Hallowmas traditions in Shropshire

 

As the dying embers of summer faded and the wheel of the year turned, the minds of Shropshire folk would become more reflective and in turn, focus on more solemn concerns.  This is particularly apparent when looking at the traditions associated with as Hallowmas or Hallowtide. This term includes the dates of 31^st of October, 1^st of November and 2^nd of November, which mark ‘All Saints Eve, All Saints Day, and finally All Souls Day’. This term originates from the Middle English Alholowmesse, which means All Saints Day, but has come to signify both November dates.  Important and universal throughout western Christendom, I will first highlight the religious significance of these dates, before we delve deeper, and discuss their folkloric importance, and how this tradition had been interpreted in Shropshire.

All Saints Day is also known as ‘the feast of all saints, or the ‘solemnity of all saints’ which was celebrated throughout western Christendom. The focus of the day was to honour all the saints of the church, whether known or unknown. It implores participants to recall the lives and sacrifices of saints, even the ones who may be more obscure, or whose names are lost to the ravages of time. This celebration has its origins in the 9^th century when the British Isles began to commemorate the saints on the 1^st of November. Later in the century Pope Gregory IV extended this celebration, and All Saints Day spread to the whole of Christianity. Even after the Reformation and the splitting of the church, celebrations, and customs were still practiced on this date, and All Saints Day began to gain folkloric importance.

A similar thing can be said about All Soul’s Day, in the sense that the tradition persevered long after the religious significance was accessible or indeed relevant to many. All Soul’s Day was also known as ‘The commemoration of all the faithful departed’, and was a day of prayer, reflection, and remembrance for ancestors, and all those who are departed. Traditionally the date involved individual personal prayer, as well as intercessions for the poor souls in purgatory and visits to cemeteries. The veil between the living and the deceased is vague and thin, and the dead are never far from people’s minds.  During the 10^th century, the standardization of religious observance brought about by St Odilo of Cluny ensured that the 2^nd of November became synonymous with reverence of the dead.

The importance of these dates can be found throughout folklore, but for the remainder of this article I want to discuss their significance in Shropshire, and how Shropshire folk came to interpret them. Often the practices of Alholowmesse are mistakenly lumped into Halloween, or portrayed as Halloween traditions, but in Shropshire all three of the days hold importance, with only a few customs associated with the 31^st of October. Let us explore some of the Alholowmesse traditions in detail now, and in turn gain greater understanding of the role they played in everyday life.

It would be appropriate to begin our discussion on All Saints Eve, or what we would now call Halloween. All Saint’s Eve was known to be a particularly potent night for divination, especially Love divination. Charlotte Burne recounts that young women could peer beyond the veil and witness a future darling in a plethora of ways, from the mundane to the bizarre, such as the following method, which by all accounts is rather weird. In many parts of Shropshire, young women, eager to know of their future spouse were implored to go to the churchyard at midnight and search for half a brick in the darkness. Upon finding it, women must return to their bedroom and sleep with the brick under the pillow. This would allow them to dream of their future marriage.

 One of the most popular practices took place exclusively on All Soul’s Eve. This involved a hairbrush, a mirror or reflective surface and an apple. The eager maiden would stand in front of the mirror, and let her hair fall loose. Brushing her hair with one hand, she would eat an apple with the other, all the while gazing at her reflection. Soon enough, in the mirror’s silver surface, she would gaze upon the face of the man she would come to wed. Caution must be exercised here, for as soon as you lock eyes with your future partner, you must turn your head and look over your left shoulder, to avoid harm befalling that person. There is something very sensual, and almost biblical here, with the consumption of the apple almost invoking Eve’s temptation. I find love divination in general fascinating, The idea of eager young women (and in some cases men) trying to influence the path of true love through offerings and witchcraft gives us a unique insight into the attitudes and beliefs of our ancestors.

Another great example of All Saints Eve love divination Is the practice of ‘Plucking the sage tree’. On All Saints Eve, young Shropshire women would enter their gardens just before midnight, with love on the mind. Shropshire gardens were far from ornamental, and often grew herbs and vegetables, serving a practical purpose. Thus, often sage would grow in abundance. Having entered the garden, under the light of the moon they would pluck nine sage leaves, as the clock struck midnight. The belief was that after she had plucked her nine sage leaves, she would have a form of vision. If she was to be wed, she would see the face of her future husband, and in a rather macabre twist, if she was to remain single, she would see a coffin. I love the juxtaposition between the secrecy of these acts, often taking place at midnight and the commonality, with many women choosing to dabble, and witness a future spouse. Humans are curious beings, and love divination emphasizes our natural curiosity.

