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Arbor Day. Tree Dressing at Aston-on-Clun in the Shropshire Marches

Arbor Day. Tree Dressing at Aston-on-Clun in the Shropshire Marches

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A black poplar tree stands beside a little stream in the Shropshire village of Aston-on-Clun. Amongst its boughs bright flags are fluttering in the breeze. Today is Arbor Day, an old tree-dressing tradition when the flags are renewed and the community celebrates their tree. How this tradition came about and for how long is open to question and one I wanted to find out more about. May 29 is also Oak Apple Day, the day in 1660 when Charles II…

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Dancing the Morris in the Shropshire Hills. A Whitsun Tale

Dancing the Morris in the Shropshire Hills. A Whitsun Tale

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And let us do it with no show of fear No, with no more than if we heard England were busied with a Whitsun morris dance Henry V II. iv. Shakespeare c 1599 This ‘Whitsun tale’ took place on a remote hill in South Shropshire over four hundred years ago. Before we get into the whys and wherefores of the story (of which there are actually very few) it may be helpful to clarify a couple of points. First, the…

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Cakes of Peace, Magic Bread & Easter Wassails: Springtime Traditions of the Welsh Marches

Cakes of Peace, Magic Bread & Easter Wassails: Springtime Traditions of the Welsh Marches

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By late March the weather was warmer and spring made herself known at Moon Brook Cottage, accompanied by cries of goshawks, chiffchaffs, skylarks and the promise of cookoo. Celandines, or star-flowers, cheered up the woods and moon-flowers, more commonly known today as wood anemones, graced the shadows and verges. It was then I was approached by BBC’s Countryfile program regarding ideas for their feature on Easter traditions of Herefordshire. Much is written concerning modern day Easter traditions and adaptations but…

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Searching for the Invisible Past in the ‘Vivid Present’

Searching for the Invisible Past in the ‘Vivid Present’

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“That vivid present of theirs, how faint it grows! The past is only the present become invisible and mute; and because it is invisible and mute, its memorized glances and its murmurs are infinitely precious. We are tomorrow’s past.” Mary Webb, (Precious Bane, 1924) I am interested in the social and historical context of folk traditions. This may be difficult, if not impossible to determine yet the history of people who kept tradition alive is an integral part of my…

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Plough Bullocks & Plum Pudding, the Forgotten Feast of Plough Monday

Plough Bullocks & Plum Pudding, the Forgotten Feast of Plough Monday

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‘Forget not the Feasts that belong to the Plough’* Plough Munday, the next after Twelftide be past, biddeth out with the plough, the worst husband is last. If Ploughman gets hatchet or whip to the skreene. maydes loseth their Cocke if no Water be seene. Thomas Tusser* 1557 Writing in 1557 the Essex writer and farmer, Thomas Tusser, is describing a game then played on Plough Monday, the first Monday after Twelfth Night. The game’s origins are unknown. It would…

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