Swizzels Mega Drumstick Lolly - 28g

It started on a market stall

It began in the early 1920s with two brothers, Maurice and Alfred Matlow, selling jellied sweets from a market stall in Hackney, London. By 1928 they had built a small factory in east London, trading as Matlow Brothers and turning out jellies and chews. In 1933 they merged with a rival factory owner, David Dee, whose speciality was fizzy compressed tablet sweets. Rivals, then partners. The name Swizzels Matlow Ltd did not turn up until 1975, so clearly nobody was in a hurry.

Bombed out, moved north

The 1940 Blitz pushed the whole business out of London to a disused wick factory in New Mills, Derbyshire. Most people move house and keep a few boxes packed, just in case. Swizzels moved a sweet factory and stayed put. Love Hearts arrived in 1954, Drumstick lollies followed in 1957, and together with Parma Violets they are now the company's highest-selling brands. It is still run by members of both the founding Dee and Matlow families.

The Drumstick gets ideas

In 2012 Swizzels took the Drumstick somewhere new with Drumstick Squashies, foam-like chewy sweets with the same flavour as the original lolly. The original carried on regardless, on its stick, where it belongs. Swizzels say they have been making their sweets, Drumsticks included, for over 90 years. That is a lot of sticky fingers in a lot of school playgrounds, and a fair few grown adults quietly buying one for themselves and calling it nostalgia.