I'm currently reading "A Yorkshire Boyhood" - the reminiscences of Roy Hattersley. Though he was brought up in Sheffield fifteen years before my own boyhood many of his stories mirror my recollections. His tales of treatments to ward off or treat asthma and bronchitis reminded me of the range of semi-medical practices I was subject to as a child. There was the Vick Vapour Rub liberally applied to the chest to "cure" a cold, the curious practice of soaking an old rag in camphorated oil and tying it round the neck to "cure" a sore throat, and the cod liver oil and malt which warded off everything. Many disliked it but I loved cod liver oil and malt and would often feel that I was "coming down with something" in order to get a few days treatment with the magic concoction. There must have been many more such remedies but clearly none of them warded off memory loss.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 58-65

Current location (optional) leeds

Thanks for the recommendation, Shaun.One autobiography that did summat sim'lar for me was Alan Titchmarsh's "Nobbut a Lad". Many of his recollections of his childhood in Ilkley had a resonance for me, brought up in "downtown Keighley" roughly contemporaneously.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 52-60

Current location (optional) Lincoln

I still shudder at the thought of cod liver oil and malt. Oddly enough, my wife who is INdian, insists on forcing cod liver oil capsules down my neck and at the slightest sign of of a cough is whipping out the vicks and forcing it up my nostrils. You have no idea how sensitive nasal membranes are. I had pneumonia last year, Hama Bibi got out the Tiger Balm and plastered it on to my chest. I ran to the shower to wash it off before it totally destroyed my lungs!

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 58-61

Current location (optional) Blue Mountains, Australia via Haworth

I too had the camphorated oil treatment, it was put onto a flannel and placed on my chest. anitehr remedy I was given for a temperature, was Fennings Fever cure, a clar liquid which tasted absolutely foul. Iw as given it in a thimble ! I was also given Californian Syrup of Figs when I had constipation , or if we didnt have any, then Castor Oil (I sell it by the tonne these days). For muscular aches and pains we were rubbed with Sloans Liniment (Dad was a Rugby League player so there was always some in the house). This contained turpentine (which I also still sell in tonnage), but has been superceded by such things as 'Deep Heat' made by Mentholatum Co, in East Kilbride, also a current customer of mine for stearic acid !

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 58-64

Current location (optional) Wirral

Sorry for the typing errors in the above. Forgot to check it. 'Another' and 'Clear'

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 58-64

Current location (optional) Wirral

Fennings Fever Cure would put a coating on your teeth. I remember studying the label when I was about in the 4th year - and saw that the ingredients were principally "aqua fortis" and water. This rang bells and having turned up my notes on Acids (provided courtesy of one LM Stockdale), my suspicions were confirmed - dilute nitric acid. I refused to take it ever again. My mother also used to give us Fennings Little Lung Healers which were minute pillules which didn't seem to have any effect. As for Sloan's liniment, I always used the "horse" bottle.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 52-60

Current location (optional) Lincoln

Well there are some familiar old brands,cures in this post. Maybe someone can help me with one I've been trying to think of for sometime now. It worked like magic. It was a "black waxy stick" maybe 3-4 inches long and about 3/4 inch wide, wrapped in a greasy paper. I'm pretty sure that my mother bought it from Vernon Daley, the barber at Cross Roads. It was used to clean a wound that maybe contained a splinter (spell), or a cut that became infected. She used to peel back the paper, heat the waxy stick with a burning taper until it softened, then rub the softened stuff on the wound/sore and then cover with a plaster or bandage. Leave it on for a few days, remove, and bingo, one clean wound and any foreign matter gone. There have been many times over the years I could have done with it.Can anyone remember it? Cheers.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 47-51

Current location (optional) Auckland NZ

Sorry Bill, I've never heard of that one .... but our family remedy for an infected wound (whether caused by a spell or otherwise) was a soap and sugar poultice. Mix softened soap scrapings with sugar, apply it to the infected part and cover with a plaster to hold it in place. Having satisfied myself as to the scientific principle behind the remedy I have used it with great effect over the years. My children have continued using this remedy and will no doubt pass it on to future generations. Sadly, however, spells no longer exist. There are only splinters nowadays and this word fails to convey the essential malevolence of the spell.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 58-65

Current location (optional) leeds

Some mothers used castor oil to cure coughs----you dare not cough !

