CH Tuck Shop

[Wuppertal]

Today in Venice I saw some space pencils in a sweet shop.

This instantaneously took me back to my junior years at CH when I used to go to the tuck shop regularly to buy these strange and apparently rare culinary delicacies. Yum yum.

Actually the first several times that I bought space pencils, I didn't realise that you could eat the outside bit as well, and I spent ages squeezing the stuff out from the middle. What an exciting way to spend one's afternoon freetime. It certainly was when you were 11.

I remember how some people used to go there about three times a week and always came back with a big wooden box filled to the brim with sugar and fat. I think if money was no object I would have done the same!

[blondie95]

yes, its amazing the amount fo sugar you could get for little money.

When i see rhubarb and custards i think of tuck shop, i used to go there get a diet coke,twix and some rhurbarb and custs for my dad!

[midget]

What are/were space pencils?

[sejintenej]

yes, its amazing the amount fo sugar you could get for little money.

The French, amazingly, have a customs duty free allowance of 5kg per person because it is so cheap in Andorra. ISTR it is about 2 euros (say £1.50) for 6 kilos.

The French are sensible - if you don't take your full allowance of something - say olive oil - then they let you have a bit over the limit of something else. Therefore goods are sold in volumes different to customs allowances (hence the sugar weight anomoly) but what I cannot get my head round is these 2 foot high bottles of Scotch - must be about 10 or more litres when we are restricted to 1 1/2 litres each per trip.

[Wuppertal]

What are/were space pencils?

Here is the only picture I could find on Google (it's quite a small picture):

http://www.brackenbankstores.co.uk/acatalog/pencils.jpg

They're very sugary long cylindrical 'pencil'-shaped sweets. The inside of them is just a pure sugary fruity mélange (there are many different flavours of this haute cuisine to introduce to your palette), while the outside 'skin' (which is always a different colour from the inside part of the masterpiece) is harder and requires ripping apart with your teeth, but is still extremely tasty.

Before I went to CH, I had never heard of them, and I had never encountered them anywhere else until today.

They were always priced at 10p per pencil. Throughout my time at CH, a lot of things in the tuck shop went up quite a lot in price, but space pencils always stayed at 10p.

[englishangel]

The colour on the outside signifies the flavour, the green is sour apple etc.

I think you can get them in Woolworths and the cinema where they sell pick'n'mix, but I have never heard them called spacepencils before.

[J.R.]

Bring back the farthing-chews, also known as 'BlackJacks'

4 for 1d. Can't be bad.

[Jo]

And fruit salads, same price

[michael scuffil]

Mintoes, Murraymints, Wagon Wheels...

[AndrewH]

Bring back the farthing-chews, also known as 'BlackJacks'

4 for 1d. Can't be bad.

And fruit salads, same price

Now 10p each, but MUCH bigger!

[Mrs C.]

Bring back the farthing-chews, also known as 'BlackJacks'

4 for 1d. Can't be bad.

And fruit salads, same price

Now 10p each, but MUCH bigger!

We`ve had the small ones in tuckshop - but they`re now 1p each

[Wuppertal]

Bring back the farthing-chews, also known as 'BlackJacks'

4 for 1d. Can't be bad.

And fruit salads, same price

Now 10p each, but MUCH bigger!

We`ve had the small ones in tuckshop - but they`re now 1p each

Fantastic! There was never anywhere else with better value.

[midget]

Thanks for the information, Wuppertal. In my youth we not only had to work out how to get most for your money, but for your sweet ration as well.

[Urgh-My-Pancreas]

space pencils?
is that what they're called?
my chums and i just called them "those-sweety-things-with-the-white-stuff-in-the-middle-in-like-different-colours-and-stuff"
you can get them in variations of size now
i had one the length of my arm once!

[Wuppertal]

i had one the length of my arm once!

Maybe that's why you're pancreas is urgh!