Listen to the track:
“The Girls on the Chocolate Box”
“The Girls on the Chocolate Box” tells the true story of Emily and Laura Ann Calmady, whose famous childhood portrait travelled the world on Victorian chocolate boxes. While their image brought profit to others, their own lives remained quiet and modest in Wembury, reminding us that fame does not always bring fortune.
Verse 1
In a painter’s room with the curtains low
Two sisters laughing soft and slow
Emily Calmady, Laura Ann
Held in the light by Lawrence’s hand
Rosy cheeks and tangled hair
Sunday dresses, folded prayer
From Devon fields to London’s rain
Their childhood caught in oil and frame
Chorus
They were the girls on the chocolate box
Wrapped in gold and ticking clocks
Sold in towns from Rome to Leeds
Sweet little faces, someone else’s needs
They were the girls that the world all knew
But nobody asked what the girls went through
Famous ink, but pockets bare
The girls on the chocolate box, everywhere
Verse 2
Trains rolled out with their printed face
Across the seas to every place
Tin and ribbon, sugar and lace
Their painted youth in every case
No letters came, no gold arrived
No velvet ropes, no gilded lives
Just narrow rooms and thinning means
And folded hopes and ageing dreams
Chorus
They were the girls on the chocolate box
Wrapped in gold and ticking clocks
Sold in towns from Rome to Leeds
Sweet little faces, someone else’s needs
They were the girls that the world all knew
But nobody asked what the girls went through
Famous ink, but pockets bare
The girls on the chocolate box, everywhere
Verse 3
Down at Knighton, four roads meet
Weathered walls and quiet streets
Laura painted, Emily prayed
Watching summers drift and fade
Four Corners days and candlelight
Winter storms and long cold nights
Gentle lives in borrowed time
Far from fame, and further from shine
Bridge
Every smile that travelled far
Never bought them who they are
A voice, a choice, a little more
Than being framed and sold in store
Final Chorus
They were the girls on the chocolate box
Wrapped in gold and ticking clocks
Passed through hands they’d never see
A million times, but never free
They were the girls the world adored
But laid to rest by a village shore
No headlines left, no fortune’s knocks
Just Emily and Laura on a chocolate box
Outro
By Wembury’s fields and ocean air
Their names still rest in Wembury’s care
Not just pictures, not just art
But living girls with living hearts