Holyhead’s Wholesale Sweeteries operated out of 15 Bromsgrove Street, Birmingham, in the late 1920s and were responsible for at least one set of football cards most likely in the 1920s. The cards advertised their line of Football Rock although they could have been offered with virtually any of their lines. The cards could then be redeemed at the rate of sixty cards for a box of sixty sticks of rock; perhaps that’s why there are so few of the cards still around? Only three have been seen to date (2021).
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Brentford fan and collector Paul Briers has looked into newspapers of the era; I’ll let him tell the story… “I checked the newspapers to see if they advertised and they did but, unfortunately, nothing about football cards. The company ran adverts as wholesalers from 1919 but at a different address. Then, from 1926 to 1929, the adverts re-appeared with the 15 Bromsgrove St., Birmingham address. Nothing in the papers after 1929. Either they’re not online or they just stopped? So late 1920’s would be a good guesstimate in my opinion.”
Paul returned a short while later with more! “I’ve just found more adverts from 1939 (below). There has to be a large gap in the Birmingham newspapers for the period 1930 to 1938! Still no mention of Football Cards though.”
One thing is immediately apparent from these advertisements: the company was most definitely called “Holyhead’s“, not “Holy Heads” as it appeared on the football cards.
1920s Heaven 