Obsolite toilet tissue - the wonders of Bexhill

On a recent excursion to Bexhill-on-sea, a quiet slow town, known only for it's extensive elderly population, contains a grand total of fifteen charity shops all surrounding the iconic Art Deco building, the De La Warr Pavilion.
I park up opposite this landmark with only two hours stay and choose which direction to turn. Starting from the right for a change I go into speed-shop-mode visiting every one in turn, scouring shelves, rails and rummaging through boxes.
In the second shop I find a real gem, so peculiar that no one would look twice, except to laugh.

A Jeyes ceramic toilet tissue dispenser.

They used to be attached to the cubicle walls of all public toilets many years ago when I was a child. I picked it up and joked with the shop assistant. On closer inspection, guess what was inside?...An unopened pack of Izal, now the whole shop was laughing about this discovery.
I slipped it out of the china dispenser and would you believe it, printed on the familiar green pack in red letters were the wonderful words...

'Woolworths special price 14 1/2p'

Wow, now I'm in heaven

for a pound.

At home I googled both aquesitions, to my amazement a vintage Izal box had recently sold on eBay for over £10 and the dispencer was also for sale for a tenner.

There is only one toilet museum in the world, in India of all places!

Stoke-on-Trent's Gladstone pottery museum has just won a million pound lottery grant to stage a History of Toilets exhibition and why not indeed, being the home of Johnsons.
Now casting toilets out of clay, that's a feat in itself not to mention glazing to perfection! What a shame there is no pottery made in the Potteries anymore.

Woolworths went bankrupt and shut down on 27th December 2008, after being in a High Street shop for nearly a hundred years. The whole country was in mourning.

Izal medicated toilet tissue is no longer manufactured (we wonder why!) after being used for most of the 20th century. It reminds me of school days and my Nan's outside loo, probably because it was designed not to be absorbant!

Jeyes haven't produced ceramic dispensers (for obvious reasons) for a very long time. Featuring a multi-function design by incorporating a handy ashtray on the top. No need for that now as smoking in public buildings is banned.

The half pence coin stopped being UK currency in 1983.

This find is a perfect example of times gone by.

Vintage indeed, antique debatable, ephemera collectors item most certainly, if only for the Woolworths name and a vivid memory to anyone who has ever experienced Izal medicated toilet tissue.
Go on mention the name and watch their reaction!