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 41/46

Current location (optional) I.O.M.

Frank Wellock put me on to soap and sugar for "drawing" a boil - which we used to call biles! I had one on the back of my neck which came up during the week before the annual rugby fixture at Blackpool GS (lights, the lot!). Playing hooker, meant this was going to be for me a potentially "sore" game, but not one to miss. I played with a plaster stuck on the boil which burst during the game. After the match, Frank, ever compassionate, advised me as to further treatment and the soap and sugar worked a treat.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 52-60

Current location (optional) Lincoln

Sorry Bill can't recall the black stick from Vernon Daley's but his shop was like an Alladins cave and I'm sure it was never dusted .
My mother used to get a black ointment from our GP Doctor Fitzgerald in Haworth and it cured everything from cuts to boils

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 59-66

Current location (optional) Gilsland -Cumbria

The cure for 'tummy-ache' in our house was 'Indian Brandee';and it's still available. I spotted a bottle in Boots' yesterday on which it read 'for symptomatic relief of flatulence and colic'. A 5ml spoonful with a little warm water invariably did the trick.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 45-50

Current location (optional) Keighley

We also used the sugar/soap poultice for boils, Black Drawing ointment was fantastic for boils as well. A few years ago I got a boil on my knee. This was incredible, my knee had its very own metabolism, it would sweat, go into fever, shiver all by itself. My GP gave me black ointment, and after a couple of days, the boil literally exploded.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 58-61

Current location (optional) Haworth now Blue Mountains in Australia

Did anybody have warts? I did - and seem to remember there were various 'remedies', from the chemical to the magical (burying things - I can't now remember what things- at midnight)etc. There was a kind of a brown pencil that you wet then rubbed on the wart. It gave you a brown wart, but that's about all. The warts I had were mostly on my hand and stayed for about four or five years. Then, as instantly as they had arrived, they disappeared...

I had the odd wart or two on the hand and seem to remember painting some liquid on them from a Tippex type bottle. And what about Fuller's Earth and wasn't there summat called Fiery Jack?

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1953-58

Fiery Jack was for muscle strains. It taught you never to complain of a muscle strain again. A good friend of mine had a chastening experience with Fiery Jack. Not long after he was married he had a bad shoulder and his wife applied the Fiery Jack just before bed time. He soon jumped out of the bed in agony - not from the shoulder but from another part of his anatomy. His wife had forgotten to wash the Fiery Jack off her hands.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 58-65

Current location (optional) leeds

I remember having the odd wart or two on my fingers. Working in a metallurgical laboratory I had access to silver nitrate crystals. I used to pipette a drop of water on the wart and then very carefully place a single crystal of AgNo3 in the drop. I left it there for a little while and then washed it off. After a day or so the wart went black and eventually disappeared.
I also vaguely remember vinegar and brown paper being applied to any bruising, particulary round the forehead.

Wasn't vinegar and brown paper Jack's cure after he came tumbling down the hill?

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 58-61

If it worked for Jack it probably worked for me too!
Talking about Acetic acid, I once spilt some on the bench at work and some managed to seep onto my clothes. All the way home on the bus from Bingley and then on the Oakworth bus I could hear people complaining about the strong smell of vinegar - I sat there quietly - saying nowt!!
It was strong stuff, my upper legs were significantly red and sore for a day or two.

I suspect Bills black stick as an antiseptic was probably based on coal tar, which contained a lot of phenolic compounds, and chemicals like cresylic acid.
Most of these are now regarded as carcinogens !
Most people will aslo remember Wrights Coal Tar Soap

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 58-64

Current location (optional) Wirral

In Reply to Allan Jones' "burying" query.

The practise was to rub a tiny piece of meat onto the wart.

Bury the meat and as the meat rotted away, so the wart also disappeared !!

Why doesn't athlete's foot help you to run faster ??

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 50 - 55

Current location (optional) Keighley

I seem to remember that eggshells played a part in the wart story - either they were thought to cause them, or you buried them, along with Derek's meat, at midnight!!

