by Peter Hill
Another special occasion was Empire Day, which was first celebrated on 24 May 1902 at the end of the Boer War, in recognition of the achievements of the British Empire. Not so much a celebration for adults, it was relished by schoolchildren who had the opportunity to dress up in all kinds of patriotic or fanciful costume.
The end of harvesting was another great reason for celebration, as the last of the crop was loaded onto the cart. In many of the villages around the county, the cart would be decorated with boughs of ash and oak, and the men riding on it would sing a favourite rhyme:
Children dressed in suitable garb for Empire Day at Oundle, c. 1910.
A sketch of the Harvest Home ceremony in Northamptonshire, 1824.
Harvest home! Harvest home! Harvest home!
We’ve plough’d, we’ve sow’d, we’ve ripp’d, we’ve mown,
Harvest home, harvest home, we want water and kaint get nun!
They would get their wish as the cart would be pursued by playful young women carrying bowls of water and, on the last line of song, the contents would be thrown over the thirsty crew. At Ecton, there was a variation of the custom: the prettiest girl in the village would be hoisted to the top of the cart as it made its way to the stockyard, accompanied by the men on foot. Some of the smaller communities, however, replaced the cart ceremony with the making of a corn dolly.
A corn dolly was made from the last sheaf and after the harvest feast would usually be kept in the farmhouse kitchen until the spring sowing, when it was either laid in a furrow to restore the fertility of the earth, mixed with the new seed or kept until the crop from the next harvest had been gathered successfully. The spirit of the corn was believed to have protective power.
Northamptonshire had two versions of the corn dolly, neither of which were in human form. One type was twisted and plaited in the form of a yoke and placed over the heads of the horses pulling the cart with the last sheaves. This was popular in the north of the county, in villages like Little Oakley, and was basically a variety of the corn dolly known as the Essex Terret, a term used for the loop or ring on a horse’s harness, through which the reins were passed. More common around the county was the other type of dolly, fashioned in the form of a pair of pointed horns like those of the ox that once dragged the plough over the fields.
To modern minds, some county customs and games of the past may seem to have had a cruel streak, particularly those that took place during St Martin’s Eve on 10 November. This was a time for jokes, tales and general merriment. John Clare gives a vivid description of the revelry in The Cottage Festival, a work that remained unpublished until 1983:
Beside the fire large apples lay to roast, and in a huge brown pitcher, creamy ale,
Was warming seasoned with a nutmeg toast, the merry groups of gossips to regale,
Around her feet the glad cat curled her tail, listening the crickets’ song with
half shut eyes
While in the chimney top loud roared the gale, its blustering howl of out door
symphonies
That round the cottage hearth bade happier moods arise.
He then goes on to describe some of the malicious tricks played on gullible victims. In one game a participant closes his eyes, whereupon ashes are placed in his open mouth. In another, a volunteer is blindfolded and seeks to retrieve three knives that have been hidden around the room, one of which has been heated in the fire. Pranks were played on anyone, young or old.
Two festivals of a similar nature and celebrated within days of each other were St Catherine’s Day, known as Catterns, and St Andrew’s Day, known as Tander Day. Catterns, the lacemakers’ holiday, was held on 25 November in the north of the county and got its name from a fusion between two different Catherines: St Catherine, the patron saint of unmarried girls who was martyred on this date, and Catherine of Aragon, who was, incorrectly, said to have introduced bobbin lace into this country while living in Bedfordshire and to have developed the spread of lacemaking as a cottage industry.
Catterns was a time for family gatherings, communal feasting and merriment, with firework displays – including catherine wheels – and games like leap candle and a form of apple bobbing in which blindfolded participants, using only their mouths, had to retrieve pieces of apple which were attached to two points of a bobbin winder, somehow avoiding the pieces of candle stuck on the other two points. The main drink was warm beer with eggs and rum, and food included rabbit casserole, ham and carrots, frumenty and Cattern cakes. At Kettering, Catterns revellers had a special rhyme that they chanted for these cakes:
Rise, maids, rise,
Bake your Cattern pies,
Bake enough and bake no waste
And let the bellman have a taste.
According to Ann Baker, in the extreme north of the county around Peterborough, girls from the workhouse, whose main occupation was spinning, wore white dresses decorated with coloured ribbons, with an emphasis on scarlet. The girls had a specially elected queen, usually the tallest girl, with a crown and sceptre and went in procession round the town, calling at the homes of the more affluent begging money and singing a special song about Queen Catherine. One of the verses went:
If we set a-spinning, we will either work or play
But if we set a-spinning we can earn a crown a day:
And a-spinning we will go, will go, will go,
And a-spinning we will go.
