SWAY Treacle Mines

Whilst researching into the history of Sway for past projects the myth of the Sway treacle mines arose. However, further research into this provided fairly futile and really did seem to just be a made up story, until I came across a blog post allowing an insight into this mystery.

The story of the illusive treacle mines centres around a small nondescript plant apparently named 'Trecaldii sugardii'. Next to no information can be found out about this so-called plant, which is supposedly down to the 18th century sugar importers. When it was discovered that the plant had a natural sweet and sticky nature the sugar importers feared that if the plant were to become widely known about then their business would suffer.

The myth of the treacle mines came into existence when it is said some members of the New Forest began growing the plants in secret. Planted in holes in the woods and covered over the plants were grown in order to be made into treacle before being sold on the black market. Before long the sugar importers caught wind of this production and sent men to destroy the plants, which quickly became unheard of.

One location where these elusive plants have been found recently is in the Setthorns enclosure, to the north of Sway. It is unknown whether the story behind the myth is in any part truthful but it is interesting to learn about a potential kind of native plant to the village.

Research into the 'trecaldii sugarii' produced no results but further investigations into sugar producing plants made me realise that this mythological plant may be a sugar beet. Returning the treacle mines to Sway could become part of the project - they could be grown and processed on the site by the residents living on the site or by other villagers.

References:

Cooks, J (2011) If you go down to the woods today. Sway treacle mining. Tuesday 28. [online] Available from: http://theblogwotiwrote.blogspot.co.uk/2011/03/if-you-go-down-to-woods-today-sway.html [Accessed 20th November 2015]