Harvest

The end of harvest: harvest suppers, harvest festivals and corn dollies.

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The year ahead

Saturday 18 September

Sat 18 Sep All day
Custom

Egremont Crab Fair

Sets off from Main Street, Egremont, Cumbria

Sunday 10 October

Sun 10 Oct 11:00 12:00
Custom

Harvest of the Sea at St Mary-at-Hill

St Mary-at-Hill, London, Greater London

Folklore from the old calendars

Burning the Witch No longer kept YorkshireIn the East Riding, on the evening the last of a farmer's corn was cut, the reapers heaped eight or ten small piles of dried peas together in the field and set them alight.
Christmas dinner at Holm Cultram Abbey No longer kept CumberlandBefore the Dissolution every tenant of Holm Cultram and his wife dined at the abbey at Christmas.
Crying Largess No longer kept East Anglia, Essex, HertfordshireIn Suffolk the harvest lord would leave the field to ask any passer-by for a largess, then stand his reapers in a ring and call from a gate post while they answered with a groan and then three great shouts.
Gloves for the reapers No longer kept EnglandAt harvest the farmer gave his reapers gloves, and paid the harvest lord who led them a penny or two more than the rest.
John Barleycorn Still kept England, ScotlandFor 21 October, after a harvest with a good barley crop, Hone printed Burns's version of the old ballad of John Barleycorn.
Shouting the Churn No longer kept YorkshireEugene Aram, quoted by Hone, distinguished the churn supper, held when all the corn was shorn, from the mell supper held when it was all got in.
St Roch’s Wake No longer kept EnglandSt Roch, or Rock, a pilgrim from Montpellier who nursed the sick in a time of plague and was fed in the forest by a hound that carried him bread from its master's table, was invoked against pestilence, and his feast fell on the morrow of the Assumption.
The Harvest Catch in Norfolk No longer kept Essex, NorfolkThe last thing before parting at a Norfolk harvest supper was a health-drinking catch sung first to the mistress and then to the master.
The Harvest Goose No longer kept EnglandTusser advised the farmer that when harvest was in he should give his ploughman a harvest home goose.
The Norfolk Horkey No longer kept NorfolkIn Norfolk the harvest home was the horkey.
Upland hay harvest on the first of July No longer kept WalesIn the Welsh uplands the hay harvest was begun on the first of July.

Saturday 18 September

Egremont Crab Fair

Sunday 10 October

Harvest of the Sea at St Mary-at-Hill

Folklore from the old calendars

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