Talk:Treacle mining

WP Food assessment
I rated this article as a low importance C-Class article. British humor, enough said... --Jeremy ( Blah blah... ) 03:27, 22 June 2008 (UTC)

Custard Pie is considered a low importance article. What a boring lot. Not even sure what importance means. Slightnostalgia (talk) 18:27, 17 November 2014 (UTC)

Wymsey Treacle Mine
It was as an apprentice at nearby Aldermaston in the early 1960s that I came across the Tadley Treacle Mines, previous apprentices had made an 8mm film depicting the defence of the mines by Ancient Britons. The dramatic realism was frequently marred by said Britons jumping onto red Thames Valley double decker buses followed by legions of Roman soldiers.

It was from this that I got the idea for the Wymsey treacle mine mentioned in the article.

Source of joke?
The explanation I read that "treacle" originally meant medicine, so the various healing wells around Britain were called "treacle wells". Treacle later came to mean sticky syrup due to 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.

Source: Maypoles, Martyrs and Mayhem by Quentin Cooper and Paul Sullivan

DaibhidC 20:10 18 November 2005

The treacle mines at Maidstone were created by an ancestor of my family to explain the large blank buildings of the paper factory. Similarly the mines below Biggin Hill airfield which were in full production just before the second world war were created by myself during an intellectual discussion at the Greyhound at Keston for the education of a colleague who was also convinced that the word "gullible" cannot be found in the Oxford English Dictionary.

Grays
The following is taken from my contributions on the subject to uk.rec.sheds: My late and sadly missed father used to tell us kids that there were treacle mines at Stifford Clays. He reckoned that, over geological time, rain had washed the honey from the beehives of Orsett Fen down the river Mardyke where it had formed great aluvial beds of confectionery, hardened by the pressure of the overlaying rocks.

The Mardyke valley is no more, swept aside by the A13 re-routing. I wonder if they had to use special liquorice piling to re-inforce the beds of treacle?

But no matter. In Lincolnshire there were always treacle mines at Pode Hole and Hubbert's bridge, also areas of fenny aluviation. In the Lake district the immense pressures of upthrust have produced one of the two metamorphosed forms - Kendal Mint Cake. In volcanic areas, of course, the metamorphosed form is cinder toffee. And in the glaciated areas of scotland the treacle beds were transformed into brittle screes of Butterscotch, weathered by the recurrent frosts.

What I wonder is, are there other layers of petro-toffee in the country, that I wot not of? Can any readers tell us if thier sleep is disturbed in the early morning as the tiny hobnailed boots of 5" high mint-miners resound over the cobbles?

Perhaps the origin of Mint Cake should be explained on the front page? Brunnian (talk) 05:56, 22 May 2009 (UTC)

Style
It seems to me that this article is written in a style unbefitting an encyclopedia, and much more like a rambling drunk in a pub. I would offer to rewrite it, but I only identified the style as that because it is the style in which I write. Anyone else, please go ahead :) SirEelBiscuits (talk) 03:21, 10 June 2009 (UTC)

Sarratt Treacle Mines
Okay, I am a complete novice with absolutely no understanding of how Wikipedia entries are compiled. However it seems odd that the article on Treacle which lead me to this Treacle Mining article has the following paragraphs (all without preamble or explanation) on the joke about treacle mining, while this section (that's all about this joke) fails to mention Sarratt at all. Why is it even in the Treacle article, that's a simple factual food item article, when there's a separate section dealing with the "joke". It should maybe just have a mention there, under Popular Culture, and be fully written up in this Treacle Mining article?

Paragraphs: '''The Sarratt Treacle Mines

A History

Since their discovery in 1562 right up until their closure in 1946 the Sarratt Treacle Mines have been an important part of village life in Sarratt.

[rest of text excised] —S MALL JIM   11:31, 24 October 2011 (UTC)

''' — Preceding unsigned comment added by 115.64.132.182 (talk) 10:03, 24 October 2011 (UTC)


 * Well spotted! It certainly didn't belong in the Treacle article, so I've removed it. The same editor has previously tried adding it to this article, see Special:Contributions/Rev._Deacon, and it's been removed because no sources were provided, and an internet search provides no hint of any reliable sources for the "joke" or legend. It therefore fails our verifiability test. If the editor continues to add it without any attempt at discussion, (s)he'll eventually get blocked for vandalism. —S MALL  JIM   11:31, 24 October 2011 (UTC)

Origin
'One possible origin of the joke is from 1853 when 8,000 British Army soldiers were camped on Chobham Common'
 * There are many reports in newspapers around January and February 1849 of a hogshead of treacle hitting the ground when a horse drawn cart tipped over. They refer to it as a 'Treacle Mine'.  jmb (talk) 18:26, 31 December 2014 (UTC)

Polegate Treacle Mines
I've added some more on the Polegate treacle mines, which predate the public house. I can find a references on the Internet to 1978 and 1960s. My own mother remembered tales of the treacle mines from her childhood in the 1950s. I'd suggest a local historian may be able to dig up some much earlier references if they're not too sticky. Lkchild (talk) 09:11, 1 May 2017 (UTC)

External links modified
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 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20110717093624/http://www.treacleminer.com/docs/buxtedtreacle.htm to http://www.treacleminer.com/docs/buxtedtreacle.htm

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