Treacle mining

When the soldiers left for the Crimean War and the site was dismantled, they buried barrels to avoid having to remove them.

[2] Another explanation is that the word treacle meant "a medicine", derived from the appearance of the Greek derivative theriacal meaning medicinal (Greek theriake "curative", "antidote"), leading to the various healing wells around Britain being called "treacle wells".

[3] In Devon, on the eastern edge of Dartmoor, the remains of mines that produced micaceous hematite, used as pounce 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 of Sabden in Lancashire 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.

One suggested source of the story in this area is a rumour that the paper industry was threatened during the Second World War because there was no imported timber.

A tank wagon on the Kent and East Sussex Railway was painted in sham "Frittenden Treacle Mines" livery in 2009.

Treacle mines have also been claimed in the twin villages Trimley St. Martin and Trimley 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 across Somerset and Devon,[12] in several northern towns including Natland and Baggrow in Cumbria and Pudsey in Yorkshire,[13] in Croftamie, Scotland, and in the fictional village of Wymsey.