Tander Day, also a lacemakers’ holiday, was celebrated all round the county and was a more riotous occasion than Catterns. Thomas Sternberg, writing in 1851, stated that it was the only traditional custom which had survived to his time ‘in anything like its pristine character’. The special drink for the occasion was elderberry wine, usually drunk in vast quantities. The drinking was followed later in the day and well into the evening by cross dressing, with men dressing as women and women dressing as men, flaunting themselves around the streets. On one occasion in Peterborough in the 1920s, the police were called in as the event got out of control – and it was banned.
At Blisworth, to go tandering involved the children visiting a lacemaker’s house where they would receive sweets and gifts, according to Mona Clinch who wrote in 1939 about her early life. At other villages such as Spratton, children had their own unique custom known as barring out, in which they would not permit their teacher to enter the school, strongly resisting any attempt he or she might make at entry, until they were given a holiday. They did this to the following chant:
Pardon, mistress, pardon, master,
Pardon for a sin.
If you won’t give us a holiday,
We will not let you in.
Every autumn, on the Friday following St Michael’s Day on 29 September, farm and domestic workers would be present at hiring fairs, or statutes, where they put themselves up for hire in the coming year. They would be recognised by the tools or symbols of their occupation: shepherds with their crooks or wearing a lock of wool, dairymaids with their pails, housemaids with mops, farmers with a scythe or sickle. Would-be employers set the pay and conditions of service and, on acceptance, sealed the bargain with a handshake and the giving of a coin.
Until 1846 a curious ritual, said to have derived from the Hiring Fair, was the Mop and Pail Day held at Rushden on 12 May. On the evening before this day, mops and pails were collected by the young and taken in wheelbarrows and carts, or anything else that moved, and placed in a great heap on the village green for the next morning’s sport. At an early hour, the girls and women attempted to retrieve their belongings from the heap, to the accompaniment of a fiddler. Half a dozen would tug away, barging, scrambling and scrapping with their rivals.
Just before Christmas, on the Eve of St Thomas on 21 December, poor or elderly women would go begging – known in the county variously as a-gooding, a-mumping and a-Thomasing – at the homes of the more fortunate in the community, for gifts or money. In some villages, a two-handled pot known as a pad or gossiping pot was carried round for a donation of
frumenty wheat with which to make the popular dish of that name. Many years ago, Flo Colyer, who grew up in Weldon in the early years of the twentieth century, wrote down her memories of the occasion and its underlying purpose:
I well remember seeing the women sitting around the cottage kitchen apparently just gossiping, but the real reason for their being there was to gather a few pence for their Christmas fare. The parish charities provided gifts at Christmas [and still do] for widowers and spinsters, but widows were not catered for, so they toured the village to collect for themselves. They were usually given tea, sugar, jam or money.
County customs that have survived
Perhaps the most unusual of the annual May ceremonies in the county and one that still survives, albeit in a modified form, is the Bread and Bun Dole at Geddington. Originally dispensed by a former Lady Montagu of Boughton House, this was intended to ensure that the poor folk in the village, who normally lived on low-grade rye or barley bread, should enjoy at least one ‘white wheaten loaf’ a year. On May Day, at the start of the dole, a bell would ring and people would make their way to the church porch, and later outside the bakehouse, where the bread would be distributed. As the population began to increase and it became difficult to sort out who was genuinely poor, a chunk of bread was given instead.
The Pole Fair at Corby is one of the two fairs granted by Henry III to Henry de Braibroc, the lord of the manor, in 1226. However, for a reason that has proved impossible to explain, the fair is only held every twenty years, on Whit Monday in May. It starts with a reading of a charter – which does not mention the fair – granted by Elizabeth I in 1585 and reconfirmed later by Charles II, exempting the villagers from various tolls and levies. The charter had probably been purchased by her chancellor, court favourite and dancing partner, Sir Christopher Hatton, who was lord of the manor. A similar situation had occurred at Northampton, which gained its own rights of freedom. Also of interest is the fact that the Queen regarded herself as ruler not just of England but of Scotland, France and Ireland, and this incorrect assertion duly appeared on the charter in Latin and in its later English translation! The original was later lost during the Civil War at the home of the Brudenell family at Deene Park, where Parliament destroyed valuable documents, among which were local historical research papers.
The Bread and Bun Dole outside the bakery at Geddington in the 1930s.
The Charter originally granted by Elizabeth I, as reaffirmed by Charles II.
However, there is another twist to the saga, this time concerning the reconfirmation of the charter by Charles II in 1670, written on the document as being the twenty-second year of the King’s reign. Charles II dated his reign from the death of his father in 1648 rather than from the Restoration in 1660. However, 1682 mistakenly appeared on banners at the Pole Fair!
A poster advertising the 1902 Pole Fair at Corby.
