Folklore of Northamptonshire E-Book

Peter Hill

• Herausgeber: The History Press
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 390

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2009

Beschreibung

This book describes the reaction of the common people to some of the tumultuous events which occurred in Northamptonshire and shaped England's history, and how this gave rise to many colourful folklore traditions. Especially rich in dialect, vocabulary, legends, and wondrous stories that have been handed down through the ages, the character of Northamptonshire and its people is firmly rooted in its folklore. There are tales of literary folk and noblemen, but always at the heart of Northamptonshire's folklore are the traditional beliefs, stories, events and customs of the common people. Daily life itself contained numerous beliefs and maxims, omens and superstitions - often based on fear of the uncertain - as well as being full of music and verse, dance and song. These delightful, revealing and sometimes fanciful traditions have remained hidden until now.

Leseprobe

FOLKLORE

of

NORTHAMPTONSHIRE

FOLKLORE

of

NORTHAMPTONSHIRE

PETER HILL

Frontispiece: The county of Northamptonshire as it is today. At one time, part of Stamford, and the Soke of Peterborough, were within its boundaries. Changes have been made since the nineteenth century, the last being those which took place in the 1970s. It is still unique in being surrounded by eight other counties.

First published 2005

This edition first published 2009

Reprinted 2012

The History Press

The Mill, Brimscombe Port

Stroud, Gloucestershire, GL5 2QG

www.thehistorypress.co.uk

This ebook edition first published in 2013

All rights reserved ©

Peter Hill, 2005, 2009, 2013

The right of Peter Hill to be identified as the Author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

EPUB ISBN 978 0 7524 9987 1

Original typesetting by The History Press

CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

Introduction

One

Rose of the Shires

Two

What’s in a Name?

Three

A Cornucopia of Customs

Four

Stranger than Fiction

Five

Natural or Supernatural?

Six

Legends and Tales

Seven

Things That Go Bump in the Night: Ghosts, Witches et al

Eight

Superstition and Belief

Nine

Everyday Life

Ten

Music, Song and Dance

Dialect and Glossary

Field Names

Wood Names

Bibliography

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I am grateful to the many people who have helped in getting the material for this book. In addition to those named in context for answering my many questions, allowing me access to various archives, private correspondence, diaries, research notes and information intended for publication which never made the final hurdle, I wish to thank Rachel Watson, Sue Groves, Sarah Bridges and the other archivists at the County Record Office for their assistance over the years; the Public Record Office; the Law Society; the staff at Northampton Museum and Peterborough Museum; Rothwell Heritage Centre and Wellingborough Heritage Centre. A word of special thanks is given to Terry Bracher and Colin Eaton of the Local Studies Collection at Central Library, Northampton for access to relevant parts of the John Clare collection and permission to use extracts from the manuscripts; Jo Langley at Corby Library; the staff at Daventry, Brackley, Towcester and Oundle Libraries; Oundle Museum; Manor House Museum at Kettering; Cambridgeshire Record Office; Leicestershire Record Office; and my former associates at the University of East Anglia.

The work of John Clare, Anne Elizabeth Baker, Thomas Sternberg, Christopher Markham and John Askham, all of whom recorded vital aspects of folklore and life, both current and fast disappearing at the time they were writing, is also duly recognised.

I would like to express a particular word of thanks to the following individuals for their help past and present: Gareth Fitzpatrick on behalf of the Duke of Buccleuch, Hugh de Capell Brooke, Gertrude Bagshaw, Jack Bailey, Harold Bazely, Annie Beaver, Burl Bellamy, Mia Butler, Rose Clark, John Clarke, Flo Colyer, George Deacon, Colin Elliott, Frank Ellis, Edna Essex, Norah Field, Alan Fookes, Maurice Goodwin, John Green, Dorothy Grimes, Jim Harker, Elsie Harrison, Audrey Harwood, John and Gwen Hay, Carl Hector, Robin and Hilary Hillman, Judy Hopkins, Elizabeth Jordan, Pat Kimmons, Matthew Kirk, R.C. Lambeth, Adela Lock, Lance Lock, Mavis Maltby, Norman Mason, Bob Mears, Ron Mears, Alan Milton, Robert Newman, C.J. Ough, David Pain, Edith Palmer, Tom and Jane Parker, Sue Payne, Charles Peach, Connie Pickford, Marian Pipe, Mary Pittam, Harry Pywell, Monica Raine, Bill Richardson, Paul and Yasmin Rogers, Peter Rowney, Elvin Royall of the Rothwell Spoken Archive, Mabel Sculthorp, Beryl and Bill Simon, Audrey Singlehurst, Michael Smith, Reg Sutton, Commander Michael Saunders Watson, Alice Thomas and Mervyn Wilson.

