Folklore of Lincolnshire (32 page)

Celebrated the country over, All Hallow’s Eve is considered a very eerie night; the night when the lost souls returned to earth. This was the night people would gather round the fire and tell each other ghost stories, scare each other and share riddles. There were many rituals about how to catch sight of the Devil on this night, where to go and what one must do. Some villages had gatherings for the children to enjoy, with games such as bob the apple, hunt the thimble and blind man’s buff. People would make lanterns from mangolds as we do nowadays with pumpkins. Hot baked potatoes, sausages and peas were the order of the day. Snap dragon was a local dish some people liked to include, containing lots of meat and brandy-soaked raisins, which were set alight for extra fun.

The
Lincolnshire Life
magazine shares an old superstition from Horsington, where at midnight on Halloween twelve lights were said to have been seen to rise from the mound in the churchyard where the ancient church of Horsington once stood.
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They were apparently blue lights, split into groups of three which then travelled to
the nearby villages of Horsington, Stixwould, Bucknall and Wadingworth. What these strange lights represented and when they were last observed is unknown, but if you are brave enough to search them out, this is the night to see them.

All that remains of the ancient church of Horsington, where strange lights were said to emerge. It is hidden amongst a thick clump of trees across a farmer’s field next to Grange Farm, just outside Horsington, along Hale Road, from Stixwould.

The religious observance of All Saints’ Day. The following day is All Souls’ Day, when Christians remembered their dead. On this day there was once a tradition, in Lincolnshire, of ‘souling’, whereby the children would go from house to house in the village, singing a ditty in order to receive a ‘soul cake’, which was a sort of bun.

Stickney Feast used to have a game called ‘pelting the pig’, whereby you could win a pig, which was a great prize one could put away ready for Christmas. Other prizes included a sack of potatoes or a joint of beef. There were a variety of different games played on this feast day.

‘Guying’ was a tradition where children would dress up in old clothes and masks and make an effigy of a guy, from straw and scraps of clothes, to take round with them. They would then visit houses in the village and were rewarded with coppers for reciting ditties such as:

Bonfire Night. As in most places around the country, the custom was to collect together things to burn, from branches to old chairs – with a straw and paper guy effigy to burn on top, as a remembrance of Guy Fawkes who tried to blow up parliament during the Gun Powder Plot of 1605.

Lincolnshire, like all the counties, celebrated Bonfire Night and Mischief Night and Sutton gives a few examples of some of the mischievous acts in which the locals would take part. For example, one source told how they used to tie a button to a piece of cotton and attach it to someone’s window, then jiggle the cotton so that it would continuously knock against the glass. Another trick was to tie two door handles together so people could not get out of their houses. Another popular one was to knock on a house door and then to run away before it was answered.

‘Martinmas’, rather like Flitting Day, was the date on which certain groups of farm labourers from areas of North Lincolnshire preferred to move, rather than the April date.

St Brice’s Day, the Stamford Bull Running. St Brice’s Day is the anniversary of the massacre of the Danes in 1002, and there is the possible connection here between blood spill and blood sport. The bull-running tradition involves the taunting and chasing of a bull through the streets of Stamford by a crowd of jeering men, women and children and packs of hunting dogs, until the bull eventually gives up, exhausted, and is then killed and roasted in a feast for the village. The whole process is rather savage and the tradition, fortunately now obsolete, met with much opposition through the years, especially from those who were members of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. The last time it took place was the late 1830s but the memory of the events still live on in the town even up to the present day.

One possible origin of the tradition stems from the tale of two fighting bulls being discovered in a field by some butchers. The men apparently tried to separate the bulls but their efforts accidentally resulted in both bulls running into the public highway. They then charged wildly into the town, spreading panic and alarm, until the Earl of Warren gave chase on his horse, joined by all the stray dogs in the area and brought the beasts to bay. The people apparently so enjoyed the ‘sport’ that the earl granted the town a meadow in which a bull fight could take place every year preceded by a bull chase through the town. November being such a cold month the idea of a race and then a huge feast was welcomed by the people and the locals thoroughly enjoyed the festivities, even until the last. Perhaps this is why the memory is still so strong.

