Folklore of Lincolnshire

by Susanna O'Neill

  To help stop the shakes of the ague one could tie a piece of hair to an aspen tree. If bitten by a mad dog, you should apparently place in the bitten hand the key from the church door. Fits can allegedly be charmed away by touching or wearing a rope which has been used for hanging, or wearing a silver ring which has been made from money and consecrated at an altar. Those suffering from rheumatism should carry a potato in their pocket. Alternatively they can be cured by being confirmed a second time.

  Cramp can be avoided by carrying a lucky bone in one’s shoe, whose bone is not quite clear, or leaving a bowl of water under the bed, or even placing a piece of cork between the mattress and the bed. Also, if shoes are placed in the shape of a ‘T’ at the bottom of your bed when going to sleep at night, this will help with cramp. For scalds, a special chant is repeated whilst dressing the wound with bramble leaves dipped in spring water: ‘There came three ladies out of the East. One with fire and two with frost. Out with the fire, in with the frost.’

  When you are bothered by warts, place in a bag as many pebbles as you have warts and leave the bag at some crossroads. You will lose your warts but they will be transferred to the unfortunate person who picks up the bag. Or if you can sell them to a friend, wrap the money up and bury it and your warts should disappear. If this does not work, try to rub some dandelion juice into them, or the soft white insides of a broad bean pod. The remedy for boils is a salve of soft soap and sugar, fig poultices or buttermilk swallowed three times a day, whilst fasting. Jaundice is relieved by drinking a tea made from the twigs or bark of the barberry bush, or a mixture of sheep dung in boiled milk. Similarly, a concoction of sheep’s dung and cream can be a cure for small pox.

  A toothache can be cured by ‘fill[ing] the mouth with cold water and sit[ting] on the fire until it boils, when the pain will be gone’. Either that or the pain of your burning behind will have distracted you from your tooth! If you carry the tip of a cow’s boiled tongue in your pocket, you will be protected from the toothache coming on. If you have a headache, a recommended cure was to wrap the skin of a snake around your hat. It should relieve the pain. For sore eyes, wash them out with a concoction of eight garden snails shaken in a bottle with spring water.

  For whooping cough you should wear shredded garlic inside your socks when you are in bed. This will keep those pesky vampires at bay as well! Alternatively, for children you could feed them fried mice, or let a horse breathe down their throat. If the child is having none of this, try hanging a bag of insects around the child’s neck. Belief has it that the cough will disappear as the insects decay. A less gruesome answer would be to take three hairs from the cross on a donkey’s back for your cure, or to ride a quarter of a mile upon a donkey.

  If you have a cut from a knife or another piece of metal, to make the skin heal faster, clean and tend to the offending metal first, ridding it of any dirt or rust. Bleeding can be stopped by applying a thick cobweb. I have heard this to be true and believe it was a method used during battles centuries ago, however I would recommend using a bandage, if you have the choice!

  The Lincolnshire Poacher magazine quotes from the News Chronicle of 1892,27 which states that many a farm in Kesteven used to hang a mouldy Good Friday bun from the beams of the kitchen ceiling. The idea was that if someone in the family or even any of the cattle were suffering from certain ailments that a mouldy portion of the bun would be cut down and mashed into some water to create a remedy for the complaint. There are other incidents related of people using mouldy fruit or scraping the mould off hanging meat and wrapping the wound with the mouldy fat, and the idea that this cleaned out the wound and helped the healing process was prolific; a possible forerunner of penicillin perhaps.

  Along with numerous superstitions and beliefs, Lincolnshire was full of its own sayings about every day things. For example someone away from home feeling homesick may say ‘I wish I had hold of our cat’s tail.’ When changing underwear before leaving the house, people would say ‘I must make a decent accident.’ Something which was scarcely worth mentioning would be ‘neither nowt n’ summat’.

  A charming saying from Alkborough was repeated to children who were being too nosy:

  Clean and paid for

  Washed and cared for

  If you don’t like it

  What do you stare for?

  These adages and practices, along with the wonderful Lincolnshire dialect, would fill many books, but for the study of folklore we have other matters to attend to.

  EIGHT

  A LINCOLNSHIRE

  YEAR

  For this chapter I have Maureen Sutton1 to thank for much of the detailed and thorough information about the different festivals and rites of Lincolnshire throughout the year.

  January brings the snow, makes the feet and fingers glow.

  1 January

  As in many other parts of the country, this day, First Footing, represented the belief that the very first person over the threshold of a house on New Year’s Day brought with them either the good or bad luck for the rest of the year. Naturally, if the person brought bad news, then ill-luck would befall the house. The tradition dictated that a man with dark hair carrying a piece of wood, some coal and some silver would be the bearer of good luck. Fair or ginger hair was seen as bad luck, but a woman was worse still! Gutch and Peacock, however, tell of a tradition in Lincolnshire Marsh where a light-haired man with a fair complexion was preferred.2

  Sutton offers a few possible explanations for this tradition. One theory is that when the Vikings invaded the county they raped many of the indigenous women and so it was seen as very bad luck to open the door to a fair-haired man. Silver could be viewed as a good charm for the year’s fortunes and coal brought with it a warm house. Wood could have signified averting death, as bringing in wood ensured a coffin was not carried out that year.