I would like to mark my appreciation and admiration for the unknown photographers and illustrators of the past whom I have been unable to contact, who in many cases recorded something which has long since vanished. My gratitude also goes to Ron Mears, R. Lambeth, Carl Hector, Charles Herbert, Monica Raine and others whose work I have used in this book.

A debt of gratitude is also owed to the many local history societies around the county for whom I have given lectures, and the students on my courses who have given imput from their own experiences, family memoirs and other sources.

A special mention must be given to the many people I have interviewed over the years, most of whom were open and warm in their recollections to someone they hardly knew at first meeting, especially those who were in their eighties and nineties (though even in their time, much had already disappeared), and in particular to one special lady, who was born in the 1870s and died in 1969, who many years ago inspired my interest in folklore and history when I was very young. They were the last links with a world we have lost and it was a special privilege to share those priceless memories with them and to record their experiences, which might never have been written down and would have remained irretrievable. In some cases, they were inspired to personally write down their memoirs for members of their family both present and future, a task that in some ways rolled back the years, and gave them a chance to relive their youth.

Last but not least, my sincere thanks to Katherine Burton of Tempus Publishing for her interest in getting this, my fourth book for the company, into print; and to my family for their patience and understanding while I turned the home into a press office until the project came to fruition.

INTRODUCTION

If such an appliance as a time machine existed and we could go back to the past and see the county as it was 100, 200 or more years ago, most visitors would find it hard to come to terms with what they saw, heard and experienced. Accustomed to having a wide variety of consumables to choose from and the ability to afford them, having a substantial home with a range of utilities and a personal means of travelling from place to place as and when they want, it would not be an exaggeration to say they would be unable to tolerate or survive the lifestyle of our ancestors. Equally, if our ancestors could visit our world, they would also be shocked, not so much at the way the world has changed visually and made progress in science, medicine and technology, but by seeing the modern emphasis on money and success, the number of cars and the fast, stressful pace of life. They worked hard but they played hard too – they were survivors – and they had a vivid, colourful vocabulary, a superstitious mind and a range of customs, all of which helped them through the good and bad times of life.

Northamptonshire lies almost in the centre of England, stretching north-east to south-west, its shape likened variously to an oak leaf or a deflated balloon. Being surrounded by eight other counties has left it open to so many influences, which have affected its vocabulary and folklore. It is a county of contrasts, with miles of green and well-watered rolling countryside and river valleys punctuating the landscape, making it an attractive proposition for settlement ever since mankind came on the scene. Two of the county’s rivers rise in the Naseby area: the Nene, which flows eastwards into The Wash, and the Avon, which meanders westwards through Shakespeare country and beyond. The older dwellings in the county have been constructed either with golden or honeycomb-coloured ironstone or the more durable grey Jurassic limestone, celebrated also for its use in the construction of the original St Paul’s Cathedral and King’s College Chapel in Cambridge, among other great buildings.

Events of early history within the county’s boundaries have left an indelible mark, giving it such a distinctive character – it has been said that no other English county has so much contrast as Northamptonshire (Cox, 1933). Its division in the ninth century and the establishment of the Danelaw over nearly two-thirds of its area initiated the shaping of its character. Much of the county has been devastated in the past: Northampton was destroyed by King Sweyn of Denmark in 1010 and in 1065 the county suffered in the rebellion of Morcar, who swept down from Northumberland to assert his rights as its earl, meeting the King’s emissary at Northampton but destroying county settlements en route. Northamptonshire was also one of the last counties to succumb to industrialisation; even today it seems to resist change and retain its rural character, despite the threats to the countryside posed by the need to accommodate new roads, housing and places of work and commerce.

The county has made a great contribution to English literature. The list of Northamptonshire writers is headed by poet John Clare, followed by dramatist and Poet Laureate John Dryden, metaphysical poet Thomas Randolph, novelist H.E. Bates, country life author Denys Watkins-Pitchford (known as BB) and, to a lesser degree, author Charles Kingsley, who spent six years of his early life at Barnack. To the list must also be added a literary figure, now almost forgotten, who had considerable influence on contemporary writers. This was Thomas Percy, who was vicar of St Peter and St Paul at Easton Maudit from 1753 to 1782, during which time he compiled Reliques (published in 1765), one of the bestselling literary works of the century. This collection of 195 ancient ballads is, in some ways, of major significance in the field of folklore and encouraged writers like Sir Walter Scott and Robert Burns to refashion old ballads into their own poetry, and inspired John Clare.

