They are among the oldest businesses in the North West, all of which have been running for at least a century and in some cases hundreds of years.
Many are still owned by the same family, with the expertise that has made them such a success having been passed down through several generations.
They include pubs, restaurants, breweries, ice cream makers, sweet manufacturers, jewellery shops, chemists, department stores and more.
Many have fascinating stories behind them, from sibling rivalries to young love and daring adventures.
One featured on a Channel 4 show, one holds a royal warrant and another’s signature tipple was once named Britain’s favourite beer.
This is not a definitive list of the oldest businesses across the north west of England but it includes many of the region’s best known and best loved family firms which are still running today.
How many of these businesses do you know and were you aware of the history behind them?
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17. Uncle Joe's Mint Balls
Uncle Joe's Mint Balls is a Wigan institution, churning out around 160,000 Mint Balls per day from its Toffee Works home on Dorning Street. The family firm was founded in 1898 by William Santus and is today owned by his great nephews, John and Antony Winnard. The vegan-friendly sweets are still made using the same traditional methods employed by William's wife, Ellen Santus, who first made them in her kitchen more than 125 years ago. | submitted Photo: submitted
18. Boodles
Boodles, on the corner of Lord Street and North John Street in Liverpool, can trace its history back to 1798, when the Kirk family established a jewellery business. Nearly a century later, Henry Wainwright worked as the manager of the Liverpool store, then on Parker Street, before becoming the owner of that branch in 1898. When his sons Herbert and Harold joined him, the business became known as H Wainwright & Sons. Herbert and Harold broke away from their father in 1910 to buy the stock, premises and goodwill of another established jewellery firm, Boodle and Dunthorne. In 1921, they opened Boodles House, which remains the firm's flagship store and head office more than a century later. In 2004, the firm became known simply as Boodles, and in 2014 it featured in Channel 4 show The Million Pound Necklace: Inside Boodles. Today the business has stores in London, Manchester, Leeds, Chester and Dublin, as well as its flagship shop in Liverpool. It remains a family business, having been handed down through six generations. | Google Photo: Google