The church of Chirbury finds itself at the centre of an intriguing story, which also demonstrates a much darker form of All Saint’s Eve divination, that of the death omen. Indeed, folklore suggests that if you visit Chirbury churchyard on All Saints Eve, you can gain the knowledge of who is soon to die, if you enact a particular ritual. This ritual involves walking around the building twelve times (anti clockwise of course) and then sit on the church steps, waiting until midnight. Once the church bell chimes for midnight, you will be rewarded for your efforts with a roll call of all those souls who will die before the following All Saints Eve.

It was on this day in 1788, two men decided to try out this custom. Indeed, after spending some time in their local alehouse they descended on Chirbury Churchyard, eager to acquire such forbidden knowledge.  They planned to make a note of the names of the future dead, and then run up a series of debts with the people, knowing they would never need to pay the money back. Brilliant! In a drunken stupor they made up their mind and completed the ritual. Sure enough, after midnight they began to hear a raspy voice read out a list of names, which went on for some time. Suddenly, their blood ran cold, panic made their heart pound in their chest.

Of all the names they heard, one put fear into their hearts, for it was the name of the one man’s brother, and best friend of the other. They ran from the churchyard to his house and banged firmly on his door. After three knocks, he came down, bleary eyed from having been woken. The drunken men explained everything and told him that they’d heard his name. As one can imagine, he was far from happy, and told them he had no intension of dying, casting them away from his home, telling them to sober up. 

A week later, he was dead. The men never visited the churchyard again, and never spoke of their experience. I find this folk tale a wonderful addition to the discourse surrounding death omens in Shropshire, as it gives us a tantalising glimpse of possibility, to peer beyond the veil and understand Death’s work, but implores us to use such a power responsibly.

All Saint’s Day could be described as the most significant of Hallowtide celebrations in Shropshire. The first of November in much of Shropshire was known as ‘Souling Day’ due to the custom practiced associated with this date. It’s worthy of note that the practice I am about to discuss has also taken place on the 2^nd of November in some areas of Shropshire, and the significance of the individual days has in some places merged into one important event. The custom of ‘Souling’ was once popular in Shropshire and saw children (and in some cases adults too) taking to the street and going ‘a Souling’ around the neighbourhood. This involved travelling from house to house, often to the well-heeled parts of the neighbourhood and reciting songs or ditties in return for a reward. This reward depended on what part of Shropshire you were in, but usually involved either soul cakes, ale, apples or even money.

The soul cakes themselves were particularly popular, and Charlotte Burne recounts that some of the more liberal housewives would revel in this celebration, dedicating whole days to baking. They would then eagerly hand out the fruits of their labour, providing the children with baskets full of cakes. In a rather lovely twist, Charlotte Burne provides the names of a few women who continued the practice, such as Mrs. Mary Ward, who was the last known woman in Pulverbatch to bake soul cakes. She died in 1853 at 100 years old. The late Mrs. Gill of Hopton, near Hodnet was proud of her soul cake recipe, and provided an abundance of them to the children of the area until her death in 1884. Remnants of this practice continued after this date; before it went into decline. For example, in 1909 the Rev E. A. Godson of Clive published the words he’d heard children singing as they went souling door to door, preserving the local tradition. Phyllis Crawford wrote that by 1938 the souling cake tradition had died out in Wem, and the surrounding parishes but this didn’t stop children from knocking on doors, crying ‘please, I’ve come a souling’. In the villages near Oswestry, the practice was still continued during the 1930s, but apples, nuts and sweets were given rather than the traditional soul cakes.  For the children, especially those from more difficult economic backgrounds, it must have been an exciting time, and one can see parallels with more modern trick or treating traditions.

The soul cakes were often simple things, and the recipe varied from person to person. They were usually flat, round, or oval and in many ways more like buns than cakes which were made of a light dough. They would be made from the sorts of ingredients found within a kitchen pantry, and nothing would be bought especially for their creation. After the dough was made, the mixture would be spiced and seasoned, and in the later period, items such as raisins may be added. They often were decorated with a simple cross through the top of the cake, which had religious significance and signified that they were a form of alms, given to the poor. It also was a sign of protection. The origins of this practice in Shropshire are not clear, though as a whole it dates to the medieval period. There is evidence that the tradition in Shropshire is from at least the 17^th century, when John Aubrey wrote that-

 ‘In Salop, on All Soul’s Day there is set upon a board a heap of soule cakes lying upon each other like the picture of the sew bread in the old bibles. They are about the bigness of 2d cakes and nearly all visitants that day take one, and there is an old rhyme or saying said’.

In Aubrey’s account it depicts a longstanding practice, almost as if it is an expectation in a lot of areas so I wouldn’t be surprised if Shropshire folk had participated in ‘Souling’ since the medieval period.

