By Neil Stobbs

During work for the seventeenth century research group of the Mourholme Society I have had cause to delve into the accounts of the Shuttleworth family of Gawthorpe Hall1. One interesting entry in 1585 is:- “towe hundrethe and a halffe of lycores settes,iiijs “.

The editor of the printed accounts translates the entry to read “250 liquorice sets”. This seems to indicate that liquorice was grown in Lancashire, at this time, from “sets”, the vegetative parts of a plant used to produce new plants. The term is still used today, in reference to potatoes and onions. Two hundred and fifty sets seems to have been a considerable number for use at only two places, Smithils and Gawthorpe, to which the accounts apply. This raises the question, did the Shuttleworths grow it as a commercial crop? If so, for what purpose? Medicinal or culinary, or both?

Culpeper’s Herbal, first written in the seventeenth century, has the following entry:-

Description
Our English Liquorice riseth up with divers woody stalks, whereon are set at several distances many narrow, long, green leaves, set together on both sides of the stalk, and an odd one at the end, very well resembling a young ash tree springing up from seed. This by many years continuance in a place without removing, and not else, will bring forth flowers, many standing together, spike fashion, one above the other on the stalk, of the form of pease blossom, but of a very pale blue colour, which turn into long, somewhat flat and smooth pods, wherein is contained a small, round hard seed…

Government and virtues.
It is under the dominion of Mercury, Liquorice boiled in fair water, with some maiden-hair and figs maketh a good drink for those that have a dry cough, or hoarseness, wheezing or shortness of breath…the juice distilled in rose-water, with some green tragacanth, is a fine licking medicine2 for hoarseness, wheezing etc3.

Culpeper then goes on to claim value for liquorice in many diseases, not only of the lungs, but of the bladder, kidneys and the eyes. “The fine powder of liquorice blown through a quill into the eyes that have a pin and web4 (as they call it)…doth cleanse and help them.“

A 1984 herbal5 adds further information about the liquorice plant; it was recorded on Assyrian tablets and Egyptian papyri; its old names glycyrrhiza or radix dulcis reflect the sweet taste of the root; the plant occurs wild in eastern Europe, but does not appear to have been cultivated in central or western Europe until the fifteenth century; it was first introduced into the Pontefract district of England by the Dominican Black Friars. The herbal confirms Culpeper’s account of its cultivation, saying that the plant is propagated by root division in autumn, and harvested from 3-4 year old plants in early winter.

Its medical uses are given in more modern, but essentially equivalent terms. The active principles are glycyrrhizin and certain other glycosides. Glycyrrhizin is “demulcent”, “expectorant” and “spasmolytic”, that is to say, a substance which is soothing to inflamed surfaces, promotes the expulsion of phlegm from the lungs, and relaxes muscle spasm. All are actions likely to be helpful to “those that have a dry cough, or hoarseness, wheezing or shortness of breath…”

The 1984 herbal also claims, like Culpeper’s, that liquorice acts on organs other than the lungs; claims which have some support from main stream medical opinion. It is laxative, a property which all those who have eaten Pontefract cakes must surely know. It has been used in the treatment of gastric ulcers. It also has a steroid-like action, in that it is anti-inflammatory and helps to restore mineral balance in Addison’s disease, a condition in which the body’s own power to produce steroids is damaged. Indeed, it has a sufficiently powerful action to make its over-use dangerous by producing sodium retention, with hypertension and headache.

Today the main uses of liquorice are other than medicinal, though it is still used pharmaceutically for sweetening. It is used to flavour some beers, such as Guinness. Large quantities are used in tobacco flavouring (some tobaccos contain 10% of liquorice). It is used in snuff manufacture, and the root pulp is incorporated in insulating millboard. It is also, of course, extensively used in the sweet trade. I remember during sweet rationing, in and after the 1939-1945 war, being given pieces of “liquorice root” to chew as a substitute for sweets. After this time the hard “Spanish liquorice” re-made its appearance, and we used to put a number of pieces of it, about half an inch long, in water in a bottle and shake it up for quite a long time to produce a drink called, obviously, Liquorice Water. There is also a vague recollection of a rhyme, something to do with a “pin”. Does anyone remember? This was in north-east England and may not have been part of childhood culture in the North-West or elsewhere.

It seems that the growing of liquorice had already ceased in Lancashire by the end of the eighteenth century. In 1795 it was said of Liquorice “It is not cultivated in this country, in any sufficient quantity, as an object of profit; although upon many grounds it might flourish, and be worthy of attention”6. The writer, who lived at Walton near Liverpool, added that he grew a number of plants in his own garden and found it “as well- flavoured, rich, and juicy, as the Pontefract”. It is remarkable that the modern uses of liquorice are so similar in many ways to those expounded by Culpeper, three hundred years ago. As it had been in use for so long a period before Culpeper’s time, one may expect that, by trial and error, its uses would have been refined and passed on to the herbalists and doctors of his time. Modern chemical analysis has isolated the active ingredients, but the older herbalists seemed to know what they were doing (except perhaps for the practice of blowing powdered liquorice into a patient’s eyes), even if they presented its “virtues” in a way which looks unfamiliar to us.

NOTES1) .2) 3) 4)

  1. Ed. John Harland, “The Shuttleworth Accounts” Pts 1&2, Chetham Society, 1861 ↩︎
  2. licking medicine = any medicine made up to a paste with syrup, honey etc (Oxford English Dictionary (OED)) ↩︎
  3. Ed. Gleaves, Culpepper’s Complete Herbal and English Physician, facsimile of the 1826 edition, 1979. (Original edition 1653) ↩︎
  4. pin and wheel = an obsolete name for any disease of the eye leading to pin head lesions and general inflammation. (OED) ↩︎
  5. Ed. M. Stuart, The Encyclopaedia of Herbs and Herbalism, 1984 (original edition 1979) ↩︎
  6. John Holt, General View of the Agriculture of the County of Lancaster, 1795 ↩︎