The Shropshire soul-cake heap

2 November · Shropshire

No longer kept

Aubrey wrote that in his time, in Shropshire and elsewhere, a high heap of soul cakes was set on the board on All Souls’ Day, lying one upon another like the shewbread in the pictures of old Bibles. They were about the size of twopenny cakes, and every visitor that day took one. An old rhyme asked mercy on all Christian souls for a soul cake.

A soule-cake, a soule-cake, have mercy on all Christen soules for a soule-cake.

From Brand's Popular Antiquities, vol. 1, pp. 393-394. Read the original

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Folklore from the old calendars

Soul-mass cakes No longer kept Herefordshire, LancashireOn All Souls' Day in Lancashire and Herefordshire the well-off used to hand out oaten cakes, called soul-mass cakes, to the poor.
Old Hob No longer kept CheshireA correspondent told Hone of a Cheshire frolic called Old Hob, in which a man carried a dead horse's head covered with a sheet to frighten people.
Tindles at Findern No longer kept DerbyshireAt Findern in Derbyshire the boys and girls went every year on the evening of All Souls' Day to the common and lit a number of small fires among the furze, which they called Tindles.
The Gill-Bushes dole on All Souls’ Day No longer kept CumberlandEvery year on 2 November the rent of a field called Gill-Bushes was given out to the poor of Blennerhasset in Torpenhow church.

The Shropshire soul-cake heap

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