Of John Clare, little needs to be said. So much has been written about the great man and his wonderful nature poetry, which evokes all the sights, sounds, scents and activities of the countryside he loved, expressed in local dialect and using a rich vocabulary, much of which has long been obsolete. However, his poetic achievements overshadow his other activities as a collector of folk songs and dances and recorder of customs and games. There are brief glimpses of these features of life in the county in his poems and he described them in some detail in three very important sources for students of folklore: part of the introduction to The Village Minstrel, his autobiographical The Cottage Festival and a letter to William Hone, a London antiquarian and editor of The Every-day Book. These were brought together, with Clare’s songs and tunes, by George Deacon in John Clare and the Folk Tradition (1983), from manuscripts held at Northampton Central Library, Peterborough Museum and the Carl H. Pforzheimer Library in New York.

We are indebted to other early pioneers in recording the county’s folklore, such as the Northampton antiquarian and musician Thomas Sternberg, whose The Dialect and Folklore of Northamptonshire, published in 1851, was followed by Anne Elizabeth Baker’s Glossary of Northamptonshire Words and Phrases (1854). Baker was given generous help and information by John Clare when he was at the asylum in Northampton. In many ways, John Askham of Wellingborough (1825-1894) continued the work of Clare, with wonderfully evocative nature poetry and glimpses of life past and present. Something of a Thomas Hardy-like character in his reaction against the changes around him, his Sketches in Poems and Verse (1893) were a milestone in the literature of the county. He also produced several other volumes of verse between 1863 and 1893, including a tribute to Clare.

Charles Montagu-Douglas-Scott published a collection of legends in Northamptonshire Songs (1904/1906), which was followed several years later by Tales of Old Northamptonshire (1936), which focused on legends from the north of the county in ballad form. Christopher Markham (d.1937) brought out a collection of sayings from around the county in The Proverbs of Northamptonshire (1897). More recently, the late Dorothy Grimes of Northampton brought out the first modern overview of past Northamptonshire life and lore in her privately published book, Like Dew Before The Sun (1991), which contains a wealth of material gleaned from a variety of sources around the county.

Although Northamptonshire is a county that has surprised and entranced visitors for generations, not all comments have been favourable. In a UK travel survey in the 1990s, Northamptonshire was placed in the lower reaches of a table of counties worth visiting, causing considerable outrage among locals, who rightly asserted that detractors have either not made a proper exploration and discovered its many charms, or have never been to the county and so do not know what they are missing! In some ways, this is due to the county having been bypassed in modern times, with the M1 on its western boundary and the A1 to the east.

In the past, however, some renowned visitors have been scathing. In 1763, author Horace Walpole, the son of Prime Minister Robert Walpole, stayed at the White Swan in Wellingbrough and wrote:

Never stay in Wellingborough, the beastliest inn on earth is there... We were carried into a vast bed chamber which I suppose is the club room, for it stank of tobacco, like a Justice of the Peace! I desired some boiling water for tea – they brought me a sugar dish of hot water on a pewter plate.

Charles Dickens, as a young reporter for the Morning Chronicle, also had one traumatic visit in December 1835, when he stayed at the White Hart Hotel while covering a by-election in Kettering. In a letter to his wife, Kate, he described the chaos he experienced:

The noise and confusion here in Kettering this morning – the first day of polling here – is going to my head. The voters here are drinking and guzzling, howling and roaring, in every house of entertainment ... such a ruthless set of bloody-minded villains have I never set eyes on in my life ... they were perfect savages ... if a foreigner was brought here on his first visit to England I am quite satisfied he would never set foot in England again.

This was obviously a one-off view, for, like the majority of other visitors, he was entranced by what he saw in the county and was later inspired to use locations within it for his famous books. He used the Saracen’s Head at Towcester in The Pickwick Papers and the local landscape and grounds of Rockingham Castle, the home of Richard and Lavinia Watson, were the inspiration for Bleak House. He stayed at Rockingham Castle on several occasions and he wrote and produced his playlets in the Long Gallery for small gatherings. He also dedicated David Copperfield to the family.

