The Glastonbury walnut tree

11 June · Glastonbury Abbey, Somerset

No longer kept

Besides the Holy Thorn, the abbey churchyard at Glastonbury had a miraculous walnut tree on the north side of St Joseph’s chapel. It was said never to bud until St Barnabas’s Day, the eleventh of June, and then to burst into leaf that very day. Queen Anne, King James and many nobles paid large sums for cuttings. By Hone’s time the tree was gone and an ordinary walnut stood in its place.

a miraculous walnut-tree, which never budded forth before the feast of St. Barnabas, viz. the eleventh of June, and on that very day shot forth leaves

From Hone's Every-Day Book, vol. 1, col. 771. Read the original

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Folklore from the old calendars

Barnaby Bright Lore and belief EnglandBefore the calendar change of 1752, St Barnabas's Day on 11 June fell close to the summer solstice, and country people still called it the longest day.
Riding the Lanark marches Still kept LanarkshireLanark rode its marches every year on the day after the last Wednesday of May, old style, which fell early in June.
Rose and woodruff garlands No longer kept LondonOn St Barnabas's Day the priests and clerks of English churches used to wear garlands of roses and woodruff.
The Englewood forest court at Hesket No longer kept CumberlandEvery year on St Barnabas's Day the court for the whole Forest of Englewood was held at Hesket in Cumberland, by the side of the highway under a thorn tree.
Barnaby yea, Barnaby nay Lore and belief County DurhamA farmer who led his hay on St Barnabas's Day was said to have been swallowed up with his carts and horses in the Hell Kettles near Darlington.
Ragged Robin at Barnaby Bright Lore and belief EnglandSt Barnabas's Day, Barnaby Bright of the longest day, was the day of ragged robin, which bloomed then in the hayfields.
The hay rake on the clog for St Barnabas No longer kept StaffordshireOn the old wooden clog almanacs, the notch for St Barnabas's Day was cut with the figure of a rake, because the day marked the start of hay harvest.

The Glastonbury walnut tree

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