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Cod Liver Oil and Malt

Posted: Tue Dec 06, 2016 2:19 pm
by William
I had two friends in Barnes. They were monitors and great healthy hunks of manhood, one even playing for a school XV (not the first). They were particularly thick with their matron, a battleaxe, named Miss M Watts. She had the power to select appropriate boys to receive supplementary Cod Liver Oil and Malt daily and I presume this was done in other houses, though I never came across any evidence of it. Did any reader receive it or know about the practice? I suppose it was intended for weedy boys who were particularly susceptible to illness. Anyhow that shows one advantage of being a pal of the matron, for they both greatly liked that concoction. (I wasn’t so lucky.) Did others benefit from being a matron’s favourite? How?

Re: Cod Liver Oil and Malt

Posted: Tue Dec 06, 2016 3:07 pm
by J.R.
I certainly don't remember that foul concoction at CH, HOWEVER, I was subjected to it pre-CH days. DISGUSTING STUFF !

It seems it holds the same position as 'Marmite;. You either love it or hate it.

Re: Cod Liver Oil and Malt

Posted: Tue Dec 06, 2016 7:52 pm
by sejintenej
J.R. wrote:I certainly don't remember that foul concoction at CH, HOWEVER, I was subjected to it pre-CH days. DISGUSTING STUFF !

It seems it holds the same position as 'Marmite;. You either love it or hate it.
I remember malt (nice stuff) but whether that was in the Prep or Coleridge I don't recall but perhaps John Wexler might remember. JR and I were there at about the same time. What about cascara? horrible. ISTR the doctor might prescribe it at the time of the regular balls grope but perhaps Matron could prescribe as well.
Cod liver oil: I got fed the capsules at home; yuck to the power of ten.

Re: Cod Liver Oil and Malt

Posted: Tue Dec 06, 2016 8:25 pm
by Katharine
In my time at Hertford, some girls who were thought to be in need of 'building up' were given malt, don't remember hearing about cod liver oil. I wasn't in such need! As I recall it was never given to seniors just to weedy juniors!

What we were all given, but very very few swallowed, were 'brown pills' senokot - which I think had the same purpose as cascara. We were given them the first three Saturday nights of each term - the vast majority were either flushed away, without being swallowed first, or thrown on the garden.

Re: Cod Liver Oil and Malt

Posted: Tue Dec 06, 2016 9:06 pm
by LongGone
I actually liked Malt (For some reason the term Radio Malt comes into may head) but also had a bright green liquid that was very astringent, I suspect it was a mineral concoction for low iron.

Re: Cod Liver Oil and Malt

Posted: Tue Dec 06, 2016 9:38 pm
by jhopgood
I remember Miss Watts, (she of the "If you don't make your bed better, you and I will fall out!" quote), but have no recollection of either Malt or Cod Liver Oil at CH.
Nor at my infant nor junior school, although certainly at home.
I remember malt and still use it to make certain breads, but haven't had Cod Liver oil for a long time.
Capsules were a luxury since they could be either gulped, with no flavour, or bitten and tasted. I seem to remember that the liquid came in small medicine type bottles, the same used for some foul orange squash concentrate, not to be taken on its own.
I must have had my fill of Cod Liver oil as my mother thought I had rickets, and it was a combination of that and the fact that I spent all day outside in the pram on the Woolwich Road, that got us onto the Coldharbour estate.

Re: Cod Liver Oil and Malt

Posted: Wed Dec 07, 2016 7:48 am
by sejintenej
jhopgood wrote: I must have had my fill of Cod Liver oil as my mother thought I had rickets, and it was a combination of that and the fact that I spent all day outside in the pram on the Woolwich Road, that got us onto the Coldharbour estate.
Yes, days of boredom lying in a pram and strapped in so you couldn't sit up and look around; somehow one day I escaped and crawled into the house! In them thar days very young kids got state issued Rose Hip Syrup which I loved.

Re: Cod Liver Oil and Malt

Posted: Wed Dec 07, 2016 9:29 am
by michael scuffil
Certainly I remember weedy kids being given malt at CH. I envied them, because I loved the stuff. I don't remember cod liver oil, though. However, in the late 40s/early 50s, I think every household with children got a free issue of powdered 'National' milk (came in large blue-and-white tins), orange juice, and cod liver oil. My mother certainly insisted on a regular daily spoonful of both the latter.

Re: Cod Liver Oil and Malt

Posted: Wed Dec 07, 2016 9:40 am
by jhopgood
When I cleared out my parent's house I found the milk tin, used to store screwdrivers.

Re: Cod Liver Oil and Malt

Posted: Sat Dec 10, 2016 9:44 pm
by DavidRawlins
We certainly had Malt when I entered Col A in 1946. I do not know how long it continued.

Re: Cod Liver Oil and Malt

Posted: Sun Dec 11, 2016 5:01 am
by Foureyes
I cartainly had cod liver oil at home, but cannot recall it at school. It came as a yellow liquid and was administered by teaspoon, so that one could savour the full oiliness and total unpleasantness of the stuff. A daily desert-spoon of malt, too, at home but not at school (1948 on). I also recall the orange juice at home, which we were told came from oranges, but when the real fruit reappeared in the 1950s we realised that, the colour apart, it had no relationship with the fruit whatsoever.
What I do remember with pleasure is at break at Housie, and following PT, there was a compulsory issue of 1/2 pint milk with biscuits, either 'Millstone Grit' or - treat-of-treats - ginger nuts.
Housie food I quite enjoyed and was certainly better and more plentiful than at home. The name 'Frog's spawn' springs to mind but I have no idea what it was. And always coffee (so-called) on Sunday breakfast and fish on a Friday - 'the piece of cod that passeth all understanding.'
Ah, well!
David :shock:

Re: Cod Liver Oil and Malt

Posted: Sun Dec 11, 2016 9:16 am
by michael scuffil
Frogspawn was tapioca.

1/3 pint, provided not by the school, but by the state, until milk-snatcher came along. The bottles were specially made for school milk nationally (they had a wide opening with a cardboard top with a press-out section for straws). There were also squashed flies (fig bars) and immoral creams.

Re: Cod Liver Oil and Malt

Posted: Sun Dec 11, 2016 11:29 am
by jhopgood
I always thought "squashed flies" were shortbread style biscuits with currants in them.
By the way, does anyone know whether the word for currants is a variation on Corinto, which is what they are called here in Spain?

Re: Cod Liver Oil and Malt

Posted: Sun Dec 11, 2016 12:20 pm
by Goatherd
Yes! Apparently from the Anglo-Norman French 'raisins de Corauntz' 'grapes of Corinth' - where they first came from.

Re: Cod Liver Oil and Malt

Posted: Sun Dec 11, 2016 12:57 pm
by J.R.
'Squashed Fly' biscuits = Garibaldi biscuits. I've always known them as this.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garibaldi_biscuit