A man who now runs the shop his grandfather first opened in 1958 has stumbled across a treasure chest of old food boxes and bottles hidden behind a wall - dating from when a box of cornflakes would cost you just 22p. Alan Gordon has found relics at the shop opened by his grandad Len, then passed down to Alan's dad Frank.
Alan told the ECHO: "They were found in between a partition wall, like a fake wall when putting new shelving in. I think these have fallen down the back over the years and as we’ve moved the shelving we’ve found more items. We’ve found them over time, over the last year, when we've been doing some alterations to the shop. I thought they were really cute to be honest.
"I think the size of the cereal boxes was quite shocking, they were quite small in those days and now the sizes today, they're quite big. Also the logos on the box and there was no dates on some of the food.
"Some of the items are pre-decimalisation, so its before we went into pounds and they're still in shillings and pence. I thought it was quite historic, that my grandad would have price marked them up and put them on the shelf, around 40 or so years ago. Being able to find them again was quite touching I suppose."
Among the items were boxes of old Kellogg's Cornflakes and Ricicles, Weetabix and Sugar Puffs, as well as bottles advertising Cadbury's drinking chocolate and cigarettes. Decimalisation was introducedin 1971, meaning a number of the items are over 50 years old and older than Alan. He said: "Some of it I think possibly is my dad’s handwriting from when he price marked items 20 or 30 years ago too.
The branding will transport you back in time (Image: Photo by Colin Lane)
"I suppose it's like finding an old school book when you were a kid and you look back and think I wrote that about 30 years ago. One of the cornflakes were priced at 22p and nowadays a box of them is something like £3, so that was quite interesting."
Alan has put the items on display in The Bread Shop Bakery window in Aigburth, but is going to move them to a new home in the shop as he doesn't want sunlight to affect and fade the items. Alan said: "We’re still selling some of the products and some of them don't exist any more.
Alan discovered the items behind a shelving unit (Image: Photo by Colin Lane)
"They're definitely to keep for the history of the shop. I think its a great find and they should be in museum too."