Beginning at 6 a.m, the charter is read at the four main entrances to the village – in Church Street, at the junction of the High Street and Cottingham Road, in The Jamb and, until recently, Rockingham Road near the railway bridge – where triumphal arches and banners of welcome and hope for a successful fair are placed. Formerly, the giving of the charter was also re-enacted in a special pageant performed in costume by schoolchildren in the village, as part of the occasion.
Three people are chaired round to each of the reading points – in recent times these have been the rector, the chairman of the council and the oldest person in the village – and they are the first of many people to end up in the stocks placed originally at the appropiately named Stocks Lane. Other people wanting to come into the village then have to pay a ‘coin of the realm’ to gain access; if a male person refuses to pay up, he is made to ‘ride the stang’, being placed on a pole and taken to the stocks. The word ‘stang’ is an example of the Danish influence in the county, as it is the Danish word for a pole. If a female person refuses, a chair is used for the same purpose. The stocks used for this are unusual in that they have five holes for the feet, instead of the traditional two or four. Various explanations have been given for this – including a suggestion that they were specially made for one-legged tipplers! – but they were most likely made to hold one foot of each person, with the bench accommodating three people. Once in the stocks, there is no chance of being released until you give in and pay! For this you receive a ticket, which many folk in the past placed on display in their hats. Sometimes a glass of beer was given to the offenders in the stocks – it must have been thirsty work, just sitting there!
‘Chairing’ and ‘riding the stang’ at the 1902 Pole Fair.
The ‘toll of the stocks’ at the 1902 Pole Fair.
The fair itself is an occasion for merriment, games, feasting and general entertainment. Amos Bell of Great Easton wrote about the event in 1862:
Many hundred people were present, and a great many went through the ceremony. Stalls, shooting galleries, shows, and a large portable theatre went up as if by magic, flags and banners floated in the air, and the greatest hilarity prevailed. Parish officers, constables, and policemen went through the ceremony, no person being excused ... All the villagers tried to vie with each other in decorating their houses with devices, etc.
On the last five occasions, features of the fair have included climbing a greasy pole, a giant ox-roast, a tug of war and a carnival. The most recent fair was held on 6 May 2002 and attracted hundreds of people from far and wide, eager to soak up the atmosphere of this unique, if somewhat infrequent, custom.
Halberdiers standing with the Bailiff stand outside the church in Rothwell, after the opening of the Rothwell Fair, May 1900.
A week after Whit Monday, a five-day Charter Fair takes place at Rothwell, after the reading of a charter by the Bailiff outside the church and at the town’s hostelries, declaring the fair open. The charter was given by King John in 1204 for ‘a yearly fair at Rowell at the Feast of the Holy Trinity, and on that day, and for the three following days, so nevertheless that such a fair will not be to the hurt of neighbouring fairs’. In fact, the fair lasted for five days. Four centuries later, during the reign of James I, it started a little earlier, on the day after Trinity Sunday, under a new charter.
In the past, it has been a colourful occasion, with the Bailiff riding around the town on horseback, accompanied by six halberdiers carrying a pole – they originally carried a halberd, a weapon which is half-pike, half-axe. At each existing hostelry where the charter is read, it is customary for the reader and halberdiers to receive a drink of rum and milk – an intoxicating experience by the time they reach the end, although by then the Bailiff has given others the opportunity to have a tot and is replaced by whoever has a halberd in his hand during each reading, which could be anybody!
The Charter Fair procession marching through the streets of Rothwell, June 2004.
As can be imagined, the charter reading was always a rowdy affair. For many years, young folk would walk around throwing eggs and flour at anybody or anything and, if any vehicles dared to come through, they were grabbed and given a violent rocking. The halberdiers – who had longer pikes on their weapons than today – were also a target and efforts were made to obstruct them by linking arms across the road. As one resident says:
It was quite a shock to anyone passing through who did not know what was going on – and in those days the police kept out of it.
Now of course, like other crowd events, there is a mass police presence to ensure nothing gets out of hand!
After the reading is complete, the hostelries open to serve breakfast, including rum and milk, and remain open all day for the duration of the Fair. Today the fair in its original form as a trading event has been replaced by one for amusement only and is a modern funfair, sprawled out on the original site outside the Market House. Another tradition that has long been defunct is the ancient custom that allowed any townsperson to brew and sell beer for the week by setting up a ‘bough house’ – putting a tree branch above the door of a d
welling – for the duration of the fair. Another change is the timing of the fair, which now begins at 2 p.m. on the Saturday afternoon before Holy Trinity and lasts until the following Saturday, opening only in the evening on weekdays.
There have been other changes as well. Until quite recently, when the first day was a statutory holiday, houses in the town were inundated with relatives. Special food was made for the occasion, such as Rowell Fair Ham and Rowell Fair curd tarts, and new clothes and bonnets were worn. It was a common sight to see children with popguns and water pistols. On one occasion, a group of boys played a prank on the local bobby who was considered by them to be a miserable individual, as recounted by Norman Mason: