Treacle City

Treacle City is Milford’s nickname and, fascinatingly, there are several different explanations as to its origins:

  • Milford’s gas works built in 1822 – only the third plant to be built in England – produced coal tar.
  • The Strutts issued treacle sweets to their workers to moisten dry throats in the mill’s dusty atmosphere.  It’s said that during the demolition of the mill, some of these sweets were found under the floor boards.
  • A large barrel of treacle being delivered to a shop on Sunny Hill spilled its contents on to the road.
  • The presence in Hopping Hill of a well which oozed a sticky black substance known as treacle.
  • from ex-resident Peter Roe: ‘the first – and only – explanation I heard was that Milford was called this because everyone stuck together i.e. it was hard for newcomers to fit in.
  • More slanderously, a jibe at Milford people for being slow-moving and thick.