  Ethel Rudkin relates the ritual a lady of Caistor performed every New Year’s Day.3 She would arrange for a man to enter her house first thing in the morning, carrying something yellow, such as jasmine. He was instructed to go to the fire and stir it up with the poker whilst wishing her a happy New Year. She said that the stirring of the ashes was a sign of stirring a good friendship and making it glow again.

  The first day in January was also viewed as a ‘no washing day’, as it signalled a death within the family before spring and thus was avoided:

  If you wash on New Year’s Day, you’ll wash one of the family away.

  There used to be a tradition in Lincoln, early in January, of hosting a feast for all the poor children of the city, named the Robin Dinner. Hundreds of poor children would be gathered for a hearty meal at the Drill Hall, where festivities and entertainment followed. Unfortunately this is said to have died out by the late 1930s.

  Rudkin mentions a tradition of the ‘Plough Jags’ doing the rounds on the first Monday in January.4 She states that this was the only night of the year where there was no law and so they could not be ‘had up’. The tradition was that gangs of ploughboys visited each house in their area asking for money. If anyone refused they would have a furrow ploughed on the path before their door. They are also referred to as ‘Plough Jacks’ or ‘Plough Bullocks’ and are said to have dressed as morris dancers and performed little plays.

  5 January

  Lincolnshire, having a very large farming community, had a great many superstitions concerning crops, as they represented the livelihood of so many. The ‘Shooting of Trees’ was one such rite performed to ensure a good crop for the year. This involved visiting the orchards and shooting at the trees in order to get their sap flowing – then a good harvest would be guaranteed. This is a similar rite to the Wassailing in which the southern folk of the country participated to ensure a good crop of cider apples for next year’s harvest.

  6 January

  This date marks the occasion of the famous Haxey Hood game. This is a tradition which has stood the test of time and even though it is a very old ritual, having being practised since
the thirteenth century, it is still as popular as ever today. The precise origin of the game is somewhat unclear but one story tells of an elderly lady, possibly Lady Mowbray, Lady of the Manor, who was travelling one windy twelfth night when her red hood was blown off over the fields by a strong gust. A handful of villagers who were working nearby chased it, and after much fun and excitement returned the hood to its owner. The story tells that the actual man who caught the hood was too shy to give it back and so another handed it over to Lady Mowbray. She was so grateful and amused, she gave thirteen half acres of land, Haxey Fields, to twelve men, for an annual celebration of the fun, and she apparently called the shy man ‘fool’, hence this character in the games. The whereabouts of twelve of the half acres’ is now unknown, but the last half is used in the Haxey Hood today.

  The game today requires a ‘hood’, twelve ‘boggons’ and a ‘fool’. The boggons, or ‘plough-boggons’ as they are sometimes referred to, are dressed in red jackets and represent the original twelve who first caught the stray hood. In the week leading up to the game, the twelve boggons journey around the village and visit all the inhabitants, inviting them to attend the game, as players or observers, and to gather funds for beer and entertainment.

  On the day itself, at around one in the afternoon, the players gather by the churchyard and the fool gives a speech about the game’s rules and announces which pub is offering the most beer for the final catcher of the hood. The fool is also entitled to kiss any one he pleases, even ‘be she the highest i’ the land’.5

  Elaine Kazimierczuk inquired what qualifications were needed for the job of the fool and was given the answer; ‘You just need tolerance, fortitude and a capacity to drink beer’.6

  The stone depicted here, outside St Nicholas’ Church, Haxey, is known as the Mowbray Stone, on which the fool stands when delivering the introduction to the game.

  Then to the Haxey Field, where the eldest boggon throws the hood high into the air. The idea is that the players must try and capture the hood and carry it out of the field, whilst the boggons fight to keep it within the bounds. If the boggons succeed until evening, they can retire and the players play on down the streets, fighting for which pub the hood will be taken to. Once there, it is kept by the landlord until next year and everyone has a good old knees-up. The merriment lasts a few more days and originally there was the tradition of ‘Smoking the Fool’, whereby a fire was made beneath the fool, who sat in a large tree and then was suspended from a branch and dipped into the thick smoke emanating from the crackling damp straw.

  Photograph of the fool at the Haxey Hood celebration. (Kindly donated by Arthur Franks.)

  The vast numbers attracted to the Haxey Hood annual event. (Kindly donated byArthur Franks.)

  Many believe the game is linked to the ancient festival of John Barleycorn – or the Green King, as the song ‘John Barleycorn’ is ritually sung. These are ancient traditions of fertility and the cycle of the year, certainly apt for a farming community. Jeremy Hobson has another similar theory: ‘In Viking culture a bull was often sacrificed at this time of year and its head (hood?) was used as a sort of football in the hope that its blood would ensure a good growing season.’7

  6 January

  There is an annual banquet on this date, named the Lincoln Cake Ball. It has been held every year since 1795, apart from during the two world wars. Held in the County Assembly Rooms in Bailgate, it is a dinner to which one has to have an invitation from the mayor.

