Shrewsbury simnels

Mothering Sunday · Shrewsbury, Shropshire

Still kept

In Shropshire and Herefordshire, and above all at Shrewsbury, rich simnel cakes were made in Lent and at Easter and Christmas. The saffron crust was filled with plum-cake mixture and candied peel, boiled in a cloth for hours and then baked, and large ones sold for half a guinea or more. The crust was so hard that stories went round of one being boiled again to soften it and another used as a footstool. Herrick tells of young people at Gloucester carrying simnels to their mothers on Mothering Sunday, and the simnel cake is still made.

When ready for sale the crust is as hard as if made of wood

From Chambers's Book of Days, vol. 1, p. 336. Read the original

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Folklore from the old calendars

Going a-mothering Still kept EnglandOn Midlent Sunday, the fourth in Lent, young people in service or apprenticed away went home to see their parents, especially their mothers, taking a cake or a trinket as a present.
Mothering cakes at Bristol No longer kept GloucestershireA Bristol reader told Hone in 1827 that Mothering Sunday was kept scrupulously in the city and, he believed, all over the west of England, much as Twelfth Night was kept in London.
Fig-pie Wake at Draycott-in-the-Moors No longer kept StaffordshireDraycott-in-the-Moors and its neighbouring villages kept Fig-pie Wake on Mid-Lent Sunday, when friends came visiting to eat fig pies.
Simnel Sunday crowds at Bury No longer kept LancashireOn Mid-Lent Sunday thousands of people poured into Bury from all over the district to eat simnels, and shops and public houses stayed open in defiance of the law.
Loins of veal on Mid-lent Sunday No longer kept HerefordshireIn Herefordshire Mid-Lent Sunday was kept by every rank, with children of all ages coming home to dine with their parents on loins of veal.
Pease for the king’s household on Mid-Lent Sunday No longer kept EnglandA roll of the household expenses of Edward I for 1290 records a penny spent on pease on Mid-Lent Sunday.

Shrewsbury simnels

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