Hawthorns from Woodstock Park

30 April · Woodstock, Oxfordshire

No longer kept

Every May Eve the people of Woodstock went into the park and carried off a number of hawthorn trees to set before their doors. Aubrey thought it a pity that so fine a tree should be destroyed in such numbers. He compared the custom with the Dutch meybooms, young trees set up for May.

at Woodstock in Oxon, they every May-eve goe into ye Parke, and fetch awa a number of Haw-thorne-trees, wch they sett before their dores, 'tis pity that they make such a destruction of so fine a tree.

From Aubrey's Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme, p. 119. Read the original

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Folklore from the old calendars

Cattle in the neighbour’s corn on May Eve Lore and belief IrelandA sixteenth-century manuscript says the Irish drove their cattle into a neighbour's corn on May Eve, most often an English settler's.
The May bush in Westmeath No longer kept LeinsterSir Henry Piers wrote in 1682 that on May Eve every family in Westmeath set up a green bush before its door, strewn over with the yellow flowers that the meadows yielded in plenty.
Fetching the elm on May Eve in Cornwall No longer kept CornwallBorlase wrote that the Cornish people of the towns went out into the country on May Eve and cut down a tall elm, which they brought back with rejoicing.
Dun-pickles on the downs Lore and belief WiltshireIt was said in Wiltshire that the dun-pickles, or moor buzzards, came down in great numbers on the downs before rain.
The storm cock Lore and belief EnglandBefore a storm the mistle thrush was said to sing especially loud and to keep on singing until the rain began, and for this it was called the storm cock in some places.
The Swinton May-singers No longer kept LancashireIn 1861 a man at Swinton, near Eccles, was surprised one April evening by a party of singers on his lawn with a flute and a clarinet.

Hawthorns from Woodstock Park

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