Another strange tree legend has attached itself to a palm tree, thriving unexpectedly near the church porch at Ingoldmells. It supposedly sprouted up of its own accord when the squire’s daughter died of a broken heart, when her lover fled abroad after the discovery of their affair.
Mistletoe cut from an oak tree is thought to bring victory in a battle if carried around the tree sun-wise three times, and cows were once encouraged to eat the leaves of mistletoe as it was meant to deflect any curses a witch may have put on the dairy. If one is to bring blackthorn into the house it portends someone will break their arm or leg. Bunches of hazel and willow placed in water upon a windowsill are said to protect against thunder and lightning.
The mysterious palm tree growing next to the St Peter and St Paul Church porch in Ingoldmells, Skegness.
There is a tale surrounding St Mary’s Church in Stow, which is supposed to stand on the site of a miracle. Around AD 670, the Northumbrian Queen Etheldreda was fleeing across Lincolnshire to Ely, when she stopped to rest at Stow. It was a tremendously hot day and the poor lady had no shade in which to rest, and so had to make do with what she found. Lying on the grass she stuck her staff in the soil beside her and fell asleep but when she awoke, she found that her staff had put forth branches and leaves to protect her from the sun. The staff grew into a huge ash tree and pilgrims travelled far and wide to visit it. Now there is an extremely large church on the spot, one much too big for the small village of Stow, but people call it the ‘Mother of Lincoln Cathedral’. There is a stained-glass window left of the altar to illustrate the legend.
St Mary’s Church, also known as Stow Minster, situated on the site of a miracle.
Victorian stained-glass window, high up on the north wall of the chancel, to the left of the alter in Stow Minster, depicting Etheldreda and her staff.
Just outside Stow Minster are some whipping irons dating back to 1789, complete with the maker’s stamp mark.
Codd also relates the story of a poor post boy who was savagely slain by two highway men.17 Legend has it that the murder was so horrific that the grass around the lad’s grave at Nettleham refused to grow.
Gutch and Peacock mention a legend surrounding a black stone at Crowle.18 Apparently it was believed that if the stone was removed from the farmyard then all the cattle would die within a year. It was even reputed to have happened to one particular farmer, but the stone was replaced after this incident.
The gravestone under the tree, with no grass growing around it, is found in Nettleham churchyard, to the left-hand side of the church. Tho Gardiner is named as the post boy of Lincoln, ‘barbarously murdered by Issac & Tho Hallam Jan 3rd 1732. Aged 19’.
‘Were you born in a barn?’ This is a common saying for someone who habitually leaves doors open after them, but there is a village in Lincolnshire which has customised the saying to suit a miracle that happened in their area. Bardney was once the home of Tupholme Abbey where King Oswald of Northumbria’s remains were taken after he was defeated in battle against King Penda of Mercia, in AD 675. However, upon arrival, the monks left the King’s remains out in the field, as they regarded him as an enemy. Later that day, they were amazed to see the spot where they had left the dead King lit up with a bright beam of light from the heavens. They took the sign as a warning from God to treat everyone equally and not to close their doors to anyone. Thus the saying, ‘You must have been born in Bardney!’
It has been said that once, no mice or rats were to be found at Fishtoft. The legend stated that so long as the whip in the hand of the statue of St Guthlac, in the church, was intact, the village would be free from mice and rats. Unfortunately for the residents, the whip is now long gone.
Gutch and Peacock relate a strange old folk belief that if you wanted to know whether a mare was with foal or not, one had to take a mouthful of water and spit it violently into the beast’s ear.19 If she shook her head it was a sign she was with foal whereas if she shook her whole body then she was not.
A white blemish on the thumb nail was said to foretell the arrival of a present. Each finger also held a different omen if the mark appeared on them; friendship, an altercation, romance and an imminent journey.
The ruins of Bardney Abbey, just across the field from a car parking area; signposted from the village.
To scare a poor child who had an inflamed spot or bite on the face, the custom was to tell them that a pig’s foot was growing there. Some other sayings to tell children were less frightening; thunder was said to be ‘elephants falling out of bed’ and snow was ‘the Old Lady shaking her feather pillows out of her window’.
Statue of St Guthlac, minus his hand and legendary whip, standing above the west door of the church at Fishtoft.
A well-known Lincolnshire answer to a child’s awkward question was, ‘How should I knaw, bairn; why does craws pick lambs’ eyes oot?’ When a child asked why they would not play, the adult answered, ‘I’ve got a bone in my leg.’ The question ‘Where are you going?’ was answered with, ‘There and back again to see how far it is.’ And the enquiry ‘What’s that for?’ had the reply, ‘Just for fancy, to please old Nancy.’
A canny belief among Lincolnshire children was that if they were to see a white horse pass by, then they should spit on the ground and cross their feet over it, then they would shortly receive a present.
Many places in the country have a rhyme about the magpie, but Lincolnshire has its own version:
One, for sorrow; Two, for mirth;
Three, for a wedding; Four, for a birth;
Five, for a fiddler; Six, for a dance;
Seven, for Old England; Eight, for France.20
Not far from the centre of Fishtoft, signposted from the village, is a memorial to the Pilgrim Fathers who tried to sail from this area in 1607. The tower of Boston Stump can be clearly seen from this spot.
