Folklore of South East

Shrove Tuesday

Folklore from the old calendars

Dough-nut Day at Baldock No longer kept HertfordshireAt Baldock in Hertfordshire the children looked forward to Shrove Tuesday long beforehand and called it Dough-nut Day.
Fitz-Stephen’s Shrovetide No longer kept LondonThe earliest account of Shrovetide sport in England comes from William Fitz-Stephen, who died in 1191.
Football Day at Kingston No longer kept Middlesex, SurreyA Quaker travelling to Kingston upon Thames on Shrove Tuesday 1815 was told by the coachman that it was Football Day.
Holly Boy and Ivy Girl No longer kept KentLate in the eighteenth century a Kentish village kept a Shrovetide custom in two halves.
Hurdles on the windows at Teddington No longer kept MiddlesexShrove Tuesday football at Teddington was played with such spirit that careful householders protected their windows with hurdles and bushes.
Shrove Tuesday football at Dorking No longer kept SurreyDorking played football through its main streets every Shrove Tuesday, and shopkeepers barricaded their fronts for the afternoon.
The apprentices’ Shrove Tuesday No longer kept LondonUntil a few years before Hone wrote, Shrove Tuesday was the great holiday of the London apprentices.
The freshmen’s caudle at Merton No longer kept OxfordshireAnthony a Wood described how the freshmen of Merton College were put through their paces on Shrove Tuesday in 1647.
The Hoddesdon Curfew and the Pancakes No longer kept HertfordshireA correspondent told Hone that the old curfew bell at Hoddesdon, once rung for putting out all fire and candle light, was still rung at four in the morning on Shrove Tuesday, as it had been time out of mind.
The pan’s hot No longer kept OxfordshireIn Oxfordshire the children went from door to door on Shrove Tuesday singing a shroving rhyme and begging for halfpence.
The Pancake Greaze Still kept LondonAt eleven on Shrove Tuesday a verger of Westminster Abbey with a silver baton led the school cook, in white apron, jacket and cap, into the schoolroom carrying a pancake.
The pancake on the crow at Eton No longer kept BuckinghamshireIn Queen Elizabeth's time the cook at Eton fastened a pancake on Shrove Tuesday to the crow, the iron ring that served as a knocker, on the school door.

18 February, not tied to the day

Ash Wednesday

42 days before Easter, not tied to the day

26 February, not tied to the day

1 March

Folklore from the old calendars

Gingerbread taffies on a goat No longer kept LondonOn St David's Day the gingerbread bakers and pastry-cooks of London set out taffies, little white figures of a Welshman riding on a goat, stuck on wooden skewers for children to buy.
Hanging Taffy No longer kept LondonOn St David's Day the English used to mock the Welsh by making a stuffed figure of a Welshman, with hay-filled breeches and coat, a hat, shoes and a wooden sword, and hanging it from a public tree.
Swig Day at Jesus College No longer kept OxfordshireOn St David's Day Jesus College, Oxford, the college of the Welsh, filled a great silver-gilt bowl holding ten gallons with swig and passed it round the guests at its table.
The Ancient Britons’ procession No longer kept LondonSt David's Day in London was the anniversary of the Honourable and Loyal Society of Ancient Britons, founded in 1714, which kept it in aid of the Welsh charity school in Gray's Inn Road.
The serjeant-porter’s leek No longer kept LondonThe Flying Post of 1699 reported that on St David's Day the king, according to custom, wore a leek in honour of the ancient Britons.

Folklore of the South East

Shrove Tuesday

18 February, not tied to the day

Ash Wednesday

42 days before Easter, not tied to the day

26 February, not tied to the day

1 March

2 March, not tied to the day

the first Monday on or after 1 March

6 March, not tied to the day

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