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Folk customs in Rutland

The main source for the following information is a series of twenty booklets compiled by A.R. Traylen in the mid-1970s and published by the Rutland Local History Society.

In 1985 Roy Palmer published his book Folklore of Leicestershire and Rutland and clearly derived much of his Rutland information from the 1970s booklets.

Contents of this page (click to jump to relevant section):

Other customs include rush or straw strewing at Barrowden at midsummer.

At Glaston the local baker prepared Valentine Buns on 14th February. These were also known as Plum Shuttles or just Shittles – see below. The Valentine Buns were given to old people and children.

At Edith Weston in 1909 there was a revival of an old custom that had generally gone out of use during the 1880s. A 'horn fair' or 'tin panning' took place on three successive nights outside the home of someone thought to be in breach of morality. Quite what had happened at Edith Weston is not stated, but elsewhere it was usually wife-swapping. The outraged villagers would play 'rough music' using tin trays, tin pans, whistles, trumpets and mouth organs. Then burnt an effigy of the guilty person. 'Horn fair' is assumed to relate to horns once being a symbol of cuckoldry.

The last time a tin panning could be remembered at Langham was 1910. Here the effigy was hung rather than burnt. The last such effigy, late in the nineteenth century, was of the parson.

Manton's parish records of 1894 to 1898 reveal that Lady Tollemache, the Heathcote family, the church and others 'would present tea parties, American fairs, fetes and treats often in the Maltings', an old barn in the grounds of the Hall.

In Langham Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in 1897 was celebrated with a huge bonfire on Mill Hill. 'Tar to fuel it being supplied by Lord Lonsdale from his gasworks [at Barleythorpe], in addition to all the timber.'

    The day started with a firing salute by farmers in the Brewery Paddock [later Lowther Close] followed by a united service in the church. Afterwards two hundred men sat down to a roast beef, mutton and pork feast, the women and children to a meat tea in a large tent in the Noel Arms yard.

Annual feasts or wakes

The annual feast associated with the patronal saint of the parish church was traditionally known as a 'wake'. They attracted musicians who travelled from wherever their day job was.

In 1846 a list was drawn up for the benefit of Stamford tradesmen who doubled-up as itinerant musicians. This reveals that such feasts were taking place between Whit Sunday and the Sunday after 30 November in nearly all the villages in Rutland. July and August were the most popular months. Roy Palmer in his 1985 book goes into great detail about the dates, venues, the music and the food (p154–7).

In the early years of the twentieth century about thirty such feasts were still held. At least two, at Bisbrooke and Caldecott, continued until the 1930s.

Ashwell's feast fell on the first Sunday after 19th September ndash; most likely a post-Reformation survival of the Feast of St Matthew on 21st, although the church is now dedicated to St Mary. It was held on the village green but 'the main celebrations had ceased before 1870'.

Barleythorpe did not have its own feast. But instead villagers walked to Langham on the Sunday after 29th June (see below) lead by a fiddler who played all the way to Langham.

Burley's feast was the Sunday after 26th September (so a post-Reformation successor to Michaelmas on 29th September) but had ceased well before 1900.

The feast at Barrow took place on the Sunday after 22nd July (almost certainly originally the Feast of St James) on Back Lane. Skittles, coconut shies and other stalls would be set up. Old villagers would return for the festivities, and it was an excuse for relatives to visit. This celebration ceased about 1900.

Barrowden Feast (Sunday after 29th June, once the Feast of St John) was celebrated on the village green until 1925. The three Club Feasts had ceased in 1920 and the Horn Fair in 1890.

    'At the main Feast, the fair with swingboats, shooting galleries and skittle alleys stretched across the Green, and the Oddfellows having been to church in the morning would walk around the village, accompanied by the Gretton Brass Band, calling at the larger houses to receive beer. When suitably filled they would adjourn to a slap-up dinner (midday) in the clubroom of the Exeter Arms. There was once a Barrowden Brass Band.'

Belton's main feast was on the first Sunday after 25th July, so a successor to the Feast of St James.

In addition a Club Feast run by the Foresters was held on Whit Monday. Whit Sunday is seven weeks after Easter Sunday and Whit Monday was the day after. (In 1971 Whit Monday was formally replaced by the Spring Bank Holiday on the last Monday in May, after a trial period from 1965.)

    'The Foresters organised a band from Great Easton and the villagers would parade around Belton behind the band, with '"Good Samaritan" banners flying.'

Quite what 'Good Samaritan' banners were all about at the start of the twentieth century I have not been able to ascertain.

    'The fair would come with all its sideshows and the day would finish with a dance in the Black Horse. All this ceased in the 1920s.'

At Bisbrooke the feast ceased in the 1930s. It had been held on the first Sunday after 29th June, so replacing the Feast of St John.

    'Families would come together, and flowers would be carried to relatives' graves. A cricket match would be played up on the Inhams, and dancing at the Barn to the Gate took place in the evening, when Mr Sam Dalby would accompany on his melodeon.'

Inghams (spelt various ways) was originally manorial waste with a right of way to Uppingham. Presumably the name of the field is a contraction of 'Uppingham'.

Braunston held a feast on the Sunday after 10th October, which is a week before the Feast of St Luke.

    'Major Hanbury would send his waggoner and two horses and dray to Oakham station to fetch the Colleyweston Brass Band. They would then parade around the village led by the Free Foresters Club members, afterwards going to a great meal in the old school, after that playing on the Green until it was time to return to the station. The road in those days was full of potholes and with their systems full of ale, the men were not in too good condition by the time they reached Oakham.

