Treacle mining

Treacle mining is the (fictitious) mining of treacle (molasses) in a raw form similar to coal. The subject purports to be a serious topic but is in fact an attempt to test the credulity of the reader. The thick black nature of treacle makes the deception plausible. The topic has been a standing joke in British humour for a century or more.

Locations often suggested

Several treacle mines have been claimed to exist in Britain, most notably in Bisham (near Little Marlow on the Thames), Chobham, Surrey, Tadley, Skidby, Ditchford, Crick and Dunchideock in Devon, in several northern towns including Natland, near Kendal, Baggrow in the same county, Croftamie in Scotland, and the obviously fictional village of Wymsey.

In Leeds and West Yorkshire it is commonly said that the Treacle Mines are in Pudsey - the other item of note about this small town being that birds are said to fly backwards there. The paper mills around Maidstone, in Kent, were known as "The Tovil Treacle Mines" (Tovil pronounced as in "Bovril" - not "Toeville"), by locals, after the area where one of the mills owned by Albert E. Reed [1] was situated. The company also helped the myth along by regularly exhibiting a float in the Maidstone carnival with a "treacle mine" theme. One suggested answer to the treacle mine story in this area is a rumour that the local paper industry was under threat during the Second World War because they were unable to import timber. As a solution to this, the fermentation of straw was tried. This was found not to work, a sticky goo being the result. Whether this has any connection to a road called "Straw Mill Hill", located very close to the old mill site is not proven.

Explanations offered

The story given to the listener might offer a plausible explanation such as:

• That Cromwell's army buried barrels of molasses that later leaked and seeped to the surface.
• That prehistoric sugar cane beds became fossilised in a similar way to peat and coal.

Origins

"Treacle" originally meant any kind of a thick syrupy salve, and it is likely that bituminous seeps from coal deposits were used in traditional remedies, so this may have been the kernel of truth that inspired the joke. The Tar Tunnel near Blists Hill in Shropshire has natural deposits of tar oozing from the walls which could be said to resemble treacle.

Another explanation is that "treacle" originally meant 'a medicine', derived from the appearance of the Greek derivative 'theriacal' meaning medicinal (Gk theriake = a curative or antidote), so the various healing wells around Britain were called "treacle wells". Treacle later came to mean a sticky syrup after the popularity of a honey-based drug called "Venice treacle", and the continued use of the old form in the treacle wells led to the joke.

Actual places

There is a Treacle Mine Public house in Grays, Essex. The Treacle Mine Roundabout features on the local bus timetable and is named after the public house.

There is a pub called the Treacle Mine Hotel in Silchester Road Tadley, Hampshire, and another Treacle Mine pub in Hereford.

Cultural references

The subject of the Treacle Mine has been a whimsical joke played on children and the gullible since at least the nineteenth century and may go back even further.

• In Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, (1865) Alice is shushed at the Mad Hatter's tea party for disbelieving a story told to her by the Dormouse about a treacle well, inspired by the holy well at Binsey, Oxfordshire.

• In Uncle and the Treacle Trouble (1967), a children's book by J. P. Martin, the main character (an elephant named Uncle) discovers the true meaning of a cryptic sign which reads Treac Levat ("Treacle Vat"). The characters soon discover it relates to a hidden treacle mine.

• A treacle mine features in the novels Reaper Man (1987) and Night Watch (2002) by Terry Pratchett. In the fictional Discworld city of Ankh-Morpork there is a street named Treacle Mine Road.

• The Treacle People was a children's TV show from 1995 based around a treacle mine.

• Some of Ken Dodd's Diddymen were said to work in a treacle mine, in their TV series.

• In the webcomic Questionable Content, Faye briefly convinces co-worker Raven that she has "bread lung" as a result of working in the southern bread mines; the concept explained is similar to that of treacle mining.

See also

• Snipe hunt
• Spaghetti tree
• Drop bear
• Jackalope

External links

• Wymsey Treacle Mine
• Treacleminer - for all things treacle