Grandma knows best: a new look at old-fashioned cures from Cherry Chappell

By Jess Copley

Did you know that a bee sting can aid arthritis? Or that black coffee can help an asthma attack? Many remedies from the past are no longer used in today’s society, but Cherry Chappell is seeking to change all that.

Her new, light-hearted health book Grandma’s Remedies - A Guide to Traditional Cures and Treatments from Mustard Poultices to Rosehip Syrup, sets out to inform readers about age-old remedies and the social history of medicine.

“For 2000 years, women were not allowed to either study or practice medicine and yet were - as they still are - the guardians of family and community health,” she says. “But what happened was that they therefore used common sense, experience and the materials such as herbs, plants and foods they found locally. They discovered for themselves what worked, then they passed this on to their friends and daughters.”

Cherry recognises that there is often a logical explanation for the remedies. “Some are age old and have become universal, and lots of them have a sound clinical base and indeed do work! Some of the most effective remedies appear flaky in the first instance, although the French coffee remedy for asthma attacks has a good scientific basis: caffeine is known to relieve bronchial congestion.”

Cherry trained originally as a journalist, writing features for national newspapers and magazines. Her first book, Minding Your Own Business: Survival Strategies for Starting Up on Your Own, was published in September 2004. Now an independent public relations practitioner and writer, the Words by the Water festival gives Cherry the opportunity to talk about her book inspired by the people around her.

“Everyone has a story to tell if you take the time to listen properly.  I wrote to the Women's Institute Magazine, Saga and Scots Magazine to ask readers for their family remedies. What came back was astonishing.  For example one lady, now 90, told me how she trained as a nurse at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children in the 1930s, spent the war at the Royal Hammersmith Hospital, and then afterwards joined Save the Children working in hospitals on the Baltic Coast. What a life she has led! Interestingly, lots of younger people also shared their family remedies, including a motorcycle messenger from the East End of London who popped in one day and asked what I was doing - he had lots of folk remedies for me.”


Perusing the pages of Grandma’s Remedies, you find that the treatments described in the book are not just effective, but also very interesting. Cherry says she was “fascinated that Shakespeare's plays were such a good source of herbal remedies but that, after all, his son-in-law, John Hall was a herbalist.” She also adds: “I’m delighted that cherries are used to combat mental fatigue, although I doubt my mother knew that when she gave me the name!”

She has worked in the past with both orthodox and alternative therapies - including traditional Chinese medicine and the ancient Hindu science of Ayurveda. This has lead Cherry to become a great fan of integrated medicine. “If I were to break my ankle, I would like a good orthopaedic surgeon to set it for me. I would then wish to accelerate healing with good herbal medicines and then when the bone has knitted, head for a good osteopath to realign and re-educate the muscles. Until fairly recently, we all took responsibility for our own health. We didn't whiz to the chemist or GP at the first sign of a headache or tummy upset and expect a tablet to take the place of good lifestyle practices. I find the over-use of antibiotics quite shocking.”