    'In earlier times the Foresters marched to the strains of the Oakham Town Band, the members wearing green and red scarves with gold tassles and carrying green poles. After church the great feast began, of joints of beef, legs of mutton, legs of pork, Yorkshire pudding and plum puddings, well soaked in spirits, like the members.

    'In the evening the dance was held, and at midnight the 'Belle of the Ball' was chosen, her prize been a kiss from the auburn bearded vicar.'

Until the First World War Clipsham held their feast on the Sunday after 19th September, the former Feast of St Matthew. The highspot was two local fiddlers playing in the barn of the Olive Branch.

    'Cottesmore's feast (second Sunday after 11th July) fell on the Feast of St James. It was a great family gathering, and girls and boys who had married or gone into service and left the village always tried to get home for the celebrations. The children had a holiday from school and on Friday the preparations began.

    'The bakehouse was open all day and from this a continual stream of pastries, plum cakes, plain cakes and curd cheese cake appeared. Most of the villagers kept a pig and a ham was always saved and cooked.

    'Then the fair arrived. There were all kinds of stalls on the Village Green, Grantham gingerbread, brown and white rock being one [sic] of the attractions. In the field adjoining were roundabouts, swingboats, coconut shies and shooting galleries, all lit by old fashioned flares. A hurdy gurdy churned out the same old tune time after time.

    'On Saturday there was always a cricket match, and the village inn did a roaring trade.

    'On Sunday most people took their joints of beef and Yorkshire puddings to the bakehouse whilst on their way to church, collecting them cooked on their return.

    'In the evening the church was packed, Greetham Brass band playing for the hymns. The Methodists held a Camp Meeting on the Green and this was always well attended. After church the Band played on the Green and people walked in from other villages to call on their friends, tables of ham, cheese cakes, wine and beer beign set out to welcome them.

    'On Monday there were sports such as running after a greasy pig; a cricket match was played in the evening followed by a dance. All this while the Fair stayed open until quite late.

    'On Tuesday money was getting short and on Wednesday the Fair moved on, the children returned to school and the Feast was over for another year.'

All this as remembered in the early 1970s. When the feast ceased to be held is not stated.

Edith Weston held their feast on the Sunday after 19th September, originally the Feast of St Matthew. It took place in a paddock behind the Wheatsheaf (by the 1970s the car park) and also in a field next to the 1970s Post Office. Many fairground sideshows were there along with Fossetts Circus of performing dogs and horses. A separate feast, organised by the Oddfellows, took place each May, starting with a church service then a parade around the village led by the Greetham band. Both feasts ceased just before the start of the First World War.

On the Sunday after 29th June, so originally the Feast of St John, Empingham held its feast in the paddock behind the White Horse. 'Dodgy' White of South Witham set up his swingboats, coconut shies and other attractions. Sadly his daughter was accidentally shot and killed when supervising the shooting gallery. The Stamford Town Band started from the Audit Hall and paraded to church followed by the Oddfellows and juveniles. The Ketton Silver Band would start from Mill Farm and parade around the village. All would return later to a meal of cold meats (mainly ham) in the Audit Hall. Later in the evening a dance would be held there. All this ceased during the First World War.

On the first Sunday in July, St Peter's Day, the people of Exton went first to church the began week-long celebrations. On the Green was a fair with roundabouts, swingboats and stalls. All those away in service returned homes, if possible, or sent presents. On the first Thursday in May there was a separate Club Feast, organised by the village's sick benefit club. Members of the club assembled on the Green, formed a procession with a banner at the head, along with the vicar and curate. They were accompanied to the church by the Greetham Brass Band. After a service there was a large dinner in the barn adjoining the Fox and Hounds, followed by dancing ndash; but only after the clergy had withdrawn.

Glaston's feast started with a Harvest Festival at the church at 11 a.m. with the Gretton Band leading the hymns. It took place on the Sunday after 11th October, which just about fits the Feast of St Luke on the 18th. However, as Harvest Festivals only began in 1843 (initiated by the Rev Robert Hawker in Morwenstow, Cornwall) I suspect the original feast day at Glaston was 'adapted' around 1850.

The Harvest Festival was followed by the Gretton Band leading a procession around the village 'the Oddfellows wearing their resplendent sashes.'

'Tuesday was a day off school for the children.' (So presumably 'Saint Monday' was commemorated after the Sunday feast and everyone took a day off.)

    And all week there would be football and cricket matches in the field opposite the Three Horsehoes. On the Saturday in this field would arrive the Fair, and one old man would come from Stamford each year in his pony and float to sell sweets on the site where now [1970s] stands the telephone box. He would very often have to deputise for the drummer, who probably found the continual flow of ale a little overpowering. To close the week, for those still standing, the feast itself was held in the Three Horseshoes.
All this ceased in 1914.

The feast at Greetham took place on the Sunday after 15th August, the Feast of the Assumption. About twenty members of the Greetham Brass Band led the hymn singing in the church, afterwards parading down the main street and playing more hymns on the Green. Before the formation of the Band in 1905 the Colleyweston Band would arrive. The feast itself took place in the tythe barn 'once behind the old school', implying that it had been demolished before the 1970s.

In the week after a fair used to be set up 'in the field behind what is now No.10' but moved to Kirks Close and then the Wheatsheaf paddock. There was swingboats ( two old pence a ride, less than 1p), roundabouts, hooplas and a shooting gallery belonging to Shaws of Grantham. Inter-village cricket matches were played in the bull field. All this ceased in the 1930s.

