Folklore of Lincolnshire

by Susanna O'Neill

  As a movable event, this took place on the Saturday before Shrove Tuesday. A special cake was made, rather like a pancake but thicker and more crumbly, made with oat flour. The cakes were called ‘brustins’ and were often served with honey poured across although some people ate them with fish. Eggs were once forbidden during Lent so these cakes and pancakes were a good way of eating them up. The money saved on buying eggs for the next six weeks was given to the poor. Many towns in the country had a pancake bell and in Lincolnshire this was apparently rung as a signal for housewives to begin to prepare their pancake batter.

  An indication of how cold this time of year was then (and can still be today); one popular batter recipe included two tablespoons of freshly fallen snow. When added right at the end, this was thought to make the batter light. The first pancake tossed would traditionally be fed to the cock as a reminder that Peter denied Jesus three times before the cock crowed. The daughter of the house watched this custom closely, as the number of hens that arrived to help the cock eat it signified the number of years she would remain unwed.

  At one time it was also the tradition to give school children an orange on Shrove Tuesday, hence the use of the name Orange Day. Certain places used to have a game, the Lug and Bite game, on this day, whereby children would crowd around the schoolmaster whilst he threw an orange up into the air. The child who caught it took a bite and then had to throw it back up. If he kept hold, taking more than one bite, the other children were allowed to lug (pull) his hair and ears until he threw it up again.

  Mothering Sunday

  Once also known as ‘Refreshment Sunday’ as it was used as a break from the abstinence of Lent. Another name was Simnel Sunday, after a traditional, rich almond cake. Thick almond paste was spread in the middle and on the top, along with eleven small balls, to represent the apostles (barring Judas) and also the number of months the girls were away from home in the days when the roads were bad and transport was poor. They often had to work in another town but came home on Mothering Sunday, which was like a family reunion day.

  Mid-Lent Fair

  Apparently originating over a thousand years ago, this fair, often held during the week after Mothering Sunday, appears in Stamford. Now more of a funfair than the market it used to be, it moves on to Grantham the week after and then heads north for the summer. Some say it is now the largest street fair in Lincolnshire. The town mayor opens the festivities and rings the Mid-Lent Fair bell to announce the start of the six-day event.

  Caistor Gad-Whip on Palm Sunday

  This is now a lost custom but was very popular through the 1800s. A gad-whip is a long whip used by ploughmen to drive their oxen faster. Every Palm Sunday the 10-foot gad-whip was cracked three times in the church porch by the Lord of the Manor of Hundon. Apparently, the first time was for the first lesson of Easter, then the second after the second lesson, involving a purse with thirty pieces of silver. The custom ceased in 1846 but one possible explanation for the tradition was that it was penance for the accidental death of a boy by the Lord of the Manor and this personal act became bound up with the tenure of the land. There was controversy at the time, some people saying it was an indecent act to perform in the church, whilst others argued it was in keeping with the Easter theme. The thirty coins were symbolic of Judas’ betrayal and the cracking of the whip three times was a reminder of the cock crowing and Peter’s denial. The controversy seemed to fuel interest and at the 1843 service over a hundred people turned up to see the curious custom.

  If you ever hear any of the older generation in Lincolnshire call a child with a dirty face a ‘Molly Grime’ it is a reference to a very old tradition linked to Good Friday. The washing of an effigy of the dead Christ was a tradition every Good Friday, along with littering his bier with flowers. ‘Malgraen’ meant ‘holy image washing’, but became corrupted to Molly Grime.

  Good Friday was also the day for baking hot cross buns and as it is a ‘holy’ day, the buns are said to contain magical properties. The Lincolnshire Life magazine tells of a woman from Lincoln who held that one should always bake thirteen buns, keeping one back in case anyone in the family should become ill during the year.9 If they do, the idea was to scrape some of the top off the bun, add it to a glass of warm milk and drink it before bed. By the morning the illness should have disappeared.

  The gad-whip, preserved in a glass case on the wall of the church of St Peter and St Paul, Caister.

  An effigy of Mary supporting the dead Jesus, over the porch entrance of St Peter’s Church, Glentham. The tradition of washing the image of Christ was once held here. This is thought to be the only remaining effigy of Mary holding Jesus’ body left in Lincolnshire and one of very few left in the country after the Reformation.

  Even though it was taboo for women to do any washing or housework on Good Friday, it was apparently seen as a lucky day for farmers to plant their potatoes. Another Lincolnshire belief was that any person born on a Good Friday could not be frightened.

  In the 1920s and ’30s, people believed that the sun danced on Easter morning and could forecast the weather for the rest of the year. A bucket of water was placed outside and as the sun rose it reflected upon the surface of it. It would ‘wap and wade’ which, when translated, meant that if it rippled it was meant to be a sign that there would be enough water all summer but if the sun moved slowly across the water it was expected to be a very dry summer.

  Tansy pudding was a traditional dish for Easter Day, eaten with orange marmalade, supposed to represent the bitter herbs eaten with the paschal lamb.

