Folklore of Midlands

1 May

Folklore from the old calendars

Dr Parr’s maypole at Hatton No longer kept WarwickshireSamuel Parr, the great Greek scholar and parson of Hatton near Warwick, was a keen patron of the May games.
May gads on Maypole Hill at Horncastle No longer kept LincolnshireStukeley recorded in 1724 that there was a Maypole Hill near Horncastle in Lincolnshire.
The Kingsthorpe garlands at Northampton No longer kept NorthamptonshireA Northampton correspondent told Hone in 1826 that on May morning girls from Kingsthorpe and the other villages round came into the town carrying May garlands from house to house, to show, as the townspeople said, what flowers were in season, and were given a trifle at each door.
The Maidens’ Portion at Sutton Coldfield No longer kept WarwickshireJohn Herman, the Sutton-born Bishop of Exeter under Henry VIII (better known as Bishop Vesey), did much for his native town, and left money whose interest was to be shared every year among four poor maidens of good character, born or long living in Sutton, who had married in the past year.