On the first Sunday after the 15th August (the Feast of the Assumption) Ketton folk gathered in the paddock behind the Pied Bull where Sherratt's steam-powered fairground had already set out its rides and stalls. 'Subsequently it moved to the back of the Northwick Arms.' Stamford Town Band, the Ketton Silver Band and the Ketton Primrose League Band all played in the church, accompanying hymns, then on the lawns of the 'Cottage'.

    The Primrose League was a powerful British political organization founded in 1883 by Lord Randolph Churchill and others to promote Conservative values, popularizing the party among all classes after Benjamin Disraeli's death.

In addition between 1870 until 1911 there was a 'great feast' the first Thursday in June when the members of the Ketton Amicable Friendly Club gathered outside the Northwick Arms then followed the town band to the church. After a short service they returned to the Northwick Arms for roast beef, plum pudding and considerable quantities of ale. A further tour of the village followed 'accompanied by those members of the band that were still upright'. 'The Doctor always accompanied the parades, whether in a social or professional capacity is not known.'

Langham held its annual feast on the Sunday after 29th June, a continuation of the Feast of St John. It took place in the Town Close Field, later Fairfield Close. The feast ceased in the 1920s.

Lyddington's feast was on the Sunday 'next to' 10th October, which is a little too early to be the successor to the Feast of St Luke on 18th October, but I suspect this was the origin. It was said to be 'the week to be drunk in'. All those who lived away attempted to return. On Sundays (implying both the start and end of the week) the Gretton Brass Band led hymns in the church and then paraded up and down the village. As Lyddington has an unusually long main street this must have been quite a spectacle.

During the week cricket matches were played on the Park, near the medieval fishponds. On the Saturdays Whites of South Witham set up their fair, with roundabouts, coconut shies, swingboats and stalls on the Green, and there was dancing there while the Gretton Band played.

On Whit Monday the Lyddington Sick Club had a feast. Yet again the Gretton Brass Band were called upon although the actual dinner was in the Reading Room, with the food prepared in the White Hart.

Manton held their annual fair 'in the field where Hill House now stands'. George White of South Witham seemingly brought rides and stalls. An unreliable source says it took place on the Sunday after 8th September, the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary or 'Old Lady Day'.

Morcott celebrated on the Sunday after 19th September, the Feast of St Matthew, in Brook Poor Field. The Gretton Band played on the Green, a triangle of grass (gone by the 1970s) on the junction of Main Street and Cockpit (the lane leading to the A47; a cockpit was thought to have once existed in the field to the west of this lane). The band also marched up and down Main Street 'with their repertoire of three tunes, and sometimes out of them [i.e. 'out of tune']'.

Roundabouts, coconut shies, climbing a greasy pole for a pig were the main entertainments following by dancing in the evening after a large feast of roast beef and plum pudding. On the following day there would be a fancy dress cricket match.

This chap on the outside of Ryhall church, carved between 1380 and about 1410, is playing a shawm, the rowdy precursor to the orchestral oboe. There's also someone playing a framedrum near to him. They were part of a troupe of travelling musicians, acrobats, contortionists, juggler and fools who would arrive for the annual feast.

Seaton once held its feast on the Sunday after 25th July, the former Feast of St James. It took place on the Recreation Field until the 1920s.

The feast at Tinwell was unusually late in the year, on the Sunday after 1st November, clearly originally a commemoration of All Saints and All Souls. There was a fair in Baker Paddock behind the The Crown with the feast itself in the barn at the Hall (later Manor Farm). Cricket matches were held in Craves Field, near the church. The feasts ceased in 1914.

There are no records of a feast at Stoke Dry. Seemingly the villagers went to the Lyddington Feast instead.

At South Luffenham the feast took place on the Sunday after 15th August, the Feast of the Assumption. Either the Nassington or the Collyweston Band would come to start the feast by marching around the village and then playing on the Green. During the week cricket matches were played against other villages.

    Fenwicks from Lincolnshire arrived with their swingboats, worked by pulling ropes, and a roundabout pulled round by a piebald pony called Tommy. These, other stalls, and a rifle range shooting at clay pipes, set up in Bellringer's Field, and they stayed for the whole week. It is remembered that Vincent Second, an Italian, came from Stamford with his gaily painted float loaded with ice cream.

    Great bouts of singing and dancing took place in the pubs during the week, and most men got drunk, some paralytic, on homemade wine.

Stretton had a 'Feast Sunday' after 6th July, presumably the successor to the Feast of St Thomas. It took place near the Ram Jam Garage and included a boiled ham supper party. In the evening the Gretton Brass Band came to the church and accompanied the hymns, later playing music in the Square. 'On the two days following, the evenings would have dancing in the Manor barn to a concertina.'

    'Roundabouts, swingboats and coconut shies came, and lighting by old fashioned gas lamps, hung on large hooks, hissed and flared, to light the proceedings.'

    [These sound like acetylene or 'carbide' lamps. A bright, white flame was produced by dripping water onto calcium carbide.]

At Tixover in the 1970s no one could remember there being any feasts, although there are records of there once being a feast on the Sunday after October 18th (once the Feast of St Luke).

Thistleton's feast was the second Sunday after 10th October, seemingly a continuation of the Feast of St Luke. People living away tried to get back and Feast Cakes were made for them. There would be whist drives (which became fashionable in the 1890s) and an evening dance in Sneaths Barn.