My wife, who is Irish, has many such folk remedies. The cure for warts being to cut a raw potato in half, rub cut face on the warts and then the potato must be buried in consecrated ground. On a family holiday in France one of out number discovered warts on the backside (propriety and the fear of reprisals forbids me from declaring who this was). My wife promptly administered the "cure". I was grateful that we appeared neither to have been reported to the authorities for unnatural assault on a child nor to the diocese for blasphemy or some such; but I was still much relieved when we left for another part of France. The warts went but my wife wouldn't accept that they would have gone of their own accord anyway.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 58-65

Current location (optional) leeds

Each time I look at the title to this post, I read it as curses, remedies and placebos. Given the nature of some of the cures, I think curses might be closer to the truth

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 58-61

Vick's Vapour Rub is still popular here in Singapore.

After googling Indian Brandee I noticed it is "Traditional herbal remedy to promote warmth and symptomatic relief of minor stomach upsets such as flatulence and digestive discomfort" and the page says "Children: not to be given"!

We were given Indian Brandy to settle our digestive systems usually as a first treatment after vomiting or diarrhoea. It worked a treat, calming any spasms etc and got the gut ready for the daily feast of pigs' trotters and "hole"some tripe. It ran into some problems under the trade descriptions legislation and for a while was unobtainable until it reappeared, relabelled as Brandee. In my more mature years I find that cognac works just as well, although both should be taken with a little boiled water and a touch of sugar. Cheers! Gut health.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 52-60

Current location (optional) Lincoln

My grandfather used to call the two digestive disturbances 'flatulence' and 'fartulance'

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 58-64

Current location (optional) Wirral

What's the difference?

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 58-65

True we had wind of that problem !!

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 50 - 55

Current location (optional) Keighley

My wife was acting quite cool towards me recently, it seems that she had been rummaging about in my shed and had discovered a bottle of "Hormaonal Rooting Gel", it took quite a while to convince her to read the label beyond the title to find out that it was for striking plant cuttings

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 58-61

Current location (optional) Blue Mountains, Australia via Haworth

Well maybe it gets things to sprout into life !

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 58-64

Current location (optional) Wirral

I tried a spoonful in my porridge for a week - didn't work for me either!!
Neither is it true what they say about oysters - I had a dozen last night and only 7 worked!!

you were lucky to get that many working, I'm down to about 4 in the dozen and have to supplement it with prawns and lobster

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 58-61

Current location (optional) Blue Mountains, Australia via Haworth

The secret with oysters is to eat only one a fortnight. That way they all work!

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 58-65

You must be a on a good pension to be able to afford them that often

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 58-61

Current location (optional) Blue Mountains, Australia via Haworth

I didn't say I ate them at all. It was only advice for you Marcus!

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 58-65

I take it that you still don't need them then? Do you fancy a pint when I come over?

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 58-61

Current location (optional) Blue Mountains, Australia via Haworth

I used to go for a hair-cut at the top of Lawkholme and one time the owner told me that he could get rid of the lumps at the back of my neck.No,they wer`nt boils!Anyway on his instructions I"bobbed" into his shop most lunch times for about a month where the said person applied some ether like substance to the end of a matchstick and dabbed my lumps and bumps and over a period of time as if by magic everything disappeared. So 15 out of 10 to Adrian`s shop and he was nobbut a youung lad then.!

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 59-66

Current location (optional) HAWORTH

Shaun mentions Camphorated Oil on a piece of Flannel placed on the chest for tackling coughs. We had that with the addition of Eucalyptus oil for added effect. The chief way of curing everything was to put you to bed with a fire in the bedroom and keep warm as there were no antibiotics to fall back on then. I once had a two week spell in bed with a slow pulse , which I have still got.
One cure not mentioned was for boils which were apioblem in the war years, we must have had some deficiency of a vitamin or mineral. Anyway the way to "draw " out the root was a liberal lump of "Goose Grease" on the head ann leave it to do the job. Sound primitive again Chris !

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 43-46

Current location (optional) Sassafras , Tasmania

Wasn't a walk down to the gasworks supposed to alleviate the symptoms of whooping cough? I assume it was the effects of the gaseous by-products of the coking process that did the trick, rather than the dubious joys of promenading down Dalton Lane. . .

