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it, toast-crumbs and tea stains and splotches of dried egg-yolk." As a seven-year-old, Dahl, along with four other boys, decided to put a dead mouse in a gobstopper jar to terrify "Mrs
Pratchett". The next morning the boys walked past the sweet shop only to find it closed, with the gobstopper jar smashed over the floor. The prank worked, but she had her revenge when she told their school's headmaster of what they had done and they were swiftly
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Roald Dahl and his friends used to call at Mrs
Pratchett's Sweet Shop fascinated by the delights in there. They would spend their pocket money and were in awe of the revolting woman that was Mrs Pratchett. But, of course, Mrs Pratchett wasn't her real name. Her real name, we believe, was Katy Morgan.
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that the owner of the sweet shop was "a mean and loathsome old woman named Mrs
Pratchett" (a pseudonym for Catherine Morgan). Dahl wrote: "By far the most loathsome thing about Mrs Pratchett was the filth that clung around her. Her apron was grey and greasy. Her blouse had bits of breakfast all over
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The plaque was unveiled by Dahl's son Theo, on the afternoon of Monday 9 September 2009. Children from local schools were also invited to the ceremony. The sweet shop was located just a short distance from
Llandaff Cathedral School, where Dahl attended between 1923 and 1925.
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to have been built in the 19th century. Around 1900, Catherine Morgan established a sweet shop on the ground floor, known as
Catherine Morgan Confectioner and Tobacconist. Morgan ran the shop for 37 years along with her two elderly
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daughters Kate and Sarah. In 1939 she died, aged 84, in the flat above the sweet shop, where she had lived for 64 years. The old sweet shop is now better known as Mrs
Pratchett's sweet shop.
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In the early 20th century, High Street was a dirt road, with dilapidated thatched cottages on one side of the street and hoardings on the other. 11 High Street is thought by
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Mrs Morgan ran it with her daughters, who were elderly spinsters. They lived in reduced circumstances - running a little sweet shop was a means of bringing some money in.
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It had not been clear where 'Mrs
Pratchett's sweet shop was located. The Llandaff Society had thought it could have been 11 High Street, 38 Bridge Street,
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is Mrs
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where he attended from 1923 to 1925. It provided Dahl with inspiration for some of his books including
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and four other school-boys played a prank on the sweet shop owner, by putting a dead mouse in a
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422:"Roald Dahl fans will be able to spend the night in the sweet shop which inspired his books"
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was unveiled by his widow, Felicity, and his son Theo, on one of his favourite sweet shops.
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jar. At the time of the prank the shop was owned by
Catherine Morgan, although in his book
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on
Cardiff Road where Dahl spent his pocket money on sweets. It took a visit from
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Dahl would often visit the sweet shop at 11 High Street, where he would spend his
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called The Great Wall around 2009. Mrs Lau then converted it into a self-catering
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known as The Great Wall around 2009. It is currently in use as a self-catering
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11 High Street, when it was known as The Great Wall Chinese Takeaway in 2012
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The owner of the building is now Mrs Han Lau, who had turned it into a
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The sweet shop is where the young Roald Dahl would buy
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Geoffrey Barton-Greenwood—chair of the Llandaff Society
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states it was the site of "Mrs Pratchett's sweet shop"
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666:"Sweet treat as Dahl shop is honoured with plaque"
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554:"Blue plaque marks Dahl sweet shop"
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295:The Great Mouse Plot of 1924
181:The Great Mouse Plot of 1924
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363:The Roald Dahl blue plaque
134:Mrs Pratchett's sweet shop
16:Building in Cardiff, Wales
266:Llandaff Cathedral School
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22:11 High Street, Llandaff
704:11 High Street, Llandaff
456:"The Sweetshop Llandaff"
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264:on his way to and from
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516:"The Great Mouse Plot"
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219:. In September 2009 a
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706:at Wikimedia Commons
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327:The Great Mouse Plot
104:51.49403°N 3.21873°W
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60:General information
642:smithsonianmag.com
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285:Chinese restaurant
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150:Chinese restaurant
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432:. 25 June 2017
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730:Blue plaques
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65:Town or city
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674:Media Wales
646:Smithsonian
492:Media Wales
430:Media Wales
373:blue plaque
313:gobstoppers
303:Gobstoppers
289:holiday let
221:blue plaque
154:holiday let
107: /
82:Coordinates
720:Roald Dahl
714:Categories
680:2022-11-20
651:2022-11-20
614:2022-11-20
568:2022-11-20
526:2022-11-20
498:2022-11-20
469:2022-11-20
436:2022-11-20
399:References
189:gobstopper
185:Roald Dahl
92:51°29′39″N
558:bbc.co.uk
385:HSBC bank
350:The Twits
291:in 2017.
274:The Twits
210:The Twits
199:pseudonym
162:St Andrew
95:3°13′07″W
608:BBC News
246:spinster
166:St Cross
138:Llandaff
356:Matilda
317:toffees
278:Matilda
227:History
216:Matilda
142:Cardiff
123:Han Lau
73:Country
464:Airbnb
262:sweets
241:Airbnb
389:Lissy
339:caned
146:Wales
120:Owner
76:Wales
371:The
353:and
276:and
213:and
197:her
172:and
562:BBC
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Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.
