A Very Shropshire Christmas

 

I have a confession to make.  I love Christmas. It really is the most wonderful time of the year, regardless of how you chose to celebrate. It’s a time of rich traditions, traditions that span continents and the centuries as well as more personal, familial ones. I think that my love for this time of year in part, comes from the connection I have to my time growing up in Shropshire. Just the word ‘Christmas’ springs to mind a plethora of joys from my past. I think of long walks around the Wrekin, Coalport and Coalbrookdale, Benthall Edge and Lloyds Coppice. I think of Shrewsbury (after all, A Christmas Carol was filmed there) and countless other happy recollections. Perhaps the most ‘Christmassy’ of feelings was spending Christmas Eve down the gorge in Ironbridge. We would make the descent down after dark, wrapped in more layers than you could count. The Christmas lights were diamonds in the sky and the bridge was beautifully illuminated. There was music from my schools band, songs and out of key singing. It’s the closest I’ve ever felt to being on a Christmas card, and though I’m not really sure what the ‘magic of Christmas’ means, if I had to suggest something, it would be that. It was through thinking about Christmas Eve’s gone by, I began to wonder, what did Christmas mean to old Salopians? What customs and folklore shaped the way in which they celebrated this time? I want to explore some of the wealth of folklore in the county, which is associated with Christmas now, covering everything from preparation through to feasting, in hope that I can shine a light on its significance to those who came before us.

Let us begin with the association between Christmas and charity. In Shropshire the festive period was one of the times of the year where charity was extended to the poorest within the community. Charlotte describes Christmas as a time of ‘sharing the fruits of the earth with the poor’. It is worth noting here that charity wasn’t isolated to the festive period, rather each season had its own form of almsgiving. I believe this is suggestive of the socio-economic status of many within the countryside, a poignant insight into lives marred by entrenched rural poverty, but also how communities responded to such. Though often idealised, rural life was not a quaint, symbol time, but often fraught with difficulties. The almsgiving, such as that which I am about to discuss would have been fundamentally important to those trapped in poverty, including some of my own relatives. The fact that the community looked after their own is something to be celebrated, especially as the 18^th and 19^th centuries are often portrayed as Dickensian, lacking in sympathy.

On the 21^st of December (St Thomas’s day) farmers throughout Shropshire would set aside a sack of wheat for the poor, and all of the cottager’s wives would go from house to house to collect their share of the ‘Dole’. This would be determined by various methods, including their family size and the level of their poverty. This custom had a different names depending on where in Shropshire you were. For example, in Church Stretton, Pulverbatch and Much Wenlock it was known as ‘goin’a tummasin’ near Bridgenorth it was known as ‘goin’ goodin’ and in Clun it was known as ‘Clog-fair day’, clearly alluding to the long walks such a practice necessitates. Before collecting the dole, women would don the oldest clothes they owned, and some even opted to wear their husbands cast off smocks or coats to heighten illusions to their poverty. We have an account of Christmas dole in Worthen, written by ‘Proud Salopian’ who was a regular contributor to Shreds and Patches.  This account states that poor women from the ‘hilly districts of the adjourning parish of Pontesbury’ would come to worthen ‘in considerable numbers’ to collect their dole. As a result, each farmhouse only gave a small quantity of wheat or flour, however as one can imagine, after journeying around the houses, individuals were left carrying a ‘heavy load’ of donated wheat.

After collecting the dole, women would use it to bake bread. Bread held particular importance in the Pulverbatch area, where the women would bake a special Christmas ‘batch’ of bread. Elsewhere, the rather generous farmers of Clun would hand out a double dole giving wheat for the family and barley for the pigs. As the 19^th century drew to a close, the custom waned, though some still gave dole in the form of money or chose to donate to the church some ‘Christmas comforts’ which would then have been distributed to the poor. Katherine Kenyon noted in her recollections of childhood in that ‘at Christmas time a bullock was killed and given to the tenants’. With women gathering and hesitating on the decision of which cutting to take. This again demonstrate an aspect of charity.

To those who were in great need, this custom must have been a lifesaver and would have injected a little joy into the festive period. However, Charlotte Burne informs us that as with any system, it was prone to being abused. Some of the ways people manipulated the situation was to send out the strongest, so they could walk the furthest, and also to send multiple members of the same family to collect, though in communities that all knew each other, one has to wonder how successful this was. Despite this, it must have been a nuisance and perhaps contributed to its decline. Some places, such as Clun actually came up with ways to regulate the tradition. From 1870, the farmers of Clun started sending their donations to the town hall, so the mayor could properly distribute the doles, equally and fairly.