Every county has its own folklore and Northamptonshire is especially rich in traditions, dialect and vocabulary, legends and wondrous stories that have come down to us through the ages. Much has either vanished or has been ignored, hidden away in different places, awaiting rediscovery. This book sets out to redress the balance.

Peter Hill January 2005

One of the many colourful village signs that can be seen in Northamptonshire. Most of these were designed and erected in preparation for the Millennium.

one

ROSE OF THE SHIRES

Northamptonshire is an apple without a core to be cut out, or a rind to be pared away.

These words by one of the county’s renowned literary sons, Thomas Fuller of Aldwincle, in his 1662 book, The Worthies of England, sum up the affection and protectiveness felt by Northamptonshire folk over the centuries, a process that still continues relentlessly today. And yet, as each year goes by, so much of our everyday way of life – because of its very familiarity – has not been considered important, something to be valued, and has not been properly documented for future generations. Roy Paine of Rushden, whose family ancestry in the county stretches far back into the mists of time, sums up the attitude of many folk:

This county is thickly clad in the vestments of the ages, and we locals wear the dialects, lore, deeds and happenings, like a comfortable suit of clothes. We know where to go to walk with the shades of the past ... you could say we have taken it all for granted.

Until recently, only a few interested individuals or local history societies were recording or researching the heritage of their communities. With the dawn of the new millennium, all this has changed and the county now has a fine network of enthusiasts and websites. Allied to this is the growth of interest in Northamptonshire’s folklore.

So what is folklore? It is a study of the traditional beliefs, stories, events and customs of the common people. It is a never-ending process, as this store of traditions from the past is still being added to today, for as time goes on what is a normal part of life for us will gradually change and be forgotten, or become a distant memory. In other words, something that is modern now will, within a relatively short time, be seen as old-fashioned. Our way of life will join that of our ancestors as part of antiquity as new ideas and advances change the world.

Events that have determined the course of England’s history in some way have taken place in the county, giving rise to certain connections and colourful, if fanciful, traditions that have become part of folklore. Thomas à Becket’s Well in Northampton is where he is said to have paused to slake his thirst and rest during his flight from the town after his trial at the castle in 1164 for the misappropriation of funds and breach of Constitutions of the Realm. The Queen’s Oak in Salcey Forest is said to be the tree where Edward IV met his future wife and consort, Elizabeth Woodville, whom he later secretly married at Grafton Regis, her family home, in May 1464. The tree was described in an early account as ‘an oak so hollow, huge and old, it look’d a tower of ruin’d masonwork’.

Earlier, a crucial battle of the War of the Roses had taken place in the rain-drenched meadows at Delapré in Northampton in July 1460, which saw Yorkist forces defeat the Lancastrians, inflicting heavy losses (around 500 men) and taking Henry VI prisoner. The conditions and bloody carnage led to the field ‘turning red’ and the ghosts of the slain were said to have been seen and heard for many years afterwards.

The Tudor and Stuart periods would give rise to more fanciful legends. In 1585, Queen Elizabeth I is said to have visited Kirby Hall, which lies in isolation near Gretton. Kirby Hall was the newly acquired home of her chancellor and favourite dancing partner, Sir Christopher Hatton, a member of a distinguished county family. The esteem in which she held him was mentioned, if somewhat humorously, by Richard Barham in The Ingoldsby Legends (1837):

So what with his form and what with his face, And what with his velvet coat guarded with lace, And what with his elegant dancing and grace, His dress and address so tickled Queen Bess That her Majesty gave him a very snug place; And seeing, moreover, at one single peep, her Advisers were, few of them, sharper or deeper, (Old Burleigh excepted) she made him Lord Keeper.

It is said that on certain nights of the year, a banquet given by Hatton in her honour is re-enacted at Kirby Hall, with flickering lights and shadowy figures seen dancing in the long-uninhabited building. Although there is no evidence that Elizabeth I did stay there, another tradition says that while in the area, she fell from her horse into a treacherous bog during a hunt and was rescued by men from nearby Corby. In gratitude, she issued a charter commanding that all men and tenants of the village be given certain rights and concessions around the kingdom:

to be quit from such toll, pannage, murage and passage to be paid on accounts of their goods and things throughout our whole realm aforesaid ... Also that you do not place the same men and tenants of the same manor in any assizes, juries or recognisances to be held out of the Court of the Manor.

