Cattle onto Burgh Marsh at Old May Day

12 May · Burgh by Sands, Cumberland

No longer kept

The cattle and horses of Burgh by Sands went onto the great marsh by the Solway at Old May Day. The marsh was held in stints, each paying the lord twopence a year, and it grazed 792 head. Beasts might stay until 1 December, but were usually taken off at the end of October, when the equinoctial tides began to run over it. No sheep were admitted.

Cattle and horses go to grass thereon at Old May-Day, and may continue till December 1st

From Hutchinson's History of Cumberland, vol. 2, p. 509. Read the original

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