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| Coltsfoot flower |
Any old family herbal beer recipes out there? Lydia Lawrence, DH Lawrence's mum, used to make herbal beer. She reminds me of my old uncle George, who was a herbalist, and lived in an old army EPIP tent in the middle of a field in the Potteries. DHL's sister Ada wrote about the Lawrence kid's expeditions from the Lynncroft house to collect medicinal herbs around the fields of Eastwood...
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| Mrs. Lawrence |
"She made very good herb beer, and we found the herbs for her. On Saturdays we started off after breakfast to pick coltsfoot, taking lunch in a carpet bag. We wandered across the fields, past our old home in the Breach, through Engine Lane and on to the railway line by Moor Green, High Park and to Watnall pit. Those walks were full of interest. Not a flower, tree or bird escaped Bert’s notice, and he found wonderful adventure in seeing the first celandine or early violet. Coming home weary and footsore, we could see our home miles away on the hill. No wonder my father’s feet dragged up it in heavy pit hoots after a hard day's work."
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| Mr. Lawrence |
As avowed
Band of Hope members Lydia and the kids had taken the pledge to
"abstain from intoxicating drinks".
Not so their dad Arthur who liked a beer or three with his fellow miners. His daughter Emily explains...
"You see, miners used to go to the pub and there was one quite close to where we lived. And they used to go for an evening's enjoyment, you see. And it was really only Friday or Saturday evening that [Father] really took more than he ought to. Through the week he didn't. He was never drunk on Sunday, never."  |
| Band of Hope oath and membership card |
Commercial herbal beer ingredients were also widely available and advertised in the local newspapers but the Lawrences liked to brew their own...
The Herb Beer Question - When the tax man started showing interest in revenue from the herbal beer trade, local politics was put aside to fight for their rights. This is from "The Nottinghamshire Guardian" on Friday, 13 May 1887...
The Herb Beer Question. In reply to a letter from Mr. C. Turner, secretary of the Derby Herb and Ginger Beer Makers' Association, thanking him for his efforts on behalf of the herb beer trade, Mr. Smith Wright [MP for Nottingham South], has written as follows 6th May, 1887.
Dear Sir,
Allow me to return to you my most sincere thanks for your letter of yesterday, in which you so handsomely and generously recognised my endeavours to protect the herb beer trade. Such kind recognition is all the more welcome and gratifying as coming from a political opponent, and it is to be shown in a more formal way by a resolution of your association at Derby as you kindly intimate. I need hardly say I shall consider such recognition as far more than compensating for the trouble I have taken in the matter since August last. I sincerely trust you will have no prosecutions to complain of, especially among the very numerous class of smaller makers who cannot possibly make sure that a bottle of their herb beer may not occasionally, by continued fermentation, exceed the very low limit of strength liked by the Excise. Assuring you that I shall always be glad to do anything in my power to protect the trade. I am, dear sir, yours very faithfully, (Signed) H Smith Wright.
In a similar letter to Mr. S. S. Summers, Station Street, Nottingham, Mr. Wright says he trusts his efforts will not have been thrown away, but that the trade will be allowed to go on as usual this summer, at any rate, without any harassing by the authorities. He explains that his Bill could not have been read the first time, but that amidst the crowd of measures introduced at the beginning of the session its provisions for imposing revenue taxation escaped the notice of the Bill Office, and adds "We must find some solution of the difficulty if further trouble should arise at a future time."
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EPIP "Indian Pattern" WW1 era canvas army tents
as lived in by my old uncle George the herbalist. |
THE END
Sources
Letters of DH Lawrence; "The Nottinghamshire Guardian" on Friday, 13 May 1887; Zythophile website https://zythophile.co.uk/2014/02/28/was-it-ever-gruit-britain-the-herb-ale-tradition/
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