Much-loved owner of former Pudsey shop Sweet Memories announces retirement after 22 years in business

Ann Taylor, 65, opened the well known shop on Pudsey Lowtown, Leeds in 2001 after she was inspired from a visit to The Shambles in York.

Since then, Ann welcomed thousands of customers both young and old through the doors of the coveted shop – which stocked every kind of sweet, lollipop and confectionary imaginable.

Ann was a familiar face for many, with schoolchildren often using the shop as a base on lunchtimes and spending their pocket money on a weekend.

In recent years since the shop closed, Ann has been a regular on Pudsey market each week.

However, she has now decided to call it a day and take much-earned retirement after 22 years running her business.

She announced the decision to her devoted customers on social media and was met with an outpouring of support.

"I tried to keep a wide variety of sweets”, Ann explained.

"My saying was ‘something for everyone from 1 to 110.

"I had gone for the day to York and when we were on the Shambles and went in a sweet shop, I loved it and thought I'd love to own a sweet shop.

"The job I was doing bored me.

"A small shop down Lowtown in Pudsey became available and I had a light bulb moment and went ahead and rented the property.

"I started off very small as I didn't know enough about it, but to my surprise it attracted a lot of people, mostly from the two local high schools Pudsey Grangefield and Crawshaw.”

Ann soon decided to expand her business which had taken off.

"After about three years there a chance to move further up Pudsey still on Lowtown came available, so I moved up there”, she said.

"It was a very good move, it was big enough to have table and chairs in the back.

"It was soon used by both schools at lunchtime.”

In 2013, Ann sadly made the decision to sell the shop to new owners.

"I worked part time mostly round Pudsey after that”, she explained, “but after a while decided to try online sweets.

"It worked for a while but we decided to do markets.

“I started in Shipley for a while, but once the sweet man in Pudsey retired I went back were I belonged, Pudsey Market of course."

Ann also sold sweets on stalls at the White Rose Shopping centre in recent years.

Sadly, Ann found attending the market more difficult due to joint problems

“At the age of 65 I've decided it's my time to go, so the last event I'm doing will be the Christmas market in Pudsey”, she said.

Ann has pledged to fulfil all her planned events before finally shutting shop at Christmas.

Her decision was met with fond memories from hundreds of adoring customers on social media.

One former pupil of a nearby school said: “Best days ever at high school getting a scollop butty, curry sauce then heading down to sweet memories to sit in the back with our Pepsi and sweets.”

Lynne Wilson said: “You deserve your retirement but Pudsey won’t be the same without Sweet Memories being there.

"Thank you for serving the community for so long & enjoy your retirement.”