ALAN WHALLEY'S WORLD

NO-ONE ever knew what Old Mother Swift's 'knock-out drops' contained. The formula remained her own special secret until the day she died.

But there was no denying the effectiveness of her little bottles of home-brewed baby pacifier, sold for a couple of coppers a time to harrassed Parr housewives blessed with large broods.

The peace-bringing potion was universally known as 'goody-goody' down deepest Parr, reveals Mother Swift's 67-year-old grandaughter, Elizabeth Bates of Downland Way.

"She was a grand old lady - kindness itself," she explains, "I, too, was given the stuff when a baby. But it somehow had the opposite effect on me - making me over-active and fighting fit, instead of sleepy."

Gran's real name was Mrs Elizabeth Swift (Mrs Bates inherited her own Christian name from her). And this proud grandaughter still looks back with fondness on the happy, though rather overcrowded, days when widowed Mother Swift shared her roof with a then schoolgirl Elizabeth, her mother, dad and sister Beryl . . . plus an uncle and aunt.

And Elizabeth still licks her lips at the thoughts of the delicious home-made lemonade and other soft drinks that her granny manufactured for sale.

Elizabeth was one of a number of traditional Parrers who picked up on my recent Fol-de-Rol Row theme and the colourful characters who peopled that part of Parr. The stretch (later known by its clipped-down title of Fol-Dol Row) comprised a string of low-level workers' cottages along Chancery Lane.

"They were a fine bunch of folk from those parts," Elizabeth muses, "down there you weren't merely regarded as your parents' child, but treated like everybody's son or daughter the moment you crossed a neighbour's threshold.

"Any kids who happened to be in a neighbour's house while meals were being served-up were invited to draw a chair up to the table . . . despite high unemployment and tight family budgets."

The Fol-de-Rol ball was first set rolling by Susan Helsby and her partner Ged Marsden, who have newly taken over the licence of the Hen and Chickens pub which stood close to Fol-de-Rol Row. They had been intrigued by lingering tales of that fondly-remembered settlement, bulldozed out of existence some years ago, and had even considered changing the pub's name to The Fol-Dol, in its honour. By coincidence, Elizabeth's dad, Joe Swift, was once a popular waiter-on at that pub; and Elizabeth worked there as a glass-washer and cleaner for a spell immediately after she left school.

Another who enjoyed that Fol-de-Rol blast back in time was Edith Parry, now 85 but possessor still of a razor-sharp mind.

She remembers making regular errands to Mother Swift's cottage home earlier this century. For Edith's mother, then blessed with eight children, often had cause to resort to that mysterious baby quietener when the wailing became unbearable.

And the medicine really worked, recalls Edith from Sheringham Close, Parr, still living within a stone's throw of that now-vanished terrace of ancient step-down cottages which stood well below street level.

She was about eight years old when her mum used to send her off to buy that pacifying liquid, intended to be rubbed on the sore gums of teething babies.

She recalls that Mother Swift's home always had a rather intoxicating medicinal whiff about it and that she did roaring trade. Her special elixir had a honeyed taste about it. But something much stronger than any bee could ever manufacture must have been added to it, she now suspects.

"For it never failed to work," recalls Edith, "sometimes the babies had to be actually shaken to rouse them from their deep slumbers."

And yet the stuff never seemed to do any harm to the infants of Parr, says Edith, who can name quite a number of local babies who developed into bright students, taking advantage of advanced education leading on to top careers.

WONDER if, after all this lapse of time, anybody is able to unlock the secret of Mother Swift's special baby brew? If so, please drop me a line. Your letters will find me at: Whalley's World, St Helens Star, YMCA Buildings, Duke Street, St Helens WA10 2HZ.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.