Whissendine feast began the first Sunday after 13th July (so seemingly a survival of the Feast of St Mary Magdalene) and alsted nearly a week. 'Everyone' went to church on Sunday. On Feast Monday the members of the 'old Club' had their annual feast in clubroom behind the Rose and Crown. They ate roast beef, plum pudding and curd cheese cakes. After the meal the members marched to the church behind the Melton Town Band, who then accompanied the hymn singing. During the week there were garden parties on the vicarage lawn with dancing in the evening.

'At one time there were stalls in the yard of the Rose and Crown, selling toys, Grantham gingerbread and brandy snaps. There was always a fair with roundabouts, swings and coconut shies.' There were cricket matchs against other villages and with the east end of Whissendine men playing against the west end men.

The feast died out between the First and Second World Wars.

There are written records of a feast at Whitwell on the Sunday after 11th October, presumably a continuation of the Feast of St Luke. However in the early 1970s no one in Whitwell could remember a feast, suggesting it had died out by 1900. Villagers went to Empingham instead on the Sunday after 29th June.

Plough Monday

Plough Monday is the first Monday after Epiphany or 'Twelfth Night', the 6th January. The day before, Plough Sunday, was when the village plough had been blessed before the start of the ploughing season. Typically the plough was kept in the church when not in use.

Roy Palmer stated that most villages in Leicestershire and Rutland kept up Plough Monday traditions until the First World War. The 1970s booklets suggest that in most Rutland villages the custom had ceased in the years before 1914. After the war ended seemingly children disguised themselves and went round singing and seeking donations. But that soon died out.

Plough Monday traditions did continue into the 1920s at Bisbrooke, Preston, Ryhall and Stretton.


 

Steam-powered ploughing required two suitable traction engines fitted with winches and long steel cables. Although the diagram shows four winches and two plooughs I think typically only two winches and one plough were used.

I am not an expert on changes in agriculture but the demise of Plough Monday customs before the First World War suggests that traditional ploughmen, skillfully guiding horsedrawn ploughs, had literally died out from the 1860s onwards because of the increasing use of steam-powered ploughing.

Commonly the ploughboys would black their faces with burnt cork and grease and maybe make other attempts at disguide before going out to solicit donations.

For those not already familiar with English rural folklore, the blackening of faces and men wearing women's dresses was a traditional disguise when 'begging' from other villagers. It is not related to the minstrel show tradition of 'blackface' i.e. white musicians appropriating Afro-American songs.

Note that a few of Rutland's ploughboys disguised themselves not with black but instead with red-coloured raddle, a tradition revived by modern morris dancers.


 
The musicians for a raddle-faced Rutland morris dancing team at Whittlesea Straw Bear Festival, 12th January 2008.

content warning: repeated references to excessive consumption of beer and ale.

Ashwell's Plough Monday custom with 'the boys decked out with coloured paper' ceased about 1913.

The farm boys in Barleythorpe raised money on Plough Monday 'and would get delightfully drunk'.

At nearby Burley Plough Monday customs ended about 1910.

Until 1905 at Barrowden the ploughboys 'would black their faces with burnt cork' and use a rope to 'pull a wooden plough from farm to farm, singing and dancing at the doors, and having presents given to them. In pre-Reformation days the money gathered was used for the "ploughman's light" which burned before the altar of the ploughmans guild.'

Belton in Rutland's Plough Monday customs ended about 1910 'and after this all the youngsters would black their faces on their way round collecting money.'

Money was also collected in Bisbrooke on Plough Monday by supposed ploughboys (the 1970s informant stating 'and some were certainly not ploughboys!') by knocking on doors and asking 'Please could you remember the ploughboys?' This ended in the 1930s.

Clipsham Plough Monday customs included a mummers play (details in Rutland Magazine Vol.1 p195).

Plough Monday customs at Edith Weston ceased just before the First World War. According to the 1970s booklet, details of the 'Morris dance play' (presumably a mummer's play) performed there on Plough Monday can be found in the Rutland Magazine Vol.2 p176.

Empingham's Plough Monday customs ceased about 1910.

In the early 1970s no one could remember Plough Monday celebrations so presumably they had ceased before 1900.

Glaston's Plough Monday customs ceased in 1914. Hitherto they had collected money and then gone to the Monkton Arms for a 'considerable ale up'.

At Greetham

    'The villagers dressed in grotesque masquarade and performed morris dances before all the houses where they were likely to get money or drink. Sometimes they were accompanied by gangs of lads with raddled faces, half hidden under paper masks, who dragged a plough, but this was unusual. Some of the performers, generally four, had on white womens dresses and tall hats. One of these was called Maid Marian. Of the other performers one was a fool, who always carried the moneybox, and generally a bladder with peas in it on the end of a stick, with which he laid lustily about him. Another was Beelzebub, in a dress made from narrow strips of flannel, cloth, etc, with the ends hanging loose, yellow, red, black and white being the predominant colours. The rest were simply grotesques. The dance they performed was merely a travesty of a quadrille, with ad lib stamping and shuffling of feet.

Until 1914 Ketton farmboys would walk around the village calling the various house where they could be assured on receiving money for an ale party in the evening. Their leader would knock on a door and recite:

    Here comes we who never came before.
    Six poor ploughboys knocking on the door.
    With a hole in our stocking and a hole in our shoe
    Can you spare a ploughboy a penny or two?
    If you haven't got a penny a ha'p'nny [halfpenny] will do.
    If you haven't got a ha'p'nny then God bless you.

