Treacle

Treacle (I wanted to link everything up, don’t bother with all the links unless you are interested)

"The paste was sticky . . . the smell was warm and harsh."

Earlier this year Veronica talked about a book just published - Treacle Walker by Alan Garner. I remembered I had read, and liked, Alan Garner’s books years ago, read mostly with my daughters when they were young and I had used them in school, so I was very interested. Then I thought I would look back at some of the Garner books, found that my daughter had them (they were probably hers anyway!) and promptly forgot all about it. Later I found an excellent review of the same book, but I again forgot about it. 

Then, to my and everyone else’s huge surprise, what should turn up on the Booker Longlist - Treacle Walker by Alan Garner. This time I bought it (see extra), read it, and loved it. It is typical Garner - myth, folklore, magic, colloquialisms, old words, strange happenings, time shifts . . . . It is short, but full of so much. 

So - Treacle. Treacle Walker is a Rag&Bone man, remember those, but he is really a healer. Treacle was originally a medicine, which tasted and looked foul but did great things - apparently. The word came from the Old French word Triacle meaning healing liquid. There is then the link to Treacle Wells (remember the Dormouse’s tale in Alice in Wonderland). And Treacle Wells actually did exist, still do. There is one in Oxford which Arachne helpfully blipped a while ago. These wells were healing wells (I’m sure freespiral the Queen of Holy Wells knows about them). The water in them was apparently so dark and nasty that it was felt that drinking it could only make you better. Maybe that’s where the idea of 'nasty medicine' came from. There are all sorts of legends regarding the healing properties of these wells. 

By chance a couple of days ago Puffin blipped a supposed Treacle Mine in Natland. This idea is kept up as a joke by the local people, but it is likely that  it started out as the village having a treacle well. 

It was only at the end of the 17th century that the word treacle was used for the sugary syrup of molasses - the treacle we know today. 

Was my blip actually a photo of treacle? - yes
Did it make a mess? - yes
Did I then have to clean it up? - yes (but I did like the effect as I wiped it - see other extra).