We will now turn to the rhyme mentioned by Aubrey, and other accounts of the practice. After children had knocked on the door and got the attention of their neighbour’s, they would recite or sing a rhyme to announce their purpose. There are several folkloric traditions throughout England that follow a similar format, including some Christmas traditions.  In Shropshire, there was no standardized rhyme one must recite when you went ‘a Souling’ rather it differed regionally, often village to village. In Oswestry for example, the ‘Souling’ rhyme included some lines of Welsh, perhaps representing the interplay between the two areas which existed all along the border.

John Aubrey states that a common form of the rhyme takes very religious tone, which is as follows,

‘A soule cake, a soule cake

Have mercy on all Christian Soules

For a soule cake’

Here we are given more insight into the Christian origins of the custom, with the motif of mercy and forgiveness of the mortal soul playing a prominent part of the rhyme. However, as I have mentioned this is not the only form found in Shropshire. If we return to Rev E.A. Godson of Clive, he recorded that local children repeated the following rhyme-

 

‘Soul, Soul for an apple or two

Got no apples, pears will do.

Up with the kettle and down with the pan,

Give me an apple and I’ll be gone.

One for peter, two for Paul,

Three for him that made us all.

Apple or pear, plum or cherry

Any good thing for to make us merry.

Merry I am and merry I be,

Please give an apple away to me.’

 

 

Charlotte Burne provides a number of alternatives, including rhymes from areas such as Edgmond, Welshampton, Wellington and Pulverbatch. She also shares an example of what could be the ‘purest’ example of the ‘Souling’ rhyme in Shropshire, which comes from Market Drayton. This Is perhaps the closest to the original form and therefore the oldest version in existence in the county. The rhyme reads as follows,

 

‘Soul, Soul for a soul cake,

I pray, good missus, a soul cake.

An Apple or pear, a plum or cherry

Any good thing to make us merry.

One for Peter, two for Paul,
Three for him who made us all,

Up with the kettle and down with the pan

Give us good alms and we will be gone.’

 

Though this is quite a cheerful ditty, it is worthy of mentioning that the whole practice is sadly linked to entrenched rural poverty. It sees children begging for alms in the wealthier areas of a village and hoping to gain charity. It provides us with a poignant insight into the difficulties our ancestors faced. It provides a little comfort in knowing that it was a popular practice, and that the community provided. There are other examples of ritualized begging for alms in Shropshire, such as at Christmas which was seen as a time of ‘sharing the fruits of the earth with the poor’. During the festive period every farmer in the area would set aside a sack of wheat for the poor, and all the cottagers’ wives would go from house to house to collect their share of the ‘dole’, according to their family size and poverty. The women would don the oldest clothes they owned, and often opted to wear their husbands cast off smocks or coats. There were also such practices associated with Whitsuntide and many other dates in the Calendar. 

Thus, I think it is important as both a folklorist and a historian to emphasize that we should never look at the history of rural areas with rose tinted glasses. It was not a quaint, simple time, but one fraught with difficulties, danger, and challenges. Many people who partook in customs such as Souling would have been entrenched in poverty, including my own relatives. Thus, they served both a celebration but also a practical purpose, to ensure that food was eaten, and individuals had the means of supporting themselves.

I want to briefly look at the customs associated with the 2^nd of November, All Soul’s Day. As I have previously mentioned it seems like the ‘Souling’ custom took place on either day, or sometimes on both, so this would have played a key role in marking the date.  All Soul’s Day was seen as a time of reflection, and commemoration of the dead, through prayers and often visits to cemeteries. In some areas of Shropshire, you would see the practice of decorating graves with an abundance of flowers taking place on All Soul’s Day, though this was generally more prominent on Palm Sunday. I think the consensus is that the dead wouldn’t be far from people’s minds at this time, and it would probably have been more of a solemn, contemplative affair. Perhaps individuals had their own ways of commemorating the dead, through candles or stories or who they’d been in life.

 

What is known is that all three of these days held meaning to Shropshire folk. The folk customs associated with this time of year represent charity, community, and a stalwart spirit in the face of adversity.  Isn’t it rather lovely? I find it comforting to think of Mrs. Mary Ward and Mrs. Gill of Hopton, in their kitchens baking away in separate parts of Shropshire. What did this practice mean to them? What feeling grew when they saw happy-faced children making off with the fruits of their labour. These women were insistent on the custom remaining, even after other remnants of it had faded, and I think we can learn from this. What can we do to help others, in the darkest months of the year? Perhaps we can take a little of Shropshire folklore with us, to support others as the wheel of the year turns.