    Here come I Be-elzebub
    And in my hand I carry a club
    And on my head a dripping pan.
    Don't you think I'm a funny old man?

    In come I the Doctor.
    You a Doctor? What can you cure?
    Ipsi pipsi, palsy, gout
    Pains within and pains without

These are of course the phrases used in a great many mummers plays.

In 1917 the Grantham Journal reported that the Langham May Day customs had changed:

    A welcome change was made in the Maybush business. Instead of the usual doll reclined among the thorns of a blackthorn branch, flanked by two or three faded daffodils, Mrs Darson of the Old Hall used her donkey and cart gaily decorated with red, white and blue flowers with Queen of the May (Lilly Steele) seated in state in her white dress and wreath, and escorted by school girls carrying flags and singing patriotic songs.'

Lyddington's Plough Monday customs included the men blackening their faces, putting on comical dresses and going around collecting money. All this ceased in 1910.

According to Rev Edward Bradley (who published under the pseudonym 'Cuthbert Bede') Mummers from Edith Weston performed at Lyndon on Saturday 22 December 1888.

At Oakham on Plough Monday the farm workers were given 'stattis buns', also called 'plum shuttles'. 'Stattis' is from 'statute' as in 'statute fair'. There's an online recipe for Rutland Plum Shuttles which are fruitier-than-usual buns shaped like a weaver's shuttle.

Hambleton Bakery's Plum Shuttles

At Seaton the 'ploughboys would black their faces and dance round the village to the accompaniment of a concertina, collecting money as they went for an ale party that evening.' It died out in the 1920s.

At South Luffenham the ploughboys would go round from door to door collecting wine and cakes – and money, if possible. 'The blacking of faces and dressing up by the boys, traditional in other villages, is not recollected in South Luffenham. The custom died out in the 1920s.'

On Plough Monday at Stretton 'the farm workers would visit the houses in turn, chat and mime a play; they were given money but only after the day's work was finished, for the money was to spend on ale.'

Rev Edward Bradley, a.k.a. 'Cuthbert Bede', wrote that on Plough Monday

    'the twelve days of Christmas being over, and good-cheer and wages spent, the labourers went round with a plough decked out, to ask for donations after their first day's work. Now they go round – men, lads, or little boys – in small companies, sometimes with a small attempt at disguise or dressing up, but without the plough.'

He doesn't state where but most likely his home parish of Stretton. Note that maybe men from Thistleton put on the Stretton mummers play – see above.

Tixover's Plough Monday customs ceased after 1914. 'Previously the ploughboys dragged a plough behind them on their way to collect money. It is remembered that if no money was given at a certain house the plough would draw a furrow across the lawn.

Thistleton ceased Plough Monday customs before 1900. However 'the men would rehearse a play with the parts of Beelzebub (the devil) and the Doctor at Linney's brewhouse, and it is belived they would act this out at Stretton's Plough Monday. They also performed the mummer's play at Thistleton's Harvest Home – see below. At Whissendine 'The Ploughboy Monday festivity ceased being played after 1905.'

Whitwell's 'Ploughboy Monday' celebrations ceased in 1914.

Shrove Tuesday

In Barrowden 'At noon on Shrove Tuesday the pancake bell rang, a reminder to the dilatory to make their confession to the priest before the holy season began, and a more prosaic reminder to the housewife to use up all the grease and lard in the house, which she did by making pancakes, before the period of fasting began.'

May Day

Roy Palmer recorded a variety of May Day customs from the 1880s to 1930s for Caldecott, Cottesmore (two unique songs are in his book), Exton, Oakham, Lyddington, Manton and Ridlington. The following accounts are from the bookelts compiled by A.R. Traylen in the mid-1970s, based on interviews about 1973.

At Barrowden there was a May Day procession 'which brought to each house the blessings which the spirit of vegetation, personified by the May Queen or the May Doll, had to bestow. The procession, after circulating the village, would proceed to Wakerley and, although garlands were carried, no one can remember a maypole being erected.'

Dancing around a maypole had almost died out nationally until it was re-introduced after 1911 by school teachers as part of Cecil Sharp's national movement, the English Folk Dance and Song Society, promoting 'country dancing'. Photographs taken before 1920 and included in the 1970s booklets confirm that several village schools took up this 'custom'. For what it's worth, my infant education at Glenfield, west of Leicester, in 1960 included compulsory participation in dancing around a temporary maypole in the school playground around May Day.

In Belton in Rutland children would arrive at school by 8.30 a.m. and then walk to the church for a short service. 'Afterwards going to the Vicarage where Union Jacks would be handed out, the proceeding round the village collecting money and then on to Allexton and Wardley. The week before the children would gather moss from the dykes on Loddington Road for the garlands, the flowers coming from Belton House. The children would sing May songs as they went, a glimse of one being as follows:

    May is here, the world rejoices
    Earth puts on a smile to greet thee
    Happy May, blythe and gay
    Winter rains have passed away.

All these celebrations ceased in the 1930s.

On May Day at Braunston in Rutland the children voted for two May Queens, one dark and one fair, and then a maypole was erected on the Green for all the children to dance around.

The women of Edith Weston had a May Day competition called 'rocksticks', which ceaseed about 1900.

