The great restorative

The twin towns' only ghost sign, this faded ad adorns the rear wall 0f a still existing pharmacy in the adjacent community of Goodwick.
Wincarnis, originally called Liebig’s Extract of Meat and Malt, dates back to the 19th century and was marketed as a tonic wine for the weak, the nervous, the run-down and anyone with vague symptoms requiring a little... fortification.
It developed a reputation for being the favoured tipple pick-me-up of your aged grannie or spinster aunt, perhaps the teetotal minister too. (And Harold Wilson, according to Private Eye.)

Pharmacies required a licence to sell, or make up, medicinal wines and often sold ordinary wine as well. In fact I can vaguely recall my parents buying proper wine from the chemist in our little Welsh town because there was no other place to get it. I think it cost about 6 shillings a bottle.

The therapeutic value of Wincarnis was vouched for by thousands of 'medical men' although the the advertising material could not settle on the exact number: 8000 here, 10,000 here, 17,000 here. Tellingly however, it was often marketed directly at working women and mothers as this 1939 ad shows - without any mention of its most potent ingredient, alcohol. Just as mother's little helpers, the benzodiazepine tranquillizers Librium and Valium, were promoted to the subsequent generation's 'medical men' as supports to female drudgery, but conveniently silent about any noxious side-effects and dependency issues.

Wincarnis, originally produced by the Colmans mustard company, is still made, now owned by Hedges and Butler. It is apparently very popular in the West Indies as a mixer.