“Lambswool – I love the name, it’s an old-fashioned Christmassy-time drink.
“It’s common throughout the UK, but in the Black Country it was known to be made for workers. Managers would give it to workers.”
Still made today but particularly popular in the Victorian period, this traditional festive drink of roasted apples in strong ale would be served in a large bowl called a jowl, the researcher said.
“They had to keep going until it was finished and it’s quite a large bowl and then they’d finish with singing a carol.”
She said “you’d mix it with a bit of” nutmeg, ginger and sugar and if “you didn’t strain it, you would see the apple kind of pulp in the drink”.
Also, people could “have tipples of home-made wines”, things like parsnip wine and elderberry wine, made in their washhouse where laundry was done.