G. Edward Campion explains that in Lincolnshire there are variations for the meaning of the word ‘parson’. As well as a minister of religion, he says it also denotes a black lamb. A superstition commonly believed at one time was that when one saw the first lamb of the season, you should turn over the money you had in your pocket and then you would be bestowed with good luck. This action should also be taken when seeing the first new moon of the year, or when hearing the first cuckoo. If you did not happen to have any money in your pockets it was considered bad luck and you would be short of money all the rest of the year. Superstition around money was important and it was said that to ensure good luck for the day, any tradesman would spit on the first money they receive that morning.
‘Parson’ also meant a black rabbit and it was apparently considered extremely bad luck to shoot one. Campion says that if a black rabbit was shot, the luck of the shoot would fade away and that the bag at the end of the day would be very small.
A fourth meaning for the word ‘parson’ was a guide-post and so a lost traveller, for instance, would ask ‘What does the parson say?’ With typical Lincolnshire humour the signpost was called a parson because it points the way to go, but does not take it.
Luck, good and bad, has always had superstitions attached to it, such as not opening an umbrella indoors, or not walking under ladders. In Lincolnshire it was thought that to place an umbrella on the bed would bring bad luck but to walk into a church with the right foot first would bring good luck. If you moved into a new house or married on a Saturday it was a bad start and another bad luck occurrence would be if two people were to look simultaneously into a mirror or cross knives at the dining table. One should also never place a pair of new boots onto a table. To put the left shoe on first when dressing was considered bad luck, but to throw an old shoe after someone who was starting a new business meant good luck for them. If you saw a pin on the ground it was thought lucky to pick it up but to pick up a flower that had been dropped was bad luck. If you dropped your stick when out walking, someone else must pick it up for you or else bad luck would follow, possibly an argument with someone. This was also cons
idered true when dropping an umbrella, money or a comb. To burn mistletoe, even by accident, was always seen as a bad omen.
Cross yourself when seeing a solitary magpie or bad luck will follow. The swallow, however, was a good omen, especially if it made a nest on your house; this would protect you from being struck by lightning. When making the bed, do not flip the mattress on a Sunday as this would bring bad luck all week long. Four was believed to be a lucky number, but the name Agnes was unlucky, as the bearer would invariably turn mad!
Singing before breakfast was a sure sign that one would cry before night and laughing before praying in the morning, or after praying at night, would also bring misfortune. One should not sweep out a doorway, for fear of sweeping luck away.
It used to be the custom for sellers to give a little of the asking price back to the buyer, for luck. It is said friends should never wash their hands in the same water, unless they first spat into it, otherwise a quarrel was inevitable.
When a cow had recently calved, it used to be customary to make a rich custard pudding with her milk and to give friends a gift of this milk. The rule was, however, that the jug in which the milk had been carried to the friends must be returned unwashed, otherwise misfortune would follow.
Gutch and Peacock told of an old tradition concerning a double nut.21 If one cracks a nut and it turns out to be double, the common practice was to share the nut with a friend and whilst eating, both were sanctioned to make a wish, but to keep that wish a secret – rather like when blowing the candles out on a birthday cake, or sharing a wishbone with someone. In Lincolnshire it was also the tradition to make a wish when tasting the first strawberries of the year.
They also mention the story of a poor man who was killed on the railway lines near Mumby. When talking about the incident later, a local was heard to have said that it was not a strange event, as the man had been approached by a carrier earlier in the day who wanted to kill a duck for his tea. He asked the deceased to hold the duck while he killed it; this was his fatal mistake. It is mortally unlucky to hold anything whilst it is dying.
Apparently, especially around the Barnoldby-le-Beck area, it was thought to be very bad luck to take your cat with you if you moved house. However, if you had to take it, then the idea was to rub its paws with butter in the new house, or leave it locked in the (cold) oven overnight, and it would then surely stay in the new house.
For brides it was thought very unlucky to tear the veil, as it was a sign the marriage would not last. To forget or to drop something on the way to the church was also a bad omen as it signified looking back instead of forward to a new life with her husband.
When playing cards it was customary for ladies to turn their chairs round three times for good luck during the game. For good fortune during the time of the moon, one should bow or curtsey at the first sight of the new moon, and to avoid bad luck, burning evergreens that were used for Christmas decorations was to be avoided. A flock of sheep was thought to be unlucky if it did not have one black one amongst them.
It was said to be bad luck if, on seeing a dead body, one should leave without touching it. It does not seem to matter if you knew the unfortunate person or not – not touching them would lead to hauntings and nightmares of the departed.
