of them. You can still buy sarsaparilla by the glass on Blackburn market!