  Children were involved in egg-rolling competitions on Easter Monday, rolling hard-boiled eggs down hills to see which survived the longest. This was a symbol of the rolling away of the stone across Jesus’ tomb.

  Hare Pie was a traditional dish for Easter Monday, constituting hare, hard-boiled eggs and a pastry case. There was a well-known practice at Hare Hill, near Louth, where such a pie made by the wife of the vicar was cut up and distributed to the gathered crowd.

  Rudkin mentions a custom that was practiced every Easter in Bourne since 1770, the Meadow Letting custom.10 A Mr Clay apparently gave a piece of land, White Bread Meadow, to the inhabitants on the condition that the rent was used for charitable purposes. Further conditions stipulated that two good loads of manure should be put on the land and that the bush in the middle of the field should not be cut or damaged, by man nor beast. Apparently, although the original is now gone, replacement bushes have always been planted. To decide who rented the land from year to year, a race was run by a number of boys. Once they were off the bidding began in the auction and as the race finished, the last person to bid had the lease for that year. After the bidding there was a feast of bread, cheese and spring onions. The race held today is more of a token of what was intended but the results of the auction are still legally binding.

  Gutch and Peacock mention a game celebrated on the Tuesday a fortnight after Easter Sunday, called Holk.11 Girls and boys would catch each other as they passed on the streets and refuse to let them go unless they paid a small fee. This money was then spent on a feast in the evening and great fun was said to be had by both parties, both day and evening.

  Another moveable custom was to welcome the cuckoo, when it was first heard in the year, with a special cuckoo ale. It was also customary for girls to count the number of times it cuckooed, which signalled the number of years they would have to wait to be wed.

  1 April

  When April blows his horn ‘tis good for hay and corn.

  April Fool’s Day was celebrated only half the day. People, children especially, would play tricks on each other all morning but if someone played a trick in the afternoon the common retort would be, ‘April Fool’s Day passed and gone and you’re the fool for making me one’. Widdowson12 relates one particular trick a lady from Louth remembers from her childhood: ‘We always got a small piece of coal wrapped in a toffee paper in our lunch. Believe me, we should have been very disappointed if it
had not been there!’

  6 April

  Known as Flitting Day, whereby all the farm workers and their families moved from their tied cottages to a new place of work. It was also the day they paid up the year’s rent. One theory for it occurring at this time of year is that it was near the equinox, the time many ancient cultures viewed as the start of the New Year. Flitting Day was an immense day for mothers, whose responsibility it was to get everything spick and span in the house for the newcomers. It was, however, seen as unlucky to move house on a Friday, so if the 6th fell on a Friday, people would wait another day to move.

  April Pleasure Fair

  An annual event held in Lincoln, this fair takes place on the South Common. It has been running for years and Sutton includes some memories from people who attended the fair in the early 1900s. There was dancing and stages with music, a variety of food on sale, coconut shies, shooting galleries, side shows such as a snake woman or the world’s fattest man, performing fleas, boxing matches, up and down horses, waltzers, swing yachts, cake walks, strong man acts, and more. The fair today is very similar apart from having a more modern, updated feel and faster rides!

  Lincoln Horse Fair

  Another event that was held for centuries, this was a huge affair, spreading out over all the streets, with hundreds of different horses stationed all across the town. It lasted a full week, at the end of April, and was massively popular but died out in the 1950s due to the increase in motorised vehicles and farming machinery. Enormous crowds would gather, with people travelling from all over the country and so the inns and pubs all did a good trade that week as well as the ice-cream sellers and hot pea stalls. Even those not interested in buying a horse were attracted, and one girl Sutton mentions remembers her mother taking her along for the chance they might be given some free cabbages at the end of the day. Farmer’s apparently used to give away cabbages and other vegetables that the horses had not eaten, as it was easier than carting them all back home again.

  24 April

  St Mark’s Eve involved many different rituals connected with divining a future spouse. One such custom was for three girls to gather together and bake a dumb cake, in complete silence. The cake had to be prepared by midnight, for as the clock struck twelve each of the girls would tear themselves off a piece and eat it. Still silent, they would then walk backwards up the stairs to bed and if all was done correctly they were to see a shadow of their future husband following them up the stairs. One condition stated that they must get into bed before the shadow reached them.

  For those who saw no shadow, a knocking sound may be heard on the door or a rustling in the house and this would reassure them they were still to find husbands – but the poor girl who was destined never to marry would neither see nor hear anything and may even have terrible dreams of death. As can be imagined, this practice lost popularity during the war years as so many young men were killed and thus the girls viewed it as a futile event.

  May Day

  Wash your face in the May morning dew, and you will have a fair face.

  May Day is now the nearest Monday to the first of the month; it used to be the nearest Sunday. There are a host of traditional celebrations, including dancing around the maypole, processions, the crowning of the May Queen and prank playing.

  ‘Maying’ was a custom whereby the children of the village would visit all the houses with seasonal flowers and extract money and gifts from the residents. It was performed as a ritual to welcome in the May and the spring, and the garlands were made in a traditional oval shape, with dolls placed in the middle. The children were often given a few coppers, or if they were in short supply a pin to give their mothers. It was viewed as bad luck, however, to take the May blossom inside the house, which Sutton suggests could have been linked to the Catholic tradition of placing garlands in front of the statue of Mary. During the Reformation this was forbidden and could even result in death, and so people avoided the act.

