Folklore of Midlands

11 March

Folklore from the old calendars

Corn-showing at Easter No longer kept HerefordshireAt Easter the country people round Ross went corn-showing: parties went into the wheat to pick out the cockle, taking cake, cider and, as one informant put it, a yard of toasted cheese.
Easter eggs for the vicar of Clee No longer kept LincolnshireEvery Easter the parishioners of Clee gave their vicar a quantity of eggs collected round the parish.
Flowers in the Easter pew at All Saints, Hereford No longer kept HerefordshireAt Easter the clerk's wife at All Saints church in Hereford dressed the pews of her parishioners with flowers.
Sugar-cupping at Dropping Tor No longer kept DerbyshireNear Tideswell in the Peak, children and young people used to go on Easter Sunday to the Dropping Tor, a spring that dripped from the rock.
The Flaun at Nettleham No longer kept LincolnshireNettleham's village wake was held at Easter and called the Flaun, after the flauns, or cheesecakes, eaten there.
The Kingsthorpe lord and lady No longer kept NorthamptonshireAt Kingsthorpe near Northampton the manor court chose a lord and lady for the May games every Easter Day after evensong, and anyone who refused the office paid a fine of 6s.

Folklore from the old calendars

Clipping the churches No longer kept WarwickshireA Warwickshire correspondent remembered being taken as a child every Easter Monday to watch the charity-school children clip the churches of Birmingham.
Lifting at Easter No longer kept Cheshire, Lancashire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, WarwickshireIn Lancashire, Cheshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire and Shropshire, men lifted the women on Easter Monday and the women lifted the men on Easter Tuesday.
The Coleshill hare No longer kept WarwickshireBy an old custom at Coleshill, if the young men of the town caught a hare and brought it to the parson before ten o'clock on Easter Monday, he had to give them a calf's head, a hundred eggs and a groat for their breakfast.
The hare-pie scramble at Hallaton Still kept LeicestershireOn Easter Monday the rector of Hallaton provided pies, ale and penny loaves to be scrambled for, under a bequest of land once called Hare-crop Leys.
The Nottingham corporation at St Anne’s Well No longer kept NottinghamshireDeering's History of Nottingham records that by a custom beyond memory the mayor and aldermen of Nottingham and their wives walked out on Easter Monday, after morning prayers, to St Anne's Well outside the town.