Treacle mining is the fictitious mining ofblack treacle (also known as molasses[1]) in a raw form similar to coal. The subject purports to be serious but is an attempt to testcredulity. Thick black treacle makes the deception plausible. The topic has been a joke inBritish humour since the mid-19th century.
One possible origin of the joke is from 1853 when 8,000British Army soldiers were camped onChobham Common. The camp included storehouses containing barrels. When the soldiers left for theCrimean War and the site was dismantled, they buried barrels to avoid having to remove them. Some of the barrels contained treacle andChobham villagers who discovered and removed them were called "treacle miners" as a joke. Local folklore about treacle mining was extended into history back toRoman Britain.[2]
Another explanation is that the wordtreacle meant "a medicine", derived from the appearance of the Greek derivativetheriacal meaning medicinal (Greektheriake "curative", "antidote"), leading to the various healing wells around Britain being 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.[3]
In Devon, on the eastern edge ofDartmoor, the remains of mines that producedmicaceous hematite, used aspounce to dust early ink to prevent smearing, are known locally as "treacle mines" since they show a glistening black residue that looks like treacle.
The village ofSabden inLancashire cultivated a considerable body of folklore about local treacle mining in the 1930s.[4][5] The local newspaper helped foster the myth, publishing numerous stories about the fictitious mines.[6]
The paper mills aroundMaidstone in Kent were known as "TheTovil Treacle Mines"[7] by locals, after the area where one of the mills owned by Albert E. Reed[8] was situated. The company helped the myth with a float in Maidstone carnival with a "treacle mine" theme.
One suggested source of the story in this area is a rumour that the paper industry was threatened during theSecond World War because there was no importedtimber. Fermentation of straw was tried, creating a sticky goo. There were attempts to make paper from other than rags in the 19th century and an early commercial success was achieved by Samuel Hook and his son, Charles Townsend Hook, using straw at Upper Tovil Mill in the 1850s. The road next to Upper Tovil Mill became known, and was later named, as Straw Mill Hill. To produce pulp, the straw was cooked in hot alkali. After separation of the fibre, the remaining liquid looked like black treacle. Upper Tovil Mill closed in the 1980s and the site was used for a housing estate.
Tudeley andFrittenden in Kent are also said to have had treacle mines. A tank wagon on theKent and East Sussex Railway was painted in sham "Frittenden Treacle Mines" livery in 2009.[9]
Suggestions of a treacle mine inBuxted were published by the "Friends of Horwich".[10]
Tadley treacle mines had a local hotel named after them and a Tadley Treacle Fair is held. Legend says the name derives from using treacle tins to store money because banks could not be trusted. The tins were buried around the village. Criminals mined for tins.
Hemel Hempstead inHertfordshire has a legend of having a treacle mine and a local nickname since aroundWorld War I was "Treacle Bumstead".[11]Wareside, also in Hertfordshire, has long had its own "treacle mines". When asked "where have you been?", it was often a popular answer in and aroundWare, to say "down the treacle mines!"
Treacle mines have also been claimed in the twin villagesTrimley St. Martin andTrimley St. Mary (Suffolk),Wem (Shropshire),Talskiddy,Bisham,Nuneaton,Sway (Hampshire),Ginge (Oxfordshire),Chobham (Surrey),Tongham,Tadley,Skidby,Ditchford,Crick (Northamptonshire),Debdale (Leicestershire),Dunchideock and many other locations acrossSomerset andDevon,[12] in several northern towns includingNatland andBaggrow inCumbria andPudsey in Yorkshire,[13] inCroftamie, Scotland, and in the fictional village of Wymsey.
Severalpublic houses, restaurants and hotels have borne the name. The Treacle Mine public house inGrays,Thurrock, Essex (pictured above) is an example, and the adjacentTreacle Mine Roundabout, which features on the local bus timetable, is named after the public house.
There is a restaurant/pub named Treacle Mine inPolegate, East Sussex.[14] The name refers to the Polegate treacle mines, a long-running tale in the area that is very popular, with locals dressing as treacle miners for the 1978 Eastbourne carnival. The origins are believed to be associated with a nearby sweet factory.[15]
The Broomsquire Hotel inTadley, Hampshire, was previously the Treacle Mine Hotel; and another Treacle Mine pub is inHereford.
Since April 2009 the town ofWincanton in Somerset, twinned withAnkh-Morpork, has had a Treacle Mine Road.[16]
The Treacle Mine has been a joke played on children and the gullible since at least the nineteenth century.