In Shropshire, there seemed to be great emphasis on the 12 days of Christmas, known simply as ‘The Christmas’. ‘The Christmas’ was a time of preparation, which included the killing of the beasts and poultry, making, and mixing puddings and Christmas cake, as well as completing a deep clean. The deep clean was universally practiced, and during ‘The Christmas’ everyone from the farmhouse to the stately home would take to scrubbing.  It said that to even the slovenliest maid, to leave the house dirty at Christmas was unthinkable, and even the humblest dwellings would be scrubbed spotless.

In wealthier houses, the servants were told to make the pewter bright enough to ‘see their caps in them’ This was to ward away the fairies. If the pewter was dull, The fairies would pinch the servant girls black and blue and steal any pewter of value. However, once shiny, and clean, the fairies would leave it alone, and instead place coins as gifts in servants’ shoes (some mistresses would even slip this reward into they’re shoes themselves, but don’t tell the fairies) often, cleaning the farmhouses was a communal effort, with the farm labourers’ wives being called into help, or women in the community helping each other to get the job done. Once the house was neat, and dishes cleaned, attention would be turned to removing any strange animals from the house, such as mice, lest they be witches. It could be argued that this deep clean could have an almost supernatural element, as preparing the house and hearth could keep household spirits, such as brownies happy, as well as stopping any wandering spirits from crossing the threshold. In some Shropshire houses of repute, once preparations were finalised, servants were allowed to go ‘a Christmassing’ visiting each other’s houses as well as spending much of their time in work completing tasks for themselves, which again could be seen as an extension of charity.

In the 19^th and 20^th century, local foresters would leave off their regular work at this time and dedicate their efforts to cutting and digging Christmas trees. They would then sell them either to local folk, or cross over the border to the Christmas auction at Tenbury wells.

There were several taboos regarding how one must behave during ‘The Christmas’. For example, one shouldn’t use horses to plough during the whole of the twelve days. Women should not do any spinning. The animals should be rewarded during this time, with farmers opting to give their cattle extra portions. If we turn briefly to the animals, there is some interesting associations with the period. It was believed that all animals were sensitive to the Christmas period. Cows were particularly sensitive, and it was believed that if you entered the cowshed at Midnight on Christmas Eve, you would find the cattle on their knees, in adoration of Christ. To witness such a spectacle would have been marvellous, however It usually resulted in blindness, even death for some unlucky souls. Perhaps the cows like a little privacy in their worship.

 After the preparations were complete, attention was turned to more jovial concerns. A favourite festive pastime of Salopians was dancing, with the young women of the farms putting on their most beautiful dresses and styling their hair with ribbons, to ensure they were ‘dutifully admired’. After dressing to impress, people would descend upon the village and spend the evening dancing, to the merry sound of singing and a band, usually including the fiddle. One could imagine that it was a wonderful occasion. As well as dancing, games such as blind man’s buff, bobbing for apples and ‘riddlesesses’ were played, ‘riddlesesses’ being a game of riddles, including ones like the following:

‘Long legs. Short thighs

Little head, and no eyes’

 

(a pair of tongs)

 

For many, the festive period would have been a wonderful opportunity to have fun. Of course, every village hall and farmhouse would hang ‘The Kissing bush’ a bunch of evergreens and mistletoe which would have provided further entertainment, as the night went on. (However, in some areas of Shropshire, the Kissing bush must be collected during the Christmas period but not hung until New Year’s Eve, where it is used to encourage kindly greetings.)

 

If we return to the household, once the pewter was shining and the cleaning was done, the house could be decorated. This was a jolly task, and usually involved the whole family in some way. Holly and ivy would be collected in abundance and be used to adorn the house, everywhere from the windowpanes to the candlesticks. Paper chains were meticulously made and hung from the ceiling. If Mistletoe was hung, It should be carefully preserved and left in the house, and only replaced the following year, serving as a token or good luck charm for the household. The Holly and Ivy would stay in the household too and only be removed at the end of the winter season, they were never thrown away, for this was seen as very bad luck, but were burnt in the hearth fire.

The hearth is particularly significant both within the farmhouse and also within the folklore of this time of year. Indeed, the lighting of the hearth fire became a ritual of its own, with it being lit on Christmas Eve and kept burning continuously for the following twelve days.

In many areas, including the villages of the Shropshire hills, the ritual began by bringing the ‘Christmas brand’ to the farmhouse. The Christmas brand was a similar idea to the Yule log. It was a seasoned trunk of Holly, Yew, Oak, or Crabtree; the biggest one could find. Which was drawn by horses to the house, and then the men would drag the trunk from the horse’s cart, to back of the hearth.  Once it was safely in place, the men would then celebrate, (it was hard work after all) ale would be brought out in pewter tankards and Christmas carols would be sung. Once the hearth was lit, it would be kept burning throughout the period, the embers would be raked every night, and it would be carefully tended. To do this one would collect large quantities of timbers, old linen rag, and matches, bought or handmade. By having these tools, it would ensure the fire kept burning. It was believed the Christmas period was a time no fire should be struck, given, or borrowed.  Indeed, during this time to share fire was deemed an insult among usually good neighbours, and also bad luck. There was also a belief in certain areas of Shropshire that one shouldn’t ‘throw out the ashes of the fire’ out on Christmas day for fear of throwing them in the saviour’s face. Furthermore, many women, when sweeping the floors would sweep it into the hearth, rather than out the door. This was to ensure you didn’t sweep the luck out of the house.