    The 'rock' was a spinning wheel, and the 'rock stick' was the spindle from which the unspun flax or hemp is gradually drawn off by the operator with the aid of the wheel. The competitors who had qualified to enter for the prizes would spin for an hour or so and, as soon as the rock sticks were clear, the 'spinsters' would decorate them with ribbons and flowers, carrying them around the village as with a Mayday garland, in order to collect money to pay for a large tea party at the end of the day.

    The celebration originated from the Rutland Society for Industry which gave prizes to encourage spinning as a home industry. When this died out so did 'rocksticks', but it was then continued by the children for a few years until they also ceased to receive the Industry Society prizes for their shirt making.

According to the 1970s booklet, details of the Edith Weston May Day song can be found in the Rutland Magazine Vol.2 p176.

May Day was still being celebrated in Ketton in the early 1970s. In 2025 the Rutland Morris team visited the Railway Inn in Ketton during the evening of 19th May, but seemingly did not visit in 2024. So presumably May Day celebrations have now ceased.

Lyddington celebrated May Day on the Green until 1930 'to the accompaniment of a melodeon'. The girls would go round the village with sprays of May bushes (hawthorn) and hoops decorated with flowers and ribbons, singing and collecting money as they went. In the early 1970s one lady remembered as a child taking her wax-faced doll clutched to her around the cottages.

    Just to add to that lady's recollections. According to my maternal grandmother, born in 1904 and living in south Leicestershire from the age of six to eighteen, taking your wax doll around on May Day was a problem if the sun was shining because the doll needed to be covered most of the time to prevent it melting. And it wasn't a case of just buying another one. For most young girls at the time such a wax doll was probably the only toy she ever had.

At South Luffenham

    Children were trained to dance around the maypole which was set up in the school playground or on the Green, this celebration ceasing in 1932.

    The May Queen and her attendants travelled around the village in three or four farm wagons, which were decked up with garlands, all the horses having their martingale brasses highly polished. There would follow a free tea for the children in the Rectory, or occasionally in the Hall grounds, and the lawns would be lit up with large Chinese lanterns. In the evening there would be dancing in the Adam and Eve barn.

    (The Rectory was last lived in during the early 1950 and seemingly was empty in the mid-1970s.)

In Stoke Dry May Day was celebrated using branches of a crab bush, also already in flower, instead of hawthorn. In the early 1970s one person recalled a boy going around with dandelions stuck on the end of a stick. The last time Stoke Dry celebrated May Day was soon after 1910.

Stretton began May Day at 9.00 a.m. outside the school 'and the villagers visited each house singing May songs.' During the afternoon a 'splendid tea' was provided at the school, followed by sports. Money was collected to payu for the tea and for prizes. Details are in Rutland Magazine Vol.2 p155.

On May Day the children of Tixover played with marbles, whip and tops, and hoops.

Harvest home

The 'Harvest home' celebrations of September 1875 were described in detail by Rev Bradley. Again, he doesn't state where, but almost certainly at Stretton.

    'The load [of beans] was decorated with green boughs; and on the top of the load were several children, who were lustily cheering as the waggon came lumbering along the road. It was eight o'clock, and a resplendent harvest-moon was just rising over the trees that girdled the church hard by the farmer's haystack.'

At which point a group of servants, mostly female, ambushed those on the wagon with apples and 'a liberal supply of buckets of water', which turned into a water-fight with no one escaping with dry clothes (apart from Rev Bradley himself).

Something very similar happened at Thistleton:

    As thee last wagon of corn sheaves of the harvest is trundled down Main Street, the boys of the village would lie huddled under the top layer. From each cottage in turn would be thrown buckets of water over the sheaves to the merriment of all, not least the boys, who though being drenched, would be singling loudly as they went. This was an old custom of Harvest Home remembered in the 1890s.

There was also a Harvest Supper at Thistleton. 'Grange Barn would be cleaned up and the pigeons evicted and all the labourers would partake of a great supper there.' That is followed by the the sentence 'Mummers performed at the Vicarage, Top Farm and the Grange and they would be given considerable beer, and the performance would never vary in character.' As Thistleton's Plough Monday customs ceased before 1900 this suggests that the mummers continued performing at the Harvest Supper instead.

Christmastime

John Partidge, who was born in Manton before 1900, remembered the 'plough boys and women' going around the village on St Thomas's Day (21st December). With the money they raised they had a big tea 'and put a little rum in it, so that used to get them very talkative towards nightfall'.

This is the only record I have of 'going Thomassing' in Rutland. In part because it seems to have changed its name locally to 'Wassailing Day'. This is revealled by Manton's parish records of 1894 to 1898 which reveal that waits singing was a custom at Christmas, with the singers stopping at each house in the manner of later carol singing. Clearly the church, and no doubt others, wanted parishioners to collect money for more sober causes rather than buying rum to add to their tea!

My suspicion is that 'grandifying' these events by renaming them 'Wassailing Day' was a Victorianism, a deliberate re-introduction of an archaic word. But I might be wrong…

According to oral history collected in 1973, in South Luffenham on Wassailing Day celebrations were held until 1939. 'The old ladies would visit the farmers and gentry to collect a shilling or a quart[er of a pound] of tea.'

The bell ringers at Seaton went around the village before Christmas to collect money that was spent on beer at the George and Dragon.

Morcott had a 'Rent Dinner' at the Crown around Christmas time when the second half year's rents would be paid by the tenants to the squire.

Hiring Fairs

The youths and girls from Braunston went to the Michaelmas (29th September) 'stattis' (statutory hiring fairs) at Oakham or Melton.

