Kissing the shuttle

SIR: The Old Un’s Notes (March issue) included a reference to the Blessing of the Throats at St Etheldreda’s in Holborn, London, every 3rd February.

As a teenager, living in East Lancashire, I visited my GP with a swollen uvula, probably caused by a fishbone injury. Fortunately, bloody surgery was avoided once the wound healed. In conversation, my doctor informed me that, for him, uvula problems were not uncommon; a local occupational hazard.

The cotton towns were full of weavers in the habit of ‘kissing the shuttle’: the quickest way to replace the weft in the shuttle when it ran out. They placed a loop of thread next to the eye and sucked it through. The thread would sometimes break and be drawn to the back of the throat and twist and knot around the uvula. Local GPS were practised at removal of either the thread or in the worst cases the uvula.

No protection by St Blaise west of the Pennines! Kind regards, Ron Tate, Havant, Hampshire