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As I mentioned in last month’s diary, gigs for later in the year are starting to be sorted out.
On the afternoon of Sunday, 26th July we have an open-air performance at the new Dorking Community Bandstand which is being erected in Meadowbank Park. Hopefully, it will have stopped raining by then!
We have two informal gigs arranged at Leith Hill Place, the National Trust property in Surrey. We have played there several times over the years and it is always a fun afternoon. They are on the afternoons of Sunday 23rd August and Sunday 6th September.
We are finalising an October date for a concert at St. Luke’s Church in Maidstone, Kent.
The 1st March is celebrated as St. David’s Day. St. David was adopted as the patron saint of Wales in the twelfth century. It was a Welsh tradition for people born in the Principality to wear leeks in their hats on this day. It is often quoted that St. David prompted his countrymen to wear leeks to distinguish themselves in battle from the invading Saxons. From an English point of view, a relatively widespread tradition for St. David’s Day dating back to Victorian times, was a warning to housewives that this was the day that fleas appeared to plague humans for the rest of the year. Said to be the work of Satan, a saying goes ‘The Devil shakes a bag of fleas at everyone’s door on the 1st March.’ So be warned!
The Tichborne Dole, which is annually distributed on Lady Day, the 25th March, to the parishioners of Tichborne and Cheriton near Winchester, Hampshire, is one of the oldest charities in England. This particular dole is most memorable because of the legend of its unique origin in the twelfth century. Throughout her life, Lady Mabella Tichborne was extremely generous to the poor. As Lady Mabella lay on her deathbed, she requested that her husband, Sir Roger Tichborne, should inaugurate an annual distribution of bread, in her name, to the poor. Sir Roger was not best pleased with this request and taking a flaming brand from the fire, said she could have as much land for her charity as she could walk round before the brand went out. As she was bedridden he obviously thought it was a safe bet, but she called her servants to carry her outside and she managed to crawl round twenty-three acres before the flame died. This land was thereafter known as ‘The Crawls’. Not trusting her husband, she laid a curse on the family that if anyone interfered with the dole there would be a generation of seven sons, followed by one of seven daughters, and thereafter the family would die out and the house fall down.
The dole was distributed without interruption until 1796 when Sir Henry Tichborne, the head of the family, diverted the revenues of ‘The Crawls’ to the Church. In due course, he had seven sons, his heir had seven daughters and part of the house collapsed. These coincidences gave the family pause for thought. The third son reinstated the annual dole which continues to this day. The dole consists of a ton and a half of flour made from wheat grown on ‘The Crawls’. Prayers are offered for Lady Mabella’s soul, the flour is blessed and then distributed to the villagers, who bring bags and pillow-cases to hold it. A gallon is given to each male and half a gallon to each woman and child.
(My thanks in research to these excellent books: The English Year by the folklorist Steve Roud,
A Dictionary of British Folk Customs by Christina Hole, A Treasury of British Folklore by Dee Dee Chainey and Folklore, Myths and Legends of Britain by the Reader’s Digest)
All text, images and music samples on this site are copyright © Childe Rolande.
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