Monday 10 January 2022

Plough Monday

Because I'd found out about Plough Sunday and Plough Monday back in 2019 for the post below  I knew a bit about it but it was quite a surprise to find the the village church still celebrates it with Morris Dancers and blessing a plough. 
 
Plough Monday, next after that Twelfth tide is past
Bids out with the plough, the worst husband is last 
 
This is part of the 2019 post.........
 
 Plough Monday, the first Monday after Twelfth Night was the day the agricultural year started, but before they began  their hard work, the plough men and boys took the opportunity to have a bit of fun by dressing up, blacking up, and processing around the village to perform a plough play and hopefully be given some money.  The plough was often blessed in the church on the Sunday before, so the day was named as Plough Sunday.

Turn out for plough Monday
Up, fellows now
Buckle the horses
And follow the plough. 
 

Photo of picture from my book 'The English Year' by Steve Roud. It's described as 'from George Walker's - The Costume of Yorkshire 1814'

 
  Plough deep while sluggards sleep 
And you shall have corn to sell and keep.
 
Our Parish Magazine said the Morris Dancers would lead a parade of the plough out of the church at 
11 O'clock .  
So I took my camera up the road to the church and waited. Three Morris Dancers brought the plough out of the church
 and went back in again. I waited a bit more but hanging around in the chilly shade of the church got a bit cold. So I gave up, took a photo of the very old decorated plough and went home!
 The English Year book mentioned above has several references to Plough Sunday through history including..............From a journal called Folk-Lore, published in Bedfordshire in 1926 .......
Plough Monday - all the boys and men at farm work disguise themselves with odd costumes and masks and patrol the streets singing and shaking tins and saying " Give poor ploughboys a halfpenny or a penny". They knock on doors and, on being admitted, sing and sometimes dance, and expect money and beer or wine.
 
And From The Times in 1954 
Plough Sunday was commemorated at several churches yesterday. At Heddenham, Norfolk, the rector blessed a plough which had been placed in the chancel and offered prayers for all engaged in agriculture. In the city of London a ceremonial plough which 24 men and women who work in the fields of Dorset brought up from Springfield, near Dorchester, was blessed at St. Helens Bishopgate. After the service, 12 Dorset men dressed in traditional costume performed the plough dance play in the churchyard.
 
After the 1950's the tradition seems to have died out....................... except here! 
 
Back Tomorrow
Sue 






35 comments:

  1. Still celebrated in Avebury, Wiltshire!

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  2. How lovely - I've never seen this around here at all.
    xx

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    1. Having said that, I googled and they celebrate in Maldon. I never knew. There's an ad in Facebook for 2020, inviting people to come along beforehand to practice the dance. xx

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  3. I love hearing about things like this. It anchors us to history. Thank you for sharing.

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    1. I like finding out about all the old traditions and folklore

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  4. I've not seen Morris dancers in years, they were often in our village as I grew up in Somerset in late 60's and 70's.

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    1. Not as many groups as there once was perhaps? They sometimes dance outside pubs in summer

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  5. I have never heard of this but then it is not plough season here we are under the snow and frozen solid. But very interesting
    Cathy

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    1. Nowadays most of the ploughing is done straight after harvest and crops are already coming up.

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  6. I love villages that still keep the old traditions alive, imagine if we lost all the good things in this mad drive to constantly improve and move forwards.

    I should imagine even the most basic of ploughs were seen as something to be blessed when they were used instead of men having to turn the soil by hand.

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    1. It would have been hard work walking behind a plough like the one in the photo - now they are cocooned in a heated tractor cab!

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  7. I love keeping the old traditions! This would be a fine thing to see.

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    1. It's good to find out about all the things that happen in my new village

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  8. Interesting history of your Plough Monday. Thanks, Sue!

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  9. Plough Monday is new to me. It's a very nice tradition and tribute to farming. I'll google to see if any churches near me perform this blessing as I'd enjoy the entire ceremony. I once attended a church that had a blessing the animals ceremony and this seemed nice enough until the minister said she disliked dogs. It all just seemed dark and wrong!

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    1. Oh dear that must have been difficult for that minister

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  10. How very cool! Love the traditions you write about in this blog. Ain't nobody ploughing in our neighbourhood .. there is a foot and a half of snow covering our garden. :)

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    1. No one ploughing here either - much too wet and mostly done as soon as crops are harvested now

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  11. So many countries have these ancient traditions and observing them must have given folk a feeling of continuity in their life and added a certain solidity and steadiness to their year as it progressed through the different seasons.
    I almost envy them! :)

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    1. People worked hard but they had lots of celebrations to mark the special days.
      Now it's all about spending money!

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  12. I don't think I've heard of Plough Sunday and Plough Monday, but it is wonderful to know that some villages still celebrate it. Keeping such traditions help us to stay linked to our ancestors.

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  13. And so the wheel of the year turns again! x

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  14. What a quaint tradition! Thanks for sharing.

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  15. And a great tradition to carry on.

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  16. How wonderful that it is still remembered. For a moment I had it confused with the celebrations on Orkney with the boys having a miniature plough and the girls dressing up as plough horses! https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3200955/Festival-girls-dress-shire-horses-boys-push-tiny-ploughs.html

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  17. Wow how interesting that is and how lovely you were able to go and take some photos!

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