'Unclaimed Babies'...!

Any guesses what “unclaimed babies” were?

These were Jelly Babies as we know them. They were originally created by an Austrian confectioner who was working for a company in Lancashire (over the border!) in the 1860s. These figure-shaped jelly sweets were called Unclaimed Babies.

Jelly Babies

Bassetts brought out their own version in 1918 and called them “Peace Babies” to celebrate the end of the First World War and became very popular. During World War 2 all sweet production was halted and didn’t start up again until well after rationing stopped in 1953. This time the little people were called Jelly Babies as we now know them.

BUT – how do you eat them? Is it head first?