The Oldest Sweet Shopin the World

The Oldest Sweet Shop in the World trades from a building on Pateley Bridge's High Street that began life as a seventeenth-century apothecary, with the shop itself selling sweets continuously since 1827. Guinness World Records certified it as the oldest continuously trading sweet shop on earth in 2014. Owner Ben Howie runs the business behind original fittings that include a Victorian wooden counter, oil lamps, antique measuring scales and an old mechanical till, all still in daily use rather than kept for display. Pear drops, bonbons and humbugs from the shop's earliest years remain among its best sellers today. Around 20,000 visitors call in annually, drawn as much by the building's history as by the sweets themselves. The shop sits among a run of other independent traders on the High Street, including a bakery, fishmonger and greengrocer.