This day is the Feast of St Hugh, who is the patron saint of Lincoln, the protector of sick children. He was the Bishop of Lincoln between 1186 and 1200 and his shrine in the cathedral became a very popular pilgrimage location. The feast used to be a thirty-day event, attracting many, and he is still remembered today within a service in Lincoln Cathedral on this date. This is a principle feast in the cathedral and is an occasion when the entire Foundation gathers to celebrate the Eucharist at midday.

This day or the nearest Sunday to it, usually the first Sunday in advent, was known in some areas as Stir Up Sunday, after the first words of the collect in the Book of Common Prayer, ‘Stir up, we beseech Thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people.’
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It was also the day many women in the county made their Christmas puddings, which should traditionally be stirred by all members of the household. One of the
main ingredients was brandy, and as well as stopping any mould growing this helped to mature the pudding until Christmas.

In 1573 the borough of Boston was granted the right to hold an annual eight-day beast mart; the Boston Beast Market and Proclamation. Even though it is no longer held, it is still ‘proclaimed’ every year on 10 December in the yard of the Boston Grammar School, the Beast Yard, where the event once took place. The mayor visits and performs the short ceremony with the town clerk and the boys have the afternoon off school. The proclamation stipulates good behaviour by all throughout the duration of the mart. On a visit to the school, the staff were kind enough to give me a copy of the proclamation, which runs as follows:

The Boston Grammar School Beast Yard, where the Beast Mart was once held. The building is now the school library and the yard a playground. The library houses stained-glass windows depicting the Beast Mart Proclamation.

One of the stained-glass windows in the library of the Boston Grammar School, encompassing the Boston Stump in the background and a scene from the Beast Mart in the foreground.

I was also treated to a tour of the yard and old library building, which houses a stained-glass window depicting the ceremony, installed in 1955 when the school celebrated its quarter centenary. The building is beautiful and the staff very welcoming. It is wonderful that they keep such a tradition alive and the boys are apparently very pleased, especially as they have half a day off school.

Around mid-December there used to be an annual Lincoln Christmas Fat Stock Show for the selling of livestock, but this fair ceased in 1939. In 1982 a new mid-December Lincoln Christmas Market began, a three day event which has proved to be a very popular event indeed! Unfortunately it had to be cancelled in 2010, for the first time in twenty-eight years, due to adverse weather conditions. The snowfall was too heavy and the expected 150,000 visitors had to be told to cancel their plans.

Mumping St Thomas Day, although not practised anymore, was a worthwhile event that helped the poorer members of society, without seeming like charity. Women and children would visit all the houses round about to collect goods and it was known as ‘mumping’ or in certain areas ‘Thomassin’. There was no pension given in those days and people were very proud and did not want to be seen begging, so this practice was an acceptable way of helping those less fortunate. Goods collected would include coppers, small change, potatoes, cake, spare fruit, wheat, bread, tea, old clothes, candles and blankets. The rule was that only one member per household could go and so if the mother was unable, she would send one of her children round to represent her.

This was also another day for girls to try and divine who their future partner may be, by sleeping with a peeled onion under their pillow and dreaming of their husband.

A popular day, 21 December is also the day of the Candle Auction at Bolingbroke. Poor Folk’s Close is a piece of land, the rent from which is given to charity. Rent of the land is auctioned off every year through the custom of the auctioneer sticking a pin into a candle. The candle is lit and the bidding begins. When the flame reaches the pin, it drops out and the person who made the final bid rents the land for the next twelve months. Conditions set from the benefactors, John and Eleanor Ramsden, were that no poultry was to be kept on the land and that local Girl Guides should be allowed to camp there at Whitsun. It is an old custom that is happily kept alive.