Rates of cigarette smoking may be declining but one of Huddersfield’s oldest shops is reporting a rise in interest in pipe smoking and posh cigars.

C Booth & Son, which has been based on Cross Church Street for 152 years, is known as ‘the shop that sells everything’ - and that includes cigars from central America and Cuba.

On Friday, as new tobacco ‘plain packaging’ regulations came into force, the store was doing a brisk trade in lighters, hand-rolling tobacco and cigars.

Owner Simon Green said consumers and retailers had had plenty of time to get used to the new regulations, which include a ban on flavoured hand-rolling tobacco.

C. Booth & Son, Cross Church Street, Huddersfield, celebrates 150 years - Shop Assistant Lewis Reynolds with Michael Green who ran the shop for more than 30 years before his son Simon took over.
C. Booth & Son, Cross Church Street, Huddersfield, celebrates 150 years - Shop Assistant Lewis Reynolds with Michael Green who ran the shop for more than 30 years before his son Simon took over.

Mr Green said the shop had been broadening its range of tobacco products to meet demand, although it does not sell cigarettes or electronic cigarettes.

“We have had a growth in sales but that’s down to the fact that we have expanded our ranges,” he said.

About five years ago he built a humidor - a room with constant humidity used to store the cigars and tobacco in tip-top condition.

And he revealed that younger people were coming in to buy cigars and even pipes.

Some of the purchases may be as a result of experimentation - or to celebrate graduation days, weddings and stag dos, he added.