  May dancing was also a tradition. Morris men would welcome in the new month by dancing in the four corners of Lincoln; west, north, east and south. They had a 5 a.m. start on the 1 May and the bells they wore and sticks they knocked together were all tools with which to drive away the evil spirits from the city.

  Maypole dancing was also a popular tradition during May and this is a fine example of a village maypole, seen in Hemswell, along Maypole Street.

  Morris dancers also participate at the May Day Lincoln Folk Festival, which is a three-day event, first beginning in 1983. This event was linked to the Lincoln Arts Festival but soon became an occasion in its own right, involving many local and national folk musicians.

  May is a month of flowers and there are many festivals celebrating the different flowers of the county, such as cowslips, lilies, tulips and blossom – all linked to this particular season and to the symbol of new life.

  11 – 5 May

  It was once custom to eat rook pie during this month on Rook Sunday, as the baby rooks venturing from their nests for the first time were easy pickings to catch. The pastry around the edge of the pie was marked using the feet of the rooks and some people would even serve their pie with the legs of the rook sticking up out of the middle.

  14 May

  Known as Pag Rag Day, this was the day that all the servants used to return home with all their dirty washing packed into white linen bags, known as pag bags.

  This date was also known as Hiring Fair, as traditionally it was the day when farm workers were hired. The employers would know what jobs the men were looking for and which skills they possessed just by looking at what clothes they wore on this day and the tools they carried with them. When a deal was struck, the farmer would give the worker a shilling, known as a ‘fastening penny’, as a term of employment and then they would be paid a penny per month thereafter. Rudkin says that Brigg had the wonderful incentive of offering the first man to arrive in town, who was looking for work, a free pint.13 As one can imagine, this became very competitive and men would be rolling up at five in the morning.

  24 May

  Lincolnshire is well known for the Wesley family, who resided at Epworth Rectory, the sons, John and Charles, well-known preachers in the 1730s. This date is known as Wesley Day, and they are remembered annually during the communion service in Lincoln Cathedral.

  Remembrance stone for John Wesley, founder of Methodism, situated in Wroot, where he served as curate for two years.

  ‘Beating the Bounds’ was an old tradition used in many counties, Lincolnshire included, before accurate maps were produced. Where there might be disputes over the boundaries people would go out and beat down growth and mark the soil to show the younger generations where the boundaries were. Bourne Abbey Church is one of the few places left that still marks the tradition by taking people from the parish out, in May, and walking the boundary paths.

  Boston May Fair was a large horse, cattle and sheep market but was also known as something of a pleasure fair, where even quack doctors would attend, selling their herbal medicines and remedies. It is still a popular event today, though more of a pleasure fair than anything.

  12 June

  A dripping June brings all things into tune.

  This day in June is known as John Dalderby Day. He was a Lincolnshire man, born in Horncastle; he went on to become the Bishop of Lincoln in 1300. He died in 1320 but a number of miracles were accredited to him, such as curing the people of Rutland who had become unable to speak and were only able to bark. He is remembered in a service every 12 June in Lincoln Cathedral.

  17 June

  The Feast of St Botolph was held on this day. The people of Boston claimed him as their founder and the Boston Stump is dedicated to him. He died in 608 and at one time there used to be a twenty-five day fair held in his memory. He is also now remembered annually in a service in Lincoln Cathedral.

  The ‘Lincoln Show’, which began in 1819, is still going strong today and attracts thousands of people from all around the country. It is pri
marily an agricultural show, usually held towards the end of the third week in June.

  23 – 25 June

  The Stow Green Fair was another huge event attended by thousands. It was a horse and wool fair which started in the 1200s and retained its popularity until the 1950s. It is thought that fairs were held here even before that date, as it is also the feast day of Etheldreda, to whom the Stow minster is dedicated, who died 23 June 679.

  Late in June the Horncastle to Skegness Walk used to take place, which was a twenty-four-mile fun walk, started in 1903. A band was present and competitions and prizes were on offer, one of which was auctioned off in 2010; a bronze medallion, won by W.S. Williams, who completed the walk in three hours and thirty-four minutes in 1903.

  An information board now stands at the site of the Stow Green Fair, showing photographs of the horse fair from 1908. A little tricky to find, it is north of the village of Stow, just off the A52 towards Threekingham. The board is beside the road at the T-junction between Mareham Lane and Stow Lane.

  Crop Gathering in July

  When bracken is down in July it means that there will be a hard winter.

  July was very busy for the people of the land, whose time was taken up with crop gathering and hay making and so there was not much time for celebration during this month. But in the 1940s, it became the tradition that during the last week of July and the first week of August, the workers could have an annual holiday, named Trip Weeks. Many of the factories closed altogether during these weeks and even organised bus trips so the people could get away. The seaside, of course, was the most popular destination, Skegness and Mablethorpe being favourites.