I am reminded by I.W.about the fumes from the gasworks alleviating whooping cough. In our case it was the smell of coal tar that was supposed to ease severe coughing and if a road was being sprayed we would go along and breathe in the delicious fumes. Wonder if any good came of that.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 43-46

Current location (optional) Sassafras , Tasmania

The gas works smell would certainly contain cresylic acid/cresylates, which had powerful antiseptic properties, probably also some other phenol derivatives (particularly chlorinated derivatives). Wrights Coal Tar Soap would also contain this type of antiseptic. Unfortunately these days many chemicals of this type are regarding as cancerous! In my job now our Company is UK distributor for the biggest PHenol producer in the world.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 58-64

Current location (optional) Wirral

"A walk to the gassworks" had an altogether more sinister meaning for a seven-year old me during the bad winter of 1947. I never went there from choice but was compelled to go two or three times a week to bring back a sack of coke (price around 6d or was it 1/-?) on my sledge. The terror started as you reached the end of Aireworth Road and entered Worth Village territory, where the dreaded Stortons and other giants lived. They would rough you up or pinch your sledge or hurl snowballs (with the obligatory stone inside) and then promise you even worse on your return journey.

The return journey was even more nerve-racking than the inbound - it was like passing through Apache country - you kept your eyes skinned and were ready to bolt at the first sighting of a WV Indian. Running with a fully laden sledge was no mean feat and you always dreaded your cargo slipping off. More than once I failed to get away and ended up scooping up the snow-caked coke with my bare-hands out of the gutter where the Indians had kindly deposited it(and me too!).

As for the medicinal qualities of coak and coal-tar, I think we shared some of the beliefs already expressed. But burning coke is another matter; if inhaled it has just the opposite effect, it chokes you until you are gasping, you cough until you die and wheeze well on into your after-life! But yes, sniffing newly-laid tar, or for that matter, the petrol pumps at Cox's garage at the then junction between Hardings Road and Bradford Road were among the cheaper sensuous delights of childhood. Wonder we didn't all end up junkeys!

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1951-58

Current location (optional) Cottingham, East Yorkshire

Ah, yes! Trips down the Village were testing experiences. My Grandma lived in Malvern Terrace,off Dalton Lane. hardly the Village but on the outer regions of Bug Alley. The Bug Alleyers were a fierce tribe also. Running errands to my Grandma's was always a trying time: - first challenge was creeping (metaphorically) down the side of the Eastwood Tavern before daring to break out into the open of the 'oller. If there were no would-be aggressors lurking round the corner, you made a bolt for it across the undulating dirt track of the 'oller. If you were spotted, light missiles, sometimes propelled by catapults, rained down and curs snapped at your ankles. Reaching the bottom of Grandma's street was scarcely sanctuary. There were still a few backyards to pass behind whose gates were either enemy or savage dogs. You never stopped running until you got into Grandma's yard, out of breath. "What's your rush?" she asked, still with traces of Selly Oak in her accent. She never understood. I can't understand why you braved the WV gangs, Doug. It was quicker to take the Lawkholme Lane route, across Cav to the Gasworks depot in town. Mind you, you sometimes had to wait for t'coik to be delivered from the Gasworks and you had to queue with some of the rough'eeads from top o' town. The chap who weighed out the cinders used to chew twist. On one occasion as he was filling my sacks (56lbs was top weight in 2 sacks for my pushchair), he dollocked and his spittle (twist-stained goz)spurted all over the back of my hand. Perhaps, I should have gone down t'village.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 52-60

Current location (optional) Lincoln

Well, thanks for the tip anyway Terry. I didn't even know there WAS a gasworks depot 'up town' - but I'll try and remember it for the next time round! But a point to remember - and maybe you are forgetting - distances were very much greater then (for those who had yet to ride in a car) than they are today. Even if I'd known about it it would (psychologically) have meant giving up a whole day (I hardly think they'd have let me take my sledge on't'bus). And any route walking (or running, according to necessity) would have taken me through Mordor - the Sawleys, Walshes and Redmans up Lawkholme (bad enough avoiding them at Eastwood School) or the Bug Alleyers you already mention with special dread, up Bradford Road. And besides, I always secretly felt it rather demeaning to have to be an unpaid coalman anyway - what if my posher schoolmates had seen me? Think of that!

