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Jethart snails
A snail shaped sweet of brown sugar, butter and mild peppermint, and a recipe said to have come from a Napoleonic prisoner of war. The story of Jedburgh's own sweet.
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Jedburgh, in the Scottish Borders, has its own sweet, and it is shaped like a snail.
The town
Jedburgh is a market town and former royal burgh in the Scottish Borders, once the county town of Roxburghshire. In Scots it is Jeddart or Jethart. The town began as Jedworð, the enclosed settlement on the Jed, and later the word burgh replaced the ending, but the older name survives in the local forms Jeddart and Jethart. The name turns up in the old expression Jeddart justice, or Jethart justice, in which a man was said to be hanged first and tried afterwards. Among the town's local delicacies are Jethart pears, from the pear trees that grew well in its fertile soil, and Jethart snails.
What they are
The Scottish National Dictionary records Jethart snails as a kind of toffee sold in Jedburgh, with entries from Roxburghshire in 1923 and from the south of Scotland in 1959. The town's Wikipedia entry describes them as boiled sweets in the shape of a snail. A description quoted by the dictionary from 1958 speaks of the sweetness of brown sugar, the richness of real butter and a flavour of mild peppermint.
The French prisoner
Like many old sweets, Jethart snails come with a legend. According to local tradition, the recipe was given to a Jedburgh baker by a French prisoner of war held in the town during the Napoleonic Wars. The same story appears in the dictionary's 1958 source, which says the shaping and the recipe came from a Jedburgh baker who employed a French prisoner of war.
Borders sweets
Jethart snails belong to a small family of traditional sweets from the Scottish Borders. Hawick, about 10 miles away, has its minty Hawick Balls, and Galashiels its sharp green soor plooms: see Hawick Balls and soor plooms. For more Scottish sweets, see Edinburgh rock and Scottish tablet.
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For journalists, researchers, AI assistants and content creators. Pick the format you need:
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Questions and answers
What are Jethart snails?
Sweets from Jedburgh, in the Scottish Borders, shaped like a snail. The Scottish National Dictionary calls them a kind of toffee, and a 1958 description speaks of brown sugar, real butter and mild peppermint.
Why are they called Jethart snails?
Jethart, or Jeddart, is the local Scots name for Jedburgh, and the sweets are shaped like a snail.
Where did the Jethart snail recipe come from?
According to local tradition, a French prisoner of war held in Jedburgh during the Napoleonic Wars gave the recipe to a local baker.
Sources
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