Gutch and Peacock cite a rather unusual belief that the people around Barboldby-le-Beck used to trust: ‘Shrews and Hedgehogs are always to be killed, if possible. Vague, unknown powers of mischief are theirs.’22
It is not entirely clear why these particular animals were hated, although there are a number of suggestions. It was once believed that witches would transform themselves into hedgehogs to escape or hide from people, and thus hedgehogs were not to be trusted. Also hedgehogs were known for suckling cows in the night and leaving the farmer short of milk, and for sucking eggs, thus being a costly nuisance to the farmer. They were known for stealing apples as well, apparently carrying them on their spines by rolling on them to attach the fruit. There was even a well-known saying when talking to a bad-tempered person: ‘You’ve yer back up today like a peggy otchen goin’ a crabbin,’ (a ‘peggy otchen’ being a hedgehog and the ‘crabbing’ the apples.)
Shrews and hedgehogs were also accused of biting other animals, giving them the same swelling symptoms as an adder bite and thus wasting a poultice for treatment. This hatred obviously came before our roads got so busy and the hedgehog population became threatened. Their species was once much more prolific, so much so that before barbed wire was invented, farmers used to use the skins of hedgehogs on gate-posts to stop the cattle rubbing themselves against it.
Being a huge farming community, the people of Lincolnshire put much stock in what the weather was doing and have many a saying about how it behaves and what that means for them. For instance, duckweed seen rising in a pond was a sign of fine weather. When frogspawn was at the side of a pond it was thought that it signalled a wet summer, and when in the middle of the pond it would be a dry summer. Folk believed that every month had its own weather and that a deviation in that system was not a good sign for crops:
A January Spring
Is no fine thing.
February, for instance, was nicknamed ‘February Fill Dyke’, as snow was always expected during this month and it was seen as very unusual for there to be none:
Warm February, bad hay crop.
Cold February, good hay crop.
Candlemas, an ancient festival marking the midpoint of winter between the shortest day and the Spring Equinox, celebrated on 2 February, was an important time, with its own omens and superstitions:
If the sun does shine on Candlemas day
Saddle your horse and go buy hay
If Candlemas day be fair and bright
Winter will have another fight
If Candlemas day be wind and rain
Winter is gone and won’t come again.
However, the weather, it seems, was still fairly unpredictable, as some of the following ditties imply – although perhaps not as unpredictable as what we have now, with the changes that global warming has brought about:
If in February there is no rain
’Tis neither good for hay nor grain.
Fogs in February mean frosts in May.
If the first three days of April be foggy
Rain in June will make lanes boggy.
If it thunders on All Fool’s Day
It brings good crops of corn and hay.
A cold wet May
Brings plenty of corn and hay.
In November
If there’s enough ice to bear a duck
All the rest of the year will be slush and muck.
A light Christmas, a light harvest.
A green Christmas, a full churchyard.
The oak before the ash
You’ll only get a splash.
The ash before the oak
You’re bound to get a soak.
If it rains before seven
It will be fine before eleven.
A sunny shower
Won’t last half an hour.
Evening red and morning grey promises a very fine day
Evening grey and morning red sends the shepherd wet to bed.
More rain, more rest
Fair weather not always best.
Gutch and Peacock add a few other random weather superstitions.23 These include, ‘If a cat washes over her ear, it is a sign of fine weather. When a dog or cat eats grass, it betokens approaching rain. When a swallow flies low, rain is at hand. Shooting stars are a sign of wind. When it rains with the wind in the east, it will rain for twenty-four hours at least.’
Some folk used a certain phrase to describe the lingering patches of snow under hedgerows. They called them ‘dead men’s bones’ and the belief was that as long as they remained, more snow could be expected. The Lincolnshire Poacher magazine quotes a lovely snippet of what they call ‘yellow-belly humour’, concerning two Lincolnshire gentlemen discussing the weather: ’One said, “It’s an ow
ery owd mornin’, ’Arry.” “Aye, it is” replied the other. “My wireless sez rain. What’s yars say?”’24
As well as the weather, the moon and the sun encouraged many superstitions as they had great influence upon the weather but also over crops, women and animals. For instance it was said that one should not kill a pig at the wane of the moon as it was bad luck, and meant the bacon would not swell in the pot. To see the moon reflected in a mirror was a sign that something would happen during the day to make you angry. At the new moon, girls would bind their eyes with a silken scarf and look up and count how many moons they could see. Whatever the number they counted represented the number of years they would have to wait until they married.
An old saying tells that mill stones should be set to ‘turn with the sun, since the miller will never thrive while their course is against it.’25 It was said also that if the sun shines on the apple trees on Christmas Day then there will be a heavy crop of fruit next season. However, when planting, ‘Seed sown during a moon that came in on a Sunday and went out on a Sunday, will never come to much.’
Roy Fisk catalogues some old Lincolnshire remedies, but neither he nor I recommend the use of them if you find yourself troubled with any of the following!26 If you are afflicted with ague (a form of Malaria) then the old belief was to line your shoes with the leaves of a tansy plant and if this did not do the trick, pills of compressed spider’s webs were suggested, to be taken before breakfast. If these are hard to come by, live spiders between two slices of bread and butter should do the trick. Think how jealous your work colleagues would be of your packed lunch! Another cure was to gather seven worms from the wet earth of a new grave, at midnight, and mix them into a paste, then apply. Take your pick!
Folklore of Lincolnshire Page 16
