Wigan Album

That name brings back memories of the shop on Mesnes St. I had to go there for ‘ Slippery Elm Food’. My dad had a
‘dicky tummy’. He would have that every morning and it was vile to my taste! He would never go to the Doctors but always went to Ramsden’s Herbalist for all sorts of Herbalist ‘medicines’.

Ramsden was leader of the Labour Party on Wigan Town Council and one time Mayor

I think 57 Standishgate is now integrated into The Ukulele Pub.

Veronica, I put a comment on this photo on Thursday night....it didn't appear. I may have typed in a wrong digit in the "submit" space. Just to say I worked in a chemists on leaving school and I remember Slippery Elm Food and also Benger's Food. Also, there used to be chloroform in the Victory V Gums that I loved....it's funny we didn't knock ourselves out! Kaolin and Morphine was a popular stomach medicine too, and the morphine used to float to the top, so you had to give it a good shake. I believe early in the 20th century there were all kinds of "knock-out" drops, even in babies' colic medicines.

It’s a miracle we’ve survived Irene. I liked Fenning’s Soothing Powders I’m sure there was something in them that was addictive! There was a tinge of something.

You're right Veronica, it may well have been cocaine or something similar. Around 20 years ago it was revealed that Askit Powders, a very popular pain relieving medicine had the addictive pain-relieving drug Phenacetin in them, and you could buy them anywhere, I would get them from the local shop and also Morrisons. https://www.sundaypost.com/fp/askit-might-have-fought-the-miseries-but-it-killed-my-mum/

Also the cough medicines you were given as children to stop you coughing at night which tasted horrible, they actually contained opiates, so no wonder you didn't wake up coughing during the night, because you were out for the count and having weird dreams. https://www.healthline.com/health/one-night-cough-syrup#risks

So true about knock out drops Irene, because Gripe Water before being banned contained up to 9% alcohol, no wonder then that it soothed babies gripy pains, bet mums had a good swig of it too. https://www.medicinenet.com/why_is_gripe_water_banned/article.htm

Irene, on the Bay Horse photo I've left you some links to Helen's grandparents Hallgate shop and also Frank Orrell's collection of 25 many long gone vintage pubs.

That is very kind of you, Cyril. Thankyou.

That gave me a chuckle Cyril. Us kids out for the count with a cough! But our Mam’s were innocent they didn’t know what was in the cough syrup. There was one bottle we had and it tasted dreadful as if it was made from onions. I just can’t remember the name of it. It was thick dark brown stuff ..horrible.

The name has just come to me of the cough syrup it was “Liquifruita’’. Or similar… Awful stuff. But it worked.

Great minds think alike, Veronica! When you mentioned the thick dark brown stuff, the name Liquefruita" came straight to mind, but as the name suggests fruit rather than onions, I though I must be wrong! (Although I imagine HP brown sauce and various chutneys are a mix of fruit and onions.) And then I wondered if it WAS a cough medicine or was it a laxative?!! I recall so many of the "cure-alls" of my childhood and my early working days in the chemists.

Cyril, was that children’s cough medicine Croupeline or something similar?
I used to have the most terrifying and realistic nightmares from it in the late 1950’s.
Everything seemed to fall in place once I read that it had been banned as it contained an Hallucinogen drug.
LSD for children!!!!

Could well have Colin or something similar as pharmacists would very often dispense their own formulas as seen in this Wiki link with Chlorodyne, I couldn't recall the name of that until it was mentioned this morning, stories went that if some men didn't have enough money for beer, then they would get a bottle of Chlorodyne and drink that instead, with some really off their heads with it, not surprising with the ingredients: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chlorodyne

Reading the article and its military use, they most probably had got a taste for it during their army days.

Irene, those Victory V lozenges everybody loved probably had more than Chloroform in them, as they contained Chlorodyne and other psychoactive additives, so no wonder they gave you an inner glow: https://www.historyoasis.com/post/victory-v-lozenges

Cyril I daren’t look at a Fishermen's Friend Lozenge as I start sneezing. I certainly couldn’t eat one. I know they are made with strong Menthol and Eucalyptus but I believe they are made with other flavours as well such as cherry flavour and liquorice. I was once on a plane and my friend gave me one I could not stop sneezing! It was embarrassing.

I thought that hilarious Veronica, I can imagine them giving out dirty looks and covering their nose and mouth with a hanky, as you say you must be allergic to something in them, though I love them and always carry a packet in my pocket, but my wife will not have one at all, thinking they will taste of old fish.
Though like other lozenges you do get used to them after a while, with the taste being not as strong.

Like many of my classmates in the early 50’s I suffered bouts of tonsillitis. It seemed every week there was at least one pupil who would be absent because they were having their tonsils removed. This was recommended for me but my parents didn’t think it was such a good idea and many years later I think they were right. However, aged 8 I had a particularly bad dose of tonsillitis it made me feel terrible I was really ill and was in bed for a number of days. The only thing worse was the medicine I had to take, to this day I’ve no idea what was in it and whether or not it improved my condition but it was vile to the taste.

There was a Wigan artist by the name of Thomas Ramsden who could be a relative of the above Thomas Ramsden, either father or an uncle - or may not be.
https://artuk.org/discover/artists/ramsden-thomas-b-1853

Josh, I too was always very bad with tonsillitis along with the sore neck and ears, and I as children do, thought that I had always coped with these bouts, the medicine that I was always prescribed was cherry flavoured, and this I suppose did help, however the doctor later decided I had to have my tonsils removed, it was when I was around 7, and I still remember that for some time afterwards I did feel a lot worse than I had ever done with my tonsils intact.
Much later after years of children suffering having these routine tonsillectomies, they stopped removing them, having decided that tonsils actually do serve a greater purpose when left in.