  Plough Sunday and Monday were the first Sunday and Monday after twelfth night and were a farming tradition to bless the plough. It was decorated and paraded around the village.

  20 January

  The eve of the feast of St Agnes, the patron saint of girls, falls on this day. There used to be an important tradition for young women to use this night to perform certain rituals in order to catch sight of their future husbands. For example, girls would sow barley seeds under trees and chant:

  Barley, barley, I sow thee

  That my true-love I may see;

  Take thy rake and follow me.

  If performed correctly, the girls should then dream of their betrothed that night.

  26 January

  This date signifies a more modern Lincolnshire festival, the Lincoln Australian Breakfast. This tradition began due to a visit the mayor took to Australia in 1991. On this day there is a huge breakfast situated on the beach with people dressed up and some in costume. The mayor was so taken with the idea that he brought it home to Lincoln. On the Sunday nearest to the 26th, the Lawn Centre now holds a breakfast celebration for up to 1,600 people, with Australian music, dress and custom being the order of the day.

  2 February

  ‘A February spring is worth nothing.’

  February is the month for the farmers to clean out ditches and get ready for the year ahead but there was always a fear that if it was a warm February that things would come into flower early and then be killed off by a later cold snap, hence the saying above. Along with this was the idea that if it was warm enough for ‘the gnats [to] fly in February the farmer will beg at Harvest’.

  Candlemas, the midpoint of winter, is a traditional Christian festival, to celebrate the purification of Mary, forty days after the birth of Jesus. It was a time to bless the candles in a commemoration of the return of the light. As with other counties, Lincolnshire celebrated this day with candle processions, feasting and horse trading. One of the old beliefs was that the candles blessed at Candlemas held such special properties that they could help cure illnesses. For example, if someone had a sore throat they should lay the blessed candles in a cross shape across the afflicted throat and they should be cured.

  14 February

  Again as in all counties, this day is celebrated by lovers, and in Lincolnshire in particular people used Valentine’s Day to perform a number of rituals to determine their future partners. For instance, one could tie a strand of hair through a ring and sleep with it under the pillow in order to dream of a future spouse. In Gainsborough there was a custom of pinning five bay leaves to your pillow, one at each corner and then one in the middle, in the belief you would then dream of your husband to be. In Coningsby, bachelors would wear a small yellow flower upon their lapels to let the ladies know they were available. Wearing one would signify the prediction that you would soon be married. Tradition also spoke of the idea that the first unmarried man a girl saw that morning would be the one they would marry – and too bad if it was someone they disliked!

  The sending of a valentine was popular too, as Gutch and Peacock show us with an example of a ditty:

  If you love me, love me true;

  Send me a ribbon, and let it be blue.

  If you hate me let it be seen;

  Send me a ribbon, and let it be green.8

  29 February

  The country over this was the day when it was seen as acceptable for the lady to ask the man to marry her. In Boston it was a known tradition that if a girl leapt onto a man’s back it was her way of proposing and no words were needed. To agree, the man would then leap on her back. This could be due to the term ‘Leap Year’. If a man refused the proposal, some traditions said he must buy the lady a silk dress in recompense. As Sutton points out, although an expense, this was a much cheaper option.

  21 March

  March comes in like a lion, goes out like a lamb.

  It was often believed that if there was bad weather at the beginning of this month then it would improve, bringing milder conditions by late March and into April.

  This day marks the celebration of the first day of spring. The Lincolnshire tradition was to throw clods of earth across the fields to awaken the sleeping spirits in the earth. The four corners represented the four compass points and sowing and planting for the year began. The River Trent, which flows into the Humber twenty miles away, feels the equinox effects of the tidal bore, also known as the ‘Aegir’, after the Norse God of the sea. Felt also at Gainsborough, there was onc
e a custom of throwing a piece of silver into the water at high spring tide as a toll, to prevent ever drowning there and also to soothe the fury of the flow.

  The ‘Lincolnshire Handicap’ horserace, starting in 1849 in Lincoln, was a very popular event, lasting until the 1960s. It was then moved to the Doncaster course and is still the first major race of the flat racing season today.

  29 March

  This is Thomas Kendall Day, named after the vicar of Louth in 1534, who opposed the Dissolution of the Monasteries. He was part of the Pilgrimage of Grace rebellion, which unfortunately failed, and he was hanged in 1537. Lincoln Cathedral commemorates his death every year with a service on his anniversary.

  Spring Cleaning

  This was once a mammoth event, taking place sometime between February and Easter, whereby the whole contents of the house were cleaned and every household took part in this annual ritual. Every curtain was taken down and washed; carpets were taken outside and beaten; rooms whitewashed, painted and redecorated. It was such an important tradition that people would not enter one another’s houses until it had been done. Since the modern inventions of vacuum cleaners and washing machines, cleaning is much easier and done much more regularly, thus the need for this huge upheaval is lessened, yet still we use the phrase ‘spring cleaning’ whenever we do a good clear out.

  Brusting Saturday