Ketton held their hiring fair at Martinmass, 11th November, outside the Midland Hotel. 'After the hirings were completed the day finished in jollification, with the farm workers coming to the village to spend their outstanding pay, many finishing up in the Magistrate's Court the next day.' There was also dancing to Blind Billy's fiddle. The hiring fairs at Ketton ceased in 1901.

At Tixover in the early nineteenth century a Hiring Fair was held in the south-east corner of Figsgreen Field. 'There do not appear to have been any organised celebrations or games in the village, people journeying to Duddington for their entertainment.'

Village dances

In addition to evening dances at every annual feast, villagers found other occasions to shake a leg. But few have entered 'the annals'.

In the first half of the twentieth century Ashwell held a village dance on New Year's Eve at No. 9 Waterside. One woman went to the dance on her own (decidedly risque at the time!) while her husband went to the Watch Night Service at Whissendine. One of the woman's indignant relatives remarked 'You're dancing the year in, while Jack's praying it in.'

Greetham's dances were held in a building behind the Plough which had been demolished before the 1970s.

Beating the bounds

(frequently confused with Rogationtide processions)

Historically Rogationtide processions were different from Beating the Bounds, and took place on different days. However Rogationtide falls late May or early June which is a good time for Beating the Bounds

The Book of Common Prayer states

    The word 'rogation' comes from the Latin verb rogare, meaning 'to ask', which reflects the beseeching of God for protection from calamities. […]

    Rogation Days are the three days preceding Ascension Day, especially devoted to asking for God's blessing on agriculture and industry.

Before the Reformation Rogationtide processions went from the parish church along one of the lanes to the parish boundary where, typically, there would be a stone cross. The priest then led prayers and gave a short sermon before everyone consumed food and drink. A different boundary cross was the chosen destination each year.

After the Reformation most of these boundary crosses were broken up by iconoclasts as many had 'lantern heads' with depictions of saints. Rogationtide progressions ceased although the beating the bounds customs continued. By the time there was a revival of medieval liturgy within the Church of England in the nineteenth century the distinction between the originally-distinct customs was lost.

While 'Beating the Bounds' was essentially a secular event – to instill knowledge of the parish boundaries on the younger generation – it was led by the vicar, but starting from a landmark on the parish boundary, not from the church. In the nineteenth century a bible reading and a session of hymn singing took place under a landmark tree. These often became known as 'Gospel Oaks' (although I am not aware of any Gospel Oaks in Rutland). A different section of the parish boundary was walked until the full circumference of the parish had been renewed. Beating the Bounds did not usually take place every year, more typicaly every three years. Presumably bad weather might lead to the event being cancelled. So it would take a decade or more to complete the circuit around the parish.

While Beating the Bounds was an unbroken traditional custom, chosing to do so at Rogationtide was most likely a nineteenth century innovation.

At Ashwell in 1913 'the Rev Barnes and Mr Fay, the schoolmaster, with their respective flocks would walk around the parish boundary so that all should know the area of the parish.'

    'Up on Langham Hill at the parish boundary, where Green Lane runs into Loudal Lane and Mere Lane, stood two "treacle holes". Here by custom, each year, the boys would be placed in the holes and given a symbolic "good hiding" and then a spoonful of treacle, to make them remember the parish boundaries.'

'Mere Lane' almost certainly takes its name from the Old English word mearc or maere meaning 'boundary'.

In adjoining Langham it was reported in the 1970s that 'All children that could walk would be taken around the parish boundaries once a year that they might learn them, in a procession headed by the clergy and the schoolmaster.' The inference is that this custom had ceased sometime before the 1970s.

'Beating the bounds' at Rogationtide took place at Barrowden but again had ceased sometime before the 1970s.

Gleaning

Once the farmer had removed the final stook from a field then villagers – mostly women and children – were permitted to gather by hand any spilt seeds. Barley was threshed and both barley and beans milled before mostly being used for poultry feed.

Mothers would tell their children how much they should each carry home and would chastise them 'with a clip round the ear' if they failed to reach the required weight. As a consequence it was quite common for children to include small stones in the with the grain or beans. If the gleanings were sold the children were given the money – on the strict understanding it was to be used to buy shoes for the next school term.

At Barrowden the gleaning bell 'would be rung at 8 a.m. and 6 p.m., to start and stop, and this ensured the weak and the old would not be outstripped by the young and vigorous in the gleaning.'

Ketton's gleaning bell was still rung daily at 9 a.m.a and 5 p.m. until the start of the First World War. The bellringer was paid two old pence a week (less than 1p). Children 'forewent school' during the whole of harvest-time.

At lunchtime the gleaners at Tinwell were brought baked potatoes and cold apple dumplings for their midday meal.

Langham rang a gleaning bell – 'usually the treble' – at 8 a.m. and 5 p.m..

Curfew bells

At dusk a woman lost her way on the heath near South Luffenham. She was saved by the bell – literally – as the 'curfew bell' started ringing in the church tower. This custom of ringing a bell at dusk began after the Norman Conquest. It steadily died out but some villages kept the tradition until the early twentieth century.

The woman donated a field, opposite the Halfway House Inn on the Morcott Road (now called The Coach House), to provide an income to pay the sexton to ring a bell every day from March to October at 5 a.m. and 8 p.m.. This field was successively referred to as 'Fraser's Field', 'Bellringer's Field', 'Feast Field' and 'Bell Field'. Houses were built on the field around the 1970s.

In Leicestershire villages curfew bells were quite common. But seemingly less so in Rutland. The only other references are to Langham, Oakham and Teigh.