Fotheringhay is also the site of several traditions. In 1387, Edmund of Langley, the first Duke of York, acquired the castle which was in a ruinous state, rebuilding and enlarging it to grand proportions, as befitted such an illustrious family. The village became a hive of activity, with more accommodation being built outside the castle to cater for the number of important guests arriving for feasts and tournaments. Three members of the family who were slain on the battlefield were eventually buried there: Edward, the second Duke of York, who died at Agincourt in 1415; Edward IV’s father, Richard, the third Duke of York; and brother Edmund, who were both slain at Wakefield. The future Richard III was born at Fotheringhay in October 1482, with one biased chronicler writing:

A costumed re-enactment at Kirby Hall, as part of an English Heritage Living History event.

...he was suppressed in his mother’s womb for two years, emerging with teeth and shoulder length hair.

Long after the demise of the castle, many local people insisted they could hear ‘strange music’ from drums and trumpets coming from the earthworks of the former castle, including one well-documented case in the 1950s of a policeman from Oundle who went to investigate but was unable to find or see anything tangible. A similar situation has also occurred on occasion in the now truncated church, the missing portion being part of an attached chantry college which disappeared in the years following the Dissolution. There have been cases of medieval funeral music being heard from within, but when the door has been opened to investigate, everything goes silent.

Mary Queen of Scots, who was seen as a threat to Elizabeth I, was imprisoned and ultimately beheaded at Fotheringhay Castle. On the way to her final destination, she is said to have uttered the word ‘Perio!’ as she sighted the village in the distance. The word was incorrectly taken to mean ‘I perish!’, when in fact she was passing through the former settlement called Perio and the road on which she was journeying was known as Perio Lane.

An engraving of the execution of Mary Queen of Scots at Fotheringhay Castle.

On 31 January 1587, eight days before her execution, a strange incident took place, for an hour from midnight, when a flame of bright fire appeared from nowhere and hovered outside the window of the queen’s chamber, lighting up the room. It disappeared then returned twice more to act in the same manner. It was not visible anywhere else at the castle; only the guards, frightened out of their wits, were witnesses.

Mary’s beheading took two blows of the axe and, after a final severing with a knife, the head was held up by the executioner. It became detached from the wig in the process and fell to the floor. An eyewitness, Robert Wynfield, wrote an account of the execution to Chief Minister Burghley, which included a description of a remarkable sight following the beheading:

one of the executioners pulling of her garments espied her little dogge which was under her clothes, which could not be gotten forth but by force, and afterwards would not depart from its dead companion, but came and laid betweene her head and shulders.

After Mary’s death, her apparition was said to follow an underground passage from the castle to the oratory at nearby Southwick Hall, her footsteps sounding on the stone steps leading up to the door and pausing before she entered the small room, holding a rosary, to pray. A tradition was also passed down through the centuries that when Mary’s son, James VI of Scotland, became James I of England, he had the walls of the castle torn down as an act of retribution for his mother’s execution. However, history proves otherwise, since the castle survived for many years, at one stage being used as an armaments store, until the mid-1630s when its stonework was used for the building or repair of local dwellings, walls and, in one case, a chapel at Fineshade. A visitor in the castle’s final days is said to have found graffiti scratched on a window sill by Mary’s diamond ring with the words:

The only surviving fragment of the keep of Fotheringhay Castle and the mound on which it formerly stood. The church in the background is where members of the York family were buried.

From the top of all my trust, mishap hath laid me in the dust.

Robert Catesby, the charismatic leader and instigator of the Gunpowder Plot, was associated with the county, being based at Ashby St Ledgers. Two other conspirators, also associated with the county, were the last to join the plot: Sir Everard Digby of Gayton and, more reluctantly, Catesby’s cousin and boyhood companion, Francis Tresham of Rushton, ‘a wyld and unstayed man’. Significantly, two places where the conspirators are said to have met in secret to hatch the plot were the gatehouse of Catesby’s home and the Triangular Lodge at Rushton Hall. It is Tresham who is credited with revealing the plot by secretly delivering a letter to his brother-in-law, Lord Monteagle, in London, urging him not to attend the opening of Parliament. It began:

My Lord, out of love I bear to some of your friends, I have care of your preservation. Therefore I would advise you, as you tender your life, to devise some excuse to shift of your attendance at this Parliament.

The letter was taken to the Chief Minister and acted upon. It may well have been a forgery, planted by ministers who knew about the plot but waited to watch its development before doing anything, but this did not prevent Tresham from being implicated and he died in painful circumstances in the Tower on 23 December 1605, possibly from a urinary infection, although some say he was poisoned. Innocent or not, he was beheaded after his death. His body was thrown into a hole in the vicinity and his head was sent to Northampton, where it was put on public display.

