Folk Calendar

Sunday 4 April

Born on this day: Danny Thompson (1939)

Born on this day: Charles Parker (1919), Dave Swarbrick (1941) and Leo Rowsome (1903)

Happy birthday to Gordon Giltrap (79 today)

Folklore from the old calendars

Hock Tuesday at Coventry No longer kept WarwickshireOn Hock Monday and Tuesday, a fortnight after Easter, the men and then the women went out with ropes and tied up anyone of the other sex they met until they paid a small sum, which went to the church.
Hock money at Reading No longer kept BerkshireThe churchwardens' accounts of Reading show hocking there for generations: in 1499 the women of St Laurence's gathered twenty shillings and the men only four.
Men on Monday, women on Tuesday in Hampshire No longer kept HampshireIn several Hampshire manors the men hocked the women on Hock Monday, and on the Tuesday the women took their turn with the men.
Lambeth wives out-gather the men at Hock-tide No longer kept LondonThe churchwardens' accounts of Lambeth for 1515 and 1516 recorded hock money gathered by both the men and the women for the church.
Hocktide for the church repairs at St Peter in the East No longer kept OxfordshireIn seventeenth-century Oxford a parish that needed money for church repairs would keep a Hocktide, and the takings could be large.