 There is a long association with feasting and the celebration of Christmas, and this is no different in Shropshire. Indeed, during the 1500s the corporation of Shrewsbury gained quite a reputation for their ‘sumptuous feasts’ during occasions such as Christmas. Such feasts included a breakfast of roast beef, brawn, mince pie and ale. I can only wonder what dinner looked like. The Christmas of 1576 at Longford included mince pies and a ‘Wassail Bowl’ to aid celebration. If we move into the 18^th and 19^th centuries, we can see further evidence of feasting playing a central role around Christmas.

 The feast centred around meat, and shortly before Christmas a bullock would be chosen, and killed. The prime joint would be selected, and the rest of the meat would be salted to eat at a later date. Pork also seems to be associated with the Christmas feast in parts of Shropshire, perhaps due to it being a meat readily available to most households. Indeed, a popular Shropshire maxim was that you ‘ate every part of the pig except the squeak’. As already mentioned, the 21^st of December is St Thomas’ day, who amongst other things was the patron saint of pig-killing. Geese were reared throughout the year, to make goose pie, which were similar to pork pies and seasoned with apple and onions. Supper was yet more meat, including pork again. Caraway buns, Mince pies, Plum cakes and pikelets were also popular treats. If you were a man, you were allowed extra beer during the festive period, often accompanying all meals, even breakfast.

As we have already seen, mince pies have played a prominent role in Shropshire celebration since at least the 1500s. It was traditional to offer a mince pie and wine to ever visitor during the Christmas period no matter the hour of the day, as Charlotte Burne suggests ‘There is luck about a mince pie’. As well as being deemed lucky, it was believed in Shropshire that for every mince pie you ate during this time, you received one month of happy days, therefore by my reckoning I should be sorted for about 3 years…

Another form of merrymaking during the Christmas season was carol singing. This gained prominence rather quickly in Shropshire and was often taken very seriously. Carolling, as we know it today developed around 1750, and by the latter half of the 19^th century, it was a permanent feature in Shropshire villages.  The parish records of this time are filled with references to ‘the singing master’ and ‘singing girls’ as well as the purchases of ‘pitch pipes’ which were all used to improve the quality of singing. The choir itself would be made up of local people, everyone from farmers to the blacksmith, singing their favourite hymns or carols. During the 1920s it was a common sight to see small bands of carollers walking the winding paths through the valley to distant farms, singing as they went, accompanied by the sound of the accordion or fiddle. This could also be seen on border at Llanyblodwel where despite bitter cold, carollers would sing even at the most distant farms. I find the thought of this particularly lovely, and it reminds me of my own (rather tamer) experiences at Ironbridge.

Another wonderful form of Christmas entertainment was the masquerade. This saw Christmas revellers moving through the village whilst in disguise, to knock on doors and perform. The performance itself took two distinct forms.  The Morris Dancers of South and West Shropshire would perform door to door songs and dances, which would have been a rather lovely affair. However, in areas such as Newport and Edgmond, things took a slightly more chaotic turn.

Here, amateur actors from the local community would go from door to door performing mummers plays, usually a loose retelling of the legend of St George. The house inhabitants would rush to the door on hearing their approach, and bar their entry. The fun would then ensue, with the rabble of actors performing a whole range of antics and pranks to try and gain entry to the house. The pranks would accompany the main narrative of the play, however as one can imagine it might become quite difficult to follow. If the inhabitants weren’t quick enough to their door, all of this would take place within the home. Eventually, the characters would enter the home, and the play would end when the last character, often brilliantly known as ‘Little Jack Devil Dout or Billy Beelzebub’ would threaten to ‘sweep them all to the grave’ and approach the hearth in a way that caused dust and wood to scatter.  This would be light-hearted and enjoyable, and often accompanied with beer and celebration. It has been suggested that though comical, such characters as Billy Beelzebub are chosen to represent the importance of the hearth, and the goblin spirits that attack during the long winter months.  I love this tradition. It has so much character and I would wholeheartedly support its return.

We now come to the end of the article, though there is countless more things we could have discussed, such as Owd Scratch’s visit to Jackfield one Christmas night. Having explored some of the traditions, beliefs, and folklore it is clear that there is a continuity between us, and those that came before us. This is a special time of year, a time for storytelling merriment and reflection. I hope that you have enjoyed this article and have a lovely Christmas, however you chose to celebrate.