Monteagle became a national hero for saving King and Country and another high-ranking county man, Sir Edward Montagu of Boughton House, introduced a Bill in Parliament proposing an annual day of rejoicing on the anniversary of the plot’s discovery, which was the origin of Bonfire Night. Initially, 5 November was a day of bell-ringing and church attendance for prayers of thanksgiving. The prayers were later dropped and by 1625, bonfires began to be a regular feature, these being combined with firework displays by 1662.

In later years, a popular rhyme or ‘catch’ chanted by children around the county as they went from house to house on Bonfire Night was:

Guy Fawkes and his companions did the plot contrive, To blow up the king and parliament and people all up alive. By God’s providence they were cotch’d,

Two of the supposed meeting places of the conspirators the Gunpowder Plot: the gatehouse at Ashby St Ledgers and Rushton Triangular Lodge.

With a dark lantern and a lighted match. [‘cotch’d’ means ‘caught’]

Northamptonshire was the scene of much action during the Civil War. The county was mainly Parliamentarian in allegiance and it was difficult to be in the Royalist faction. Many of the leading aristocracy were either taken prisoner or went into exile and their great houses were plundered, such as that at Deene where a valuable local history collection was ransacked and depleted, or at Rockingham where the castle was left virtually as a shell, with the church, almshouses and much of the village destroyed. Some Royalists did hold their ground, however, such as the daring Dr Michael Hudson, rector of Kingscliffe and chaplain to Charles I, whom he accompanied from Oxford to Newark. Hudson was constantly trying to recruit men for the Royalist cause and legends abound about how he managed to escape the clutches of Parliamentarian troops three times, on one occasion with a basket of apples on his head. In anger, the Parliamentarians used the church as stables and caused damage to its spire. Finally, on 6 June 1648, they pursued Hudson to Woodcroft Castle, on the county border near Elton. Hudson hung on to a parapet while they hacked at his fingers, causing him to fall to his death in the moat below. The incident was used by Sir Walter Scott in his novel Woodstock.

A pen-and-ink sketch, said to be by Oliver Cromwell, of the ‘Plane of Batell’ at Naseby, showing the positions of the opposing armies.

The decisive battle of the war took place in the county, at Naseby. On 14 June 1645, 14,000 Parliamentary troops under Fairfax and Cromwell routed the 10,000-strong Royalist forces commanded by Prince Rupert. In the aftermath, 4,000 bodies lay on the field and for many years afterwards, on the anniversary, the battle was said to have been re-enacted in the sky above. There were also eyewitness accounts of regular ghostly combat on the field itself. According to widely held belief, Cromwell’s body was taken back to the scene of his victory after his death in 1658 and his ghost was said to roam in the fields. Today, anyone visiting that bleak isolated spot, where a memorial overlooks the site, cannot fail to picture the scene of such carnage.

The slaughter continued as Royalist survivors fled the scene. Cromwell wrote about the aftermath in a letter shortly after the victory:

We pursued them from three miles short of Harborough to nine beyond even to sight of Leicester, whither the King fled.

Years later, an elderly eyewitness gave an account of the battle and its aftermath, reporting that even women accompanying the defeated troops were cut and slashed in the face or nose, some with the comment: ‘Remember Cromwell, you whores!’

Part of the battlefield, as seen from the memorial at Naseby.

At Marston Trussell, a group of Royalists were trapped in an enclosed field known as Pudding End, close to the church, and were massacred, their bodies buried in a shallow pit, long afterwards known as Cavaliers’ Grave, giving rise to yet another haunted location in the county.

Tradition also says that Oliver Cromwell and some of his men stayed in the Hind Hotel in Wellingborough on the eve of the battle, although this has been proved impossible. However, true or not, a room named after him exists there today. Similarly, a table in the church at Naseby is where Royalists were dining when they were interrupted by the unexpected arrival of Cromwell’s men.

These events are just some of many that have given rise to all kinds of speculation over the centuries, contributing to the vast body of folklore of Northamptonshire, Rose of the Shires. Let us now enter that fascinating world, go along some of its paths and explore the rich landscape within.

An idyllic scene evoking a lost era: the former watermill, now Conygar Farm, at Woodnewton.

two

WHAT’S IN A NAME?