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1951-58

Current location (optional) Cottingham, East Yorkshire

You surprise me, Doug. The Gasworks depot in town was on one of those streets connecting the bus station (Lawkholme Crescent?) and Low Street - Adelaide and Wellington Street were one (even two!!) There was a big banner up on the wall near the Gasworks depot bearing the words "Elco Fabrics". Can your GPS system home you in from these "triangulates"? It's probably now in the "Rombald Centre" where David Seeley takes tea and crumpet with his old Keighley mates.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 52-60

Current location (optional) Lincoln

We must have been at the "posh " end of town at the top of Devonshire St. The only gang we had to contend with was the "Guard House" mob who passed the house on the way to Highfied School . The area down Lawkholme Lane sound like a war zone. What, David Seeley taking "crumpet"??

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 43-46

Current location (optional) Sassafras , Tasmania

Just to put you right Terry. The "gasworks" was down at Marley, near Thwaites Village. The NEGB Office and Showroom was in Cooke Lane and the coke depot was in the yard off Queen Street and backed on to the offices. The short street joining Cooke and Queen was College Street. There was a fish & chips shop/restaurant on the corner of College and Queen owned by the Mosely family. Cheers.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 47-51

Current location (optional) Auckland NZ

I've just got back from holiday and have been catching up with the various entries on our Forum and in particular the vivid memories of Doug and Terry of our mutual early environment. Most enjoyable reading! Doug's comment that 'it's a wonder we didn't all grow up junkies' reminds me of certain products available at the local Chemists in times past, namely 'Nurse Drury's Infant Preservative' and 'Dr.Brown's Chlorodine', both of which were mild opiates, and used regularly to get fractious kids 'off to sleep'. Liquid Parafin was used as a rather drastic 'cure' for constipation. 'Fennings Cooling Powders' were an early form of paracetemol. Malt Extract was also available during the war years as a supplement which was 'good for the bowels'.
I think 'Brimstone and Treacle'(a blood purifier) has already been mentioned on this thread, which reminded me of a recent visit to a National Trust property called Quarry Bank Mill in Cheshire, and in particular the Apprentices' House, where the above 'cure-all' was regularly administered. Leeches were also applied when necessary, to the 200 or so young children lodged in this small building back in the early 19th century. Amazing!! Leeches were on display there and are still bred for research purposes by one particular company in this country.
Just one other thing - they don't do 'Crumpets' in the 'Bakers Oven'

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 45-50

Current location (optional) Keighley

Be a bit hot doing "crumpets" in a Bakers Oven

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 43-46

Current location (optional) Sassafras , Tasmania

I said (singularly) crumpet!!!!

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 52-60

Current location (optional) Lincoln

I spotted a newspaper advertisement last week for a product named 'Pulmo Bailly', which seemed to ring a distant bell in my memory bank. The slogan read 'Anything that tastes this BAD must be doing you GOOD', which I thought was quite clever. The product itself is a 'cough sedative' and an 'expectorant'. The advertising blurb continues; 'It's not nice, but it's mighty powerful. You can't have it- unless you ask your pharmacist for it!!'
'Pulmo Bailly'- what a 'cracking' name for a product!

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 45-50

Current location (optional) Keighley

No one has mentioned kaolin poultice. A can of it was heated by placing it in boiling water on the stove and then smeared on a cloth and slammed on the infected wound. Sheesh!!!!! it did burn but it smelt smashing and also cured the infection.
We owned a shop in Bradford Street which was gradually changed into a cafe during the war.There were remnants of many remedies in the remaining cupboards.One night after visiting the Cosy to watch 'The Mummy', the Boris Karloff version, they brought him back to life by feeding him with aliquid made by emersing the sacred henna pods in hot water.
I knew we had some of those in one of the cupboards back home and yes! I found them.Parkinson's of Burnley Senna pods. I made myself a brew just like in the film and drank it. If you want to know how it made the mummy move try it for yourself. Arthur

Just like in the motion picture Arthur?

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 58-65

Current location (optional) leeds