Spurious Saints
In 2010, Northern Earth invited readers to send in place-names and lore associated with saints – but not the bona fide type of saint. What we were looking for was spurious saints… here are some of the dubious divines we received.
LORE
We cover here the range of material that comes under folklore and cultural tradition, including legends, customs, folk magic and others
Medical Care, Magical Cure: Traditional strategies for healthy livestock
‘Old Blighty’ has rarely lived up to its nickname as persistently as it has in the last few years. John Billingsley looks at some old techniques used by farmers to keep their animals sickness-free. It’s been a grim spring all round for lovers of rural environments, and especially for British farmers. The spectre of
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Folk Medicine and Magic in Lancashire
Folk cures for humans as well as beasts involved the medical, the magical and sometimes the simply mystifying. Peter Watson reveals some of the techniques in traditional and historical medical practice The library of Chetham’s school in Manchester contains a remarkable if largely forgotten herbal, beautifully written and illuminated in a hand of the
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The Curse of John Wood Of Newhouse
David Bower relates a case of a concealed ‘witch bottle’ in West Yorkshire I read with interest John Billingsley’s article about witch bottles [1]. It reminded me of a discovery I came across when researching for a book on local Quaker history [2]. A lead plaque was discovered during the late 1980s, concealed in
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Discussions on ‘Blackface’ issues
Readers may recollect NE’s debate about the ‘blackface’ tradition in British folk performance. NE in general supports established or revival traditions that can be understood as maintaining an element either of disguise necessary in a historical social context, or liminality. Sometimes, however, customs arise where people see things as ‘fun’ and do not realise the
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What is the Pace-Egg Play?
Mumming plays, like so much of British folklore, have been subject to questionable assumptions as to their age and meaning, but today research has shed a clearer light on their origins and functions, as Eddie Cass describes. Easter! Once again, hundreds of people from miles around – and further – will come into Hebden
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Pace-Egg: Notes for a history of doggerel
Michael Haslam muses on the Easter mumming play, to make an important observation concerning its age It’s done because it’s done This much, I believe, is agreed: Pace-Egg, a variant of the St. George Play, is a Folk Play and a Calendar Custom. It was once widely distributed across Britain. Two of its most
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Spaw Sunday in the Calder Valley: Cragg Spa
One of the harbingers of spring in the north country was Spaw Sunday. John Billingsley reports on a recent revival in Cragg Vale, in W Yorkshire’s Calder Valley About 100 people turned up at Cragg Spa, in Cragg Vale, W Yorkshire, last Spaw Sunday (1st Sunday in May – in 2010 falling on Saturday
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Coin Trees
A new ‘tradition’, or a new artefact? Members of the NEReaders subscribers’ e-group in 2005 discussed what appears to be an increasingly ubiquitous feature of country parks, especially along paths near rivers. The topic – ‘coin trees’, or, more accurately, ‘coin logs’ – involves what seems to be an example of evolving folklore – or
Fox Haunting
North Yorkshire’s West Witton, home to the quasi-sacrificial ‘Burning Bartle’ ceremony every August 24, is certainly an atmospheric village, as Jan Reese recalls In the late 1960s, when I was in my teens, I spent most of my holidays at a hotel in Wensleydale. My aunt, Renee Stansfield, was landlady of the Fox and