By Caroline Briggs BBC News Online, County Durham

The sweets are weighed, gift wrapped and sent across the globe

The fame of the little sweet shop has spread worldwide with people living in Japan, America and the Middle East using new technology to get their hands on old favourites.

Kim Gulliver, owner of The Shop, in Barnard Castle, set up the Sweets for Treats website to help lovers of traditional English sweets find what they were looking for.

She said she was staggered at the worldwide demand for the sort of sweets that have been popular at home for more than 50 years.

It's mainly the traditional ones like black bullets, festival creams, floral gums and pear drops Kim Gulliver, Sweets for Treats

Ms Gulliver said: "We were absolutely amazed that someone actually logged on from somewhere miles and miles and miles away and wanted to buy our sweets.

"It certainly is growing day by day... dolly mixtures, acid drops, sherbet lemons, lemon bon-bons all the kind of sweets we used to buy when we were younger at school."

Ms Gulliver, who runs the shop in partnership with her husband David and daughter Sabine, said the secret of the sweet shop's success was pure nostalgia.

'Sweet memories'

She said: "It's mainly the traditional ones well sell like black bullets, festival creams, floral gums and pear drops."

"It is reminiscent of being a child, going into the sweet shop, getting them weighed out. It brings back nice sweet memories.

"We have one lady who has a thing for dolly mixtures and lives in Israel.

"We send them to her in a box or gift wrapped.

"We've had Australia, just this morning we got an order from Arizona, we've sent them to New Zealand and also had people from Japan."

Cyber shop

The global customers tend to be a mixture of ex-pats looking for a taste of home or tourists who have been to the UK and returned home.

As well as selling sweets at the corner shop, Mrs Gulliver also provides her customers with an internet link - more Cyber Sweet Shop than Cyber Cafe.

Customers can log-on while buying their sherbet lemons and surf the net.

Mrs Gulliver added: "I suppose they could log on to our site, order their sweets then pick them up from the counter - if they really wanted to."