World's oldest sweet shop in Pateley Bridge re-opening under new owner

The shop has been closed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Sweets
Author: Harry LongPublished 7th Mar 2021

A 23 year-old man from Knaresborough is the new owner of the Oldest Sweet Shop in the World in Pateley Bridge.

The store, which has been selling sweets since 1827, is currently closed because of the pandemic.

But it is now getting ready to re-open on April 12th under new owner Ben Howie.

The shop was previously owned by Keith Tordoff - who sold it to run in the North Yorkshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner elections in May.

Entrepreneur Ben said: "I was looking for a business to get my teeth stuck into - and then the sweet shop came up for sale. The shop was a childhood memory of mine, my mother brought me out here and I kind of fell in love with the place.

"There's so much heritage, not just within the shop, within individual sweets - each of them are from original makers, with recipes passed through generations.

"The shop's been here for almost 200 years and you're more of a custodian rather than an owner. You want to preserve it in a way that previous custodians have preserved it in the past, so it means a lot.

"Everyone has a different memory of different sweets, which is what I find so interesting. When we are allowed to re-open on April 12th getting those customers back in and seeing those happy faces - it just brings back all those memories."