# Everton toffee

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## Summary

Everton toffee was made in Everton village, now part of Liverpool, from the 18th century by Molly Bushell. It is why Everton FC are called the Toffees.

## Description

Few sweets have left their name on a football club. Everton toffee did. The toffee made in the village of Everton, now part of Liverpool, is the reason Everton Football Club are known as the Toffees.
Molly Bushell's toffee
The story of Everton toffee begins with a woman called Molly Bushell. According to Liverpool newspapers of the 19th century, collected by the local history site Old Mersey Times, she began making toffee in Everton village in the 18th century. The papers disagree on the year: an 1859 report dates the business to 1759, and an 1891 notice to 1753.
The same reports say she obtained the recipe from an eminent medical man of the time, who gave it as an elixir for coughs. Her toffee sold well, and she moved from her first premises in Everton village to a shop in Village Street. Her family carried the business on after her: in 1860 her grandson, R. H. Wignall, was advertising the toffee in the Liverpool papers, and advertising of the time claimed it had been patronised by the Queen and the royal family.
The Toffee House
Everton also had a house in Village Street called Ye Anciente Everton Toffee House, run by Ma Bushell. It stood near the Queen's Head hotel, where the early Everton football club held its meetings.
How the Toffees got their name
Everton's best known nickname is the Toffees, or the Toffeemen, and it came about after the club moved to Goodison Park. There are several explanations. The best known is that there was a toffee shop in Everton village called Mother Noblett's, which sold sweets including Everton Mints, and which stood opposite the old lock up that appears on Everton's club crest. The other is the Toffee House run by Ma Bushell, close to the hotel where the club met.
The Toffee Lady
The link lives on at Everton games. In the Toffee Lady tradition, a girl walks around the edge of the pitch before kick off, throwing free Everton Mints into the crowd: see Everton Mints.
What Everton toffee is
Everton toffee belongs to the long British tradition of local toffees, alongside the slab toffees once broken up with a toffee hammer: see slab toffee and the toffee hammer and old fashioned toffee.

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