Spangles
Square boiled sweets in a paper tube, including the notorious Old English.
The sweet everyone over forty brings up unprompted. Discontinued in 1984, briefly revived, and mourned ever since.
Spangles came in a paper wrapper twisted at both ends, and the sweets were square with rounded corners and a dimple in the middle. Fruit flavours, mints, and the legendary Old English, which tasted like a Victorian chemist.
They are the standard reference point for British sweet nostalgia. Mention them anywhere and somebody will tell you about the Old English within thirty seconds.
Cost back then
2p a packet
Goes for now
Empty original wrappers sell for £5–£25