Quoits and skittles

Throwing rings or horseshoes at a peg, known as 'Quoits', was played in 'beds'. It became a popular working-class sport in nineteenth-century Britain, especially in mining areas. Popularity peaked before the First World War and waned as darts and skittles increased in popularity.

Traditional cast iron quoits

Quoits seems to have been popular throughout Rutland. A quoits club was formed in Oakham in 1852 and one or more quoits 'beds' were created in nearly every Rutland village.

There were two types of quoit: the 'solid malleable' and a grooved kind called 'Kilmarnocks Malleable'. Though the weight varied the size was always eight to nine inches diameter. 'Malleable' tells me that they were made from cast iron and this is confirmed by online photographs. Each quoit weighed six to nine pounds.

The beds were a yard square made from clay firm enough to hold a quoit. An iron 'pin' or 'hob' or 'bob' was in the centre of the bed and the pins were eighteen inches apart. If a quoit landed over the 'pin' it was called a 'ringer'.

Members of opposing sides paired up, sometimes 'best to best', sometimes the result of the toss of a coin. Each has a mate as a 'lighter' or marker who at the opposite end marked the spot with a scrap of paper to indicate the best position for the quoit to land.

Quoits was popular until the Fiest World War but interest began to wane in the 1920s, while skittles continued to be popular. In his book published in 1985 the folklorist Roy Palmer recalls seeing quoits being played in Rutland sometime after the Second World War.

Ashwell had a quoits bed but its location had been forgotten by the 1970s.

Ayston men played quoits in front of the rectory.

At Braunston there was a quoits bed at the Plough and a skittle alley at the Blue Ball.

The quoits bed at Edith Wesson was in the south-east corner of Tommy's Field, to the west of the 1970s Post Office. A tennis court replaced the quiots bed, although this too had gone by the mid-1970s.

A one time there were three inns in Edith Weston – the Wheatsheaf, White Hart (previously the Red Hart) and Masons Arms. Each had a skittle 'alley in the roadside verge. 'It was a very popular game, and hence the expression "Life is not all beer and skittles".'

Empingham had no less than four quoits beds. One was near the Washdyke, another behind the Olive Branch (initially a pub but later an off license), a third at the top of Loves Lane (named after a Mr Love who lived in a cottage at the top) and the fourth at the bottom of the Nook.

Greetham's quoits bed was behind the Crown and Anchor.

Ketton had several quoits beds, including at the Gleeston Tap, one near the Sink Lane Bridge in Aldgate, one opposite the Post Office and, the last to close, at Ketton Club, where Mr A. Knox, the three-time champion of England (between 1928 and 1931) practiced. Ketton Club also had a skittle alley between 1914 and 1920; it had previously been a rifle range.

Manton once had two quoits beds behind the village hall, formerly the school.

Preston had a quoits bed but its location had been forgotten by the 1970s.

Wing turf maze

One of the most remarkable folk customs in Rutland has been maintaining the turf maze since medieval times.

The convoluted labyrinth is about a quarter of a mile long, meaning that about half a mile of edges need to be trimmed regularly. And that has been maintained consistently since the middle ages.

Similar mazes once existed on Priestley Hill, Lyddington, and at Medbourne, Leicestershire. Both have been lost.

Seven other medieval turf mazes survive elsewhere in England.

Wing maze in 2006.

Wing maze in the 1930s. This is the oldest-known photograph of this maze.

The design is correctly known as 'unicursal labyrinth' as, unlike a maze, there is no way to get lost.

The design of Wing labyrinth is similar to another surviving turf labyrinth at Alkborough in Yorkshire.

In Leicestershire, the tiled floor of Thornton church has a spiral of a square key design similar to a tiled floor in Ely Cathedral.

Tradition holds that the labyrinth at Wing was used for penance by people guilty of various religious misdemeanors. The labyrinth was also considered to represent ressurection, with death at the centre, to which one made one's way and then returned. At some English labyrinths a spiral dance called Troy Town was performed at Easter. The most fun suggestion is that the church adopted pre-existent labyrinths 'to ward off evil spirits, which could only travel in straight lines.' All these suggestions probably tell us more about the imaginations of Victorian folklorists and modern pagans rather than offering any accurate insights into the past. Though some of the turf mazes were known as Troy Towns.

In A Midsummer Night's Dream Shakespeare wrote:

    The nine men's morris is fill'd up with mud;
    And the quaint mazes in the wanton green,
    For lack of tread, are undistinguishable.

Taken out of context, this suggests that turf mazes were obsolete in Shakespeare's time. In fact, the image is part of a section bemoaning the wetness of the summer (what's new?) and, anyway, the play is set less in the sixteenth century than the 'once upon a time' of all good fairy tales.

Braunston's 'Earth Mother'

See the medieval sculpture page for why it is 'fakelore' that Braunston has a two thousand year old pagan goddess. She's more likely late fourteenth century and inspired by a now-gone 'Quaintree' ('queen tree').

sources

Mark Lewis, Days and Rites: Popular customs of the Church, Heart of Albion 2013

Roy Ralmer, Folklore of Leicestershire and Rutland, Sycamore 1985; 2nd edn Tempus 2002.

A.R. Traylen (ed), 20 booklets about Rutland village history, Rutland Record Society 1974 to 1977.

A.R. Traylen (ed), Dialect in Rutland, Rutland Record Society 1980.

further reading

Bob Trubshaw Explore Folklore, Explore Books 2002 (free PDF).

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