Museum of Liverpool offers visitors a sweet treat

The history of Liverpool’s much-loved sweet factory Taveners is being celebrated in a new photographic display on the city’s Waterfront.

Sweet: The Taveners Story is at the Museum of Liverpool until March.

The display of 14 photographs comes after news earlier this year that Taveners’ parent company Valeo Foods announced it would be closing its Edge Lane factory doors in February 2025.

Taveners was founded in 1885, originally producing pickles and sauces, but soon moved into sweeter treats with founder William Henry Tavener producing boiled sweets at his business in Scotland Road.

Over the years Taveners became synonymous with childhood tuck shop favourites including liquorice allsorts, wine gums and coconut mushrooms. It was the Liverpool firm which introduced the chocolate éclair chews in the early 1930s, while Taveners also became renowned for producing the world famous Everton Mints.

The display in the museum’s Skylight Gallery highlights photos that capture the day-to-day running of the factory, as well as the not-so normal days including occasions when players from Liverpool Football Club visited, a Candy Queen beauty contest took place… and even the visit of an oversized Mickey Mouse to the factory.

Curator Sharon Brown says: “It's great to be able to share these images of life at the Taveners factory for the first time. The factory and its staff produced some of the most iconic sweets of the 1970s and 1980s, including Mojos and Traffic Light lollipops, that many of our visitors will have very fond memories of."

The 14 selected photographs were chosen from a wider collection held by National Museums Liverpool which contains around 250 pictures of Taveners and its workforce.

Sweet: The Taveners Story is on show at the Museum of Liverpool until March 23, 2025.

Top: An image of tins of Taveners' sweets from the NML collection.