If you could travel back in time to old Northamptonshire, you would encounter many familiar words such as holt, stag, hog, crab stick, twang, budget, stickers, shorts, take away, tight, great, hike, fridge, fashion, broad cast and drop out, to name but a few. The problem is that these words had a different meaning then. That process of change in our language continues unabated today, as our way of life changes. In spelling, vocabulary, grammar and usage, new words are coming in, others going out of fashion and some (e.g. gay, pad, coke) undergoing a change of meaning. Many of these words can be found in the Glossary section of this book.

Our county ancestors had a whole host of local words and expressions (folk rhymes), some of which were used by one community to describe a neighbouring one, mainly alluding to some characteristic of the topography or reputation of the inhabitants, justified or invented by inter-village rivalry or harmless ribaldry, the origins of which have often been lost or distorted long ago. There have been occasions when rivalry has been apparent in some form (usually a form of superiority) between the adjoining villages of Cottingham and Middleton, as well as between Wilbarston and neighbouring Stoke Albany, Rothwell and Desborough, and Corby and Kettering. A case in point was the discovery of a saying marked on a wall of a demolished pub in Corby some years ago:

Rockingham on the hill, Oakley in the vale Kettering for silly b-----s, Corby for ale!

The same saying occurred elsewhere for many years in the north of the county towards Leicestershire and other parts of the Midlands, as any villages or towns could be substituted in the rhyme at will. Here it may have reflected the onetime strong feelings and rivalry between the two towns, with Corby feeling that Kettering gladly accepted the generous employment prospects offered by their large steelworks, but looked down on them as coarse and uneducated.

Some expressions are a complete mystery and may be some form of underhand insult about those living in a certain place, such as that for Raunds: ‘Go to Ranse to see the dogs dance’. There may be an insult – or a compliment, depending how you see it – about the quality of the local water supply at Warkworth, on the edge of the county near Banbury, in the expression: ‘Cattle that drink Warkworth water, never come back’. For Corby, which perhaps suffered greater poverty than elsewhere when the weaving industry collapsed in the first years of the nineteenth century, there may be sympathy for the plight of the inhabitants in the expression, ‘Where do you come from? Corby, God bless you!’

The supposed quality of a village’s bells often led to neighbourly derision or bragging in the form of a taunting rhyme. Aynho boasted that its bells were better than those in Souldern just over the boundary in Oxfordshire: ‘Aynho, bell metal; Souldern, tin kettle’. Among other villages that were mocked for their poverty were Rockingham and Naseby: ‘poor people, one bell, wooden steeple’.

Little Bowden was also mocked for having ‘poor people, one bell, wooden steeple’ and Great Houghton had ‘wicked people’ who ‘sold their bells to buy a steeple’. However, taunt and response was the case with two other neighbouring villages: Cotterstock would chant, ‘Who rings best, who rings best?’ to which Tansor would reply, ‘We do! we do!’

Reciprocation would also take place between the males of the neighbouring villages of Piddington and Hackleton, one of them taunting the other about their aloofness and manliness. If the former shouted, ‘Hackleton bolshen, shut up in a den. Don’t come out to Piddington men’, the rhyme would be shouted back with the names of the villages reversed!

Two places in the county, Brackley and Yardley Gobion, seem to have had more than their fair share of taunting, neither being held in high estimation by their neighbours, who considered them to be of low intelligence. One expression was: ‘Half sharp and hardly, like the folk of Yardley’. Another was: ‘Yardley skegs come to Pury, to suck eggs’, a taunt used by the boys of Pury End when those from the neighbouring village went there. This is in fact a very clever play on the two words ‘suck’ and ‘eggs’, in which letters were taken out to form ‘skegs’. A skeg was a name for the wild plum or bullace but it also meant ‘a foolish person’ and to suck eggs, of course, means to tell someone something he or she already knows.

Brackley was given a similar form of insult by Evenley in the expression: ‘Brackley skegs come t’Imley ta et th’addled eggs’, with the implication that they ate rotten or empty eggs. Brackley was also the target of another saying. At one time its people were said to be the most bad-mannered in the county and the village had a considerably large number of poor and unemployed people. This gave rise to the expression: ‘Brackley breed, better to hang than to feed’.

The village of Little Houghton was apparently happy with its lowly status and made the most of what it had, at the same time having a swipe at Brayfield which it thought was affluent and artificial:

Houghton for pride and poverty, Brayfield for money and muck.

However, Brayfield retaliates in another rhyme, adding a second neighbour to the argument. Perhaps there is an undercurrent of three-way rivalry in the saying, in which Brayfield tries to show it is smarter, adding a touch of bravado as its shows the weaknesses of the other two:

Denton folk don’t know when they’re told, Houghton folk know before they’re told, Brayfield folk know when they’re told.

