Gang Week in the North

36 days after Easter · Northern England

No longer kept

Northern England

On one of the three days before Holy Thursday the minister, churchwardens and parishioners walked the bounds of the parish, praying for the fruits of the earth and guarding the parish’s rights. Bourne said the week was called Rogation Week, in some places Cross Week because a cross was once carried before the priest, and in the North Gang Week, from the northern word gang, to go. He noted the custom was still kept in some country parishes and wished it more widely revived.

It is also in some Places called Cross-Week, because in ancient Times, when the Priest went into the Fields, the Cross was carried before them. In the Northern Parts it is called Gang-Week

From Bourne's Antiquitates Vulgares, p. 205. Read the original

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Folklore from the old calendars

Youling the orchards at Keston and Wickham No longer kept KentIn Rogation Week the young men about Keston and Wickham in Kent ran shouting into the orchards, circled each tree and chanted a rhyme for a good crop.
The Gospel in the Chequer Inn cellar at Standlake No longer kept OxfordshireAt Standlake the minister's Rogation Week procession stopped in the cellar of the Chequer Inn, where he read the Gospel at the head of a barrel.
Processioning with flower poles at Wolverhampton No longer kept StaffordshireOn the Monday and Tuesday of Rogation Week the clergy and choir of Wolverhampton walked the town behind charity children carrying long poles dressed with every flower in season, chanting the Benedicite.
The seven-yearly bounds money at Husborne Crawley No longer kept BedfordshireOnce every seven years an estate at Husborne Crawley in Bedfordshire had to pay four pounds on Rogation Day towards walking the parish bounds.
The noble in a bowl at Swinford Ferry No longer kept BerkshireWhen the Cumnor parishioners beat their bounds in Rogation week, they crossed at Swinford Ferry and took hold of the twigs on the far bank to claim the whole breadth of the Thames for the parish.
Possessioning in Derbyshire No longer kept DerbyshireIn a small Derbyshire village in 1818 the Rogation perambulation had become possessioning, a march of the constable, labourers and boys with an axe, a mattock and an iron crow.
The boy in the boundary oven No longer kept BuckinghamshireWhere a Buckinghamshire house had been built with its oven jutting over the parish boundary, a boy was put into the oven during the Rogation perambulation to keep the line unbroken.
Loaf, cheese and ale for the bounds at Clifton Reynes No longer kept BuckinghamshireEveryone living in Clifton Reynes who walked the parish boundaries in Rogation week was given ale from a bequest of land, married people a small loaf, a piece of cheese and a pint, single people half a pint.
Gang Monday Land at Edgcott No longer kept BuckinghamshireAt Edgcott in Buckinghamshire about an acre of land, called Gang Monday Land, was let for three pounds a year to pay for cakes and beer for those who walked the parish bounds in Rogation week.
The Bezant at Shaftesbury No longer kept DorsetOn Rogation Monday the mayor and aldermen of Shaftesbury went down the hill in procession to Enmore Green to pay for the town's water with a calf's head, a gallon of ale, two penny loaves, gold-laced gloves and the Bezant.
Reading the gospel at the springs No longer kept Berkshire, CheshireIn the parish processions a gospel was read at the springs to bless them, a custom kept at Sunningwell in Berkshire until 1688.
A swarm of bees in May Lore and belief WarwickshireA Warwickshire correspondent told Hone that there the first swarm from a hive was called a swarm, the second a cast and the third a spindle.

Gang Week in the North

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