Bread and cheese thrown in St Briavels church

Whit Sunday · St Briavels, Gloucestershire

Still kept

On Whit Sunday baskets of bread and cheese cut into inch squares were carried into the gallery of St Briavels church after service and thrown down to the congregation, who scrambled for them. The report of 1816 said it kept the right of the poor of St Briavels and Hewelsfield to cut wood in the Hudnalls, each householder paying twopence towards the bread and cheese.

several baskets-full of bread and cheese, cut into small squares of about an inch each, are brought into the church

From The Gentleman's Magazine Library, Manners and Customs, p. 230. Read the original

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Folklore from the old calendars

Birch and flowers to honour Whitsuntide No longer kept EnglandAt Whitsun the yew was cleared out of the house and birch boughs and fresh flowers brought in to dress it.
Huf-cap sold in the church No longer kept EnglandAgainst Christmas, Easter or Whitsunday the churchwardens provided ten or twenty quarters of malt, partly bought from the church stock and partly given by the parishioners, and had it brewed into very strong ale.
Smoke farthings No longer kept EnglandIn Whitsun week, every householder in England with a chimney once paid a small sum to the cathedral of his diocese.
The Whitsun king in oak leaves No longer kept EnglandAt Whitsun, each village once chose a lord or king at the maypole, and he picked a queen to rule over the games with him.
The Whitsun ale No longer kept EnglandEvery Whitsuntide the churchwardens held a parish feast, usually in a barn near the church, where all agreed to be friends for once in the year.
Dressing the graves at Whitsun in Glamorgan No longer kept GlamorganIn Glamorgan it was an old and general practice to plant the graves with flowers, so that many churchyards looked like rich gardens, and only sweet-scented plants were allowed: pinks, polyanthus, sweet williams, gillyflowers, carnations, mignonette, thyme, hyssop, camomile and rosemary.
The Burford Whitsun deer hunt No longer kept OxfordshireThe people of Burford once claimed the right to hunt deer in Wychwood Forest on Whit Sunday.
Wishing at sunrise on Whit Sunday Lore and belief EnglandAn old belief held that whatever a person asked of God on Whit Sunday morning, at the moment the sun rose and played, would be granted.
Strewing Yatton church with grass No longer kept SomersetHone quoted Collinson's History of Somerset that John Lane, a gentleman of Yatton, left half an acre of ground called the Groves to the poor for ever.
The Whitsun morris Still kept EnglandWhitsuntide was the great season for morris dancers.

Bread and cheese thrown in St Briavels church

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