Cambridgeshire Customs

Stapleford History Society 10th March 2022

A talk by Dr Maureen James

Dr Maureen James explained that the year was marked by a series of festivals although some celebrations could be held at any time of the year. Plough Monday marked the beginning of the agricultural year in early January and in the days when families leased small areas of land they shared equipment. The village plough would be taken into the church to be blessed and would then be taken round the streets with men and boys collecting money for its upkeep. This tradition has been revived in some villages such as Ramsey where the men dress up in traditional farm labourers clothes.

Customs which involved boys collecting money tended to die out after the 1908 Children’s Act which was intended to stop begging and became known as ‘The Cadging Act’.

Dancing often followed the customs and a particular variation in Mepal was the Molly Dancing where the Molly was in fact a man dressed in women’s clothes. This custom has recently been revived.

As the year progressed rain flooded the fen fields, the water froze and ice skates were donned with competitions held. This seems to have been an almost annual event with fen skaters competing with skaters from other countries, especially Holland, but there has been little opportunity during recent years.

Valentine’s Day had many customs and variations and if the sun shone, folklore said it was time to set the eel traps. Sometimes the young men would place a vase of mayflowers on the window sill of their sweetheart unless they had fallen out with one another and then they would leave thorny blackthorn .

Mothering Sunday was the day everyone visited their mother taking flowers sometimes made into garlands and is still upheld.

May Day is internationally famous when people went into the fields to gather flowers to make garlands or, in this area balls of cowslips were made. Reach Fair, first held in 1201, was one of the most famous in England with the sale of produce, entertainment and dancing lasting three days. In over 800 years it has been cancelled only four times: twice during the Civil War and twice during the Covid pandemic.

As spring turned to summer many feasts, village shows and street parties were held followed by harvest festivals. Before the introduction of the NHS in 1947, many villages held Hospital Sundays when money was collected to pay for the hospitals and treatment. With the coming of the railways days at the seaside became popular with Cambridgeshire people travelling to Hunstanton, in particular.

Stourbridge Fair first held in 1199, two years older than Reach Fair, became one of the biggest in Europe with traders reaching Cambridge by travelling down the Cam and the lodes. The arrival of canals and then the railways caused its decline and the final fair was held in 1933.

Hobby Lanterns were made from mangold wurzels which were carved into gruesome faces to be placed in windows to ward off evil spirits. Today pumpkins carry on this tradition.

The celebrations during December and the New Year were universally popular as they are today and they completed the year which would begin again with Plough Sunday. These are just a few of the many customs that Dr James described and illustrated with pictures and the traditional rhymes.

[report by Keith and Sally Dixon]