Folklore of Hertfordshire

17 January, not tied to the day

Folklore from the old calendars

My lord and my lady at Baldock No longer kept HertfordshireOn May morning the poor women of Baldock dressed up straw and rag effigies of a lord and lady in their husbands' and their own Sunday clothes and sat them side by side outside the cottage door.
The Hitchin Mayers No longer kept HertfordshireA letter from Hitchin in 1823 told Hone how, soon after three on May morning, townspeople and labourers paraded the streets singing the Mayers' Song and fixed large branches of may to the doors of nearly every respectable house.
Thread my needle round Baldock on May Day No longer kept HertfordshireOn May Day the children of Baldock were out with the sun, carrying hooped garlands of flowers and ribbons on staves from door to door, led by a flag made of a silk handkerchief hung from an ash bough.