Folklore of Midlands

1 January

Folklore from the old calendars

Coventry God-cakes No longer kept WarwickshireAt Coventry it was the custom to eat God-cakes on New Year's Day.
Jack of Hilton No longer kept StaffordshireHilton Hall in Staffordshire kept a hollow brass figure about a foot high, known across the county as Jack of Hilton, which was filled with water and set by the fire so that steam blew from its mouth like a bellows.
Lads for hire as first-foot Lore and belief Shropshire, WorcestershireIn Worcestershire and Shropshire it was unlucky for a woman to be the first to enter the house on New Year's morning.
Take out, then take in Lore and belief LincolnshireIn Lincoln and the country round it people held that it was unlucky to carry anything out of the house on New Year's morning before something had been brought in.
The cream of the well at Bromyard No longer kept HerefordshireAs midnight struck on New Year's Eve, people round Bromyard raced to the nearest spring for the first water of the year.
The globe of thorns and Old Cider No longer kept HerefordshireVery early on New Year's Day, Herefordshire farm boys wove blackthorn branches into a globe and singed it over a straw fire while the household stood round shouting "Old Cider".
The New Year Wassail Bowl Still kept Gloucestershire, Staffordshire, WarwickshireAt the New Year the head of an English household gathered his family round a bowl of spiced ale called lamb's wool and drank their health with the old greeting wass hael, and the bowl went round.

Folklore from the old calendars

The fire for the Magi’s star No longer kept StaffordshireBlount recorded that the people of Staffordshire made a fire on the eve of Twelfth Day in memory of the blazing star that led the three Magi to the manger at Bethlehem.
The Walsall Penny Dole No longer kept StaffordshireThomas Moseley gave lands in Warwickshire in trust for the town of Walsall in 1453, and on Twelfth Night eve, the anniversary for his soul and his wife Margaret's, the bellman went about calling on everyone to kneel and pray for them.
Twelve Fires and the Ox’s Cake No longer kept Gloucestershire, HerefordshireOn Twelfth Night eve Herefordshire farmers and their servants lit twelve small fires and one large one on the highest part of a wheat field, drank old cider and hallooed, and fifty or sixty other fires might be seen at once across the country.

Folklore from the old calendars

Plough Monday Still kept LincolnshireOn the first Monday after Twelfth Day farm lads dragged a plough decked with ribbons, the Fool Plough, from house to house, led by a man dressed as an old woman called Bessy and a Fool, sometimes with morris or sword dancers.
Plough Monday morris at Claybrooke No longer kept LeicestershireAulay Macaulay, in his History and Antiquities of Claybrooke of 1791, wrote that every Plough Monday a company of morris dancers came into Claybrooke from the neighbouring villages of Sapcote and Sharnford.
The plough light at Holbeach No longer kept Lincolnshire, NorfolkMany churches before the Reformation kept a plough light burning before an image, paid for by the husbandmen, who feasted on Plough Monday and went about with a plough and dancers.
The plough-gathering at Wigtoft No longer kept LincolnshireIn 1575 the churchwardens of Wigtoft in Lincolnshire received a pound from two men for the plough-gathering, the money collected when the ploughmen went round with their plough.