Maiden’s Garlands

When a young unmarried woman died, a garland was carried before her coffin to the grave and then hung up in the church in her memory. Once kept in most parts of the kingdom, the custom lasted longest in the Derbyshire Peak, where old villagers could still remember it. In later times the garlands were made of hoops and paper with ribbons instead of real flowers, so that they would last. Old garlands still hang in the churches at Ashford-in-the-Water and Matlock, and new ones are still made at Abbotts Ann in Hampshire.