A whole group of villages in the Nene valley are given various attributes in the following rhyme which goes back to at least the first decade of the nineteenth century and appeared in an edition of the Northampton County Magazine in the 1920s:

Thorpe and Achurch stand in a row, Lilford and Pilton and peevish Wadenhoe, Onicle the Chronicle stands by the waterside, Islip is nothing but malice and pride, Thrapston,Whitehorse;Titchmarsh, the Cross; Clapton, the Clay, Barnwell, King’s Highway, Armston, On the hill, Polebrook, In the hole, Ashton, Blows the bellows, Oundle, Burns the coal.

‘Thorpe’ is Thorpe Waterville and ‘Onicle’ is the old pronunciation of Aldwincle. Even today, Wadenhoe folk cannot account for why their village was called ‘peevish’ – in any of the word’s meanings of foolish, bad-tempered, obstinate or mischievous – and the residents of Islip would definitely say they are not haughty!

Sometimes the joke was at the expense of those who used the expression against another village. Grendon men were called ‘moonrakers’ after a legend sprang up that a group of locals were said to have once seen the reflection of the full moon in a pond and tried to rake it out, thinking it was a giant cheese. This was based on the more renowned Wiltshire legend, in which local men were engaged in retrieving smuggled casks of brandy hidden in the water of a pond and pretended to be idiots by raking out the moon’s reflection in a pond when they saw revenue men coming their way. The revenue men were the real fools for believing them, and missed their chance of catching the criminals. Grendon would have used the legend for themselves as a means of attention seeking and one-upmanship, like the ‘penning in the cuckoo’ or treacle mines (q.v.), the joke boomeranging back on anyone who believes or says it.

Other sayings are of a much more complimentary nature. Around England, a famous saying about the county is ‘Northamptonshire for spires and squires’. This is certainly justified, as the county was at one time the country seat of over 100 squires – some of them, such as the Montagus, Cecils, and Hattons, holding high positions in the nation – and has a similar number of spires on its churches, many of which have been built in the fine, durable local limestone.

One rhyme describes stand-out features of a particular settlement: ‘Doddington dovecote, Wilby hen, Arthlingborough ploughboys, Wellingborough men’. Another village, Holdenby, once had a fine hall, most of which was replaced by the present building in 1887. One can imagine its grandeur on a sunny day, as shown in the saying: ‘It shines like Holmby’.

The epithet ‘Naseby children’ was applied to the old people of that village, many of whom were noted for having full control of their mental abilities, even powers of physical regeneration at an advanced age. One villager who died at the age of ninety-four is said to have cut a new set of teeth after reaching the age of seventy. No one has ever worked out the secret of such a phenomenon, though some sources put it down to the water!

Four villages lying close together on the Nene are grouped together in a complimentary rhyme about their picturesque appearance: ‘Chelveston cum Caldecot, Stanwick little none, pretty little Denford, and fine Addington’. However, it is King’s Sutton that takes some beating for a description of its qualities. If the saying is correct even now, then it would certainly be a successful public relations exercise and a persuasive advertisement for coming to the village:

King’s Sutton is a pretty town, and lies all in a valley, It has a pretty ring of bells, besides a bowling alley, Wine and liquor in good store, pretty maidens plenty, Can a man deserve more? There ain’t such a town in twenty!

Another rhyme is of much more ancient origin and, according to tradition, was uttered by the Danes fighting King Alfred at Danesmoor in the ninth century, as they swept across the region. It refers to Padwell, which is a spring at Edgcote, and the stone is a boundary marker on the Warwickshire border:

If we can Padwell overgoe, and Horestone we can see, Then Lords of England we shall be.

Interestingly, a similar saying is associated with the Rollright Stones a few miles away on the Warwickshire and Oxfordshire border, where a mythical king with aspirations to extend his power was told by a local witch:

If Long Compton thou canst see, The King of England thou shalt be.

It was also customary in many communities around the county to give certain people names according to their appearance, habit, personality, or occupation. This was useful, especially among males, as several often had the same Christian name such as Bob or Bill; however, it was important in other ways. Gertrude Watkins of Brixwoth wrote in 1881:

It was rather necessary to be acquainted with the nicknames of some people. Frequently on enquiry for a person by his real name, the only answer would be a blank stare, when yet the nickname elicited an immediate response.

Around the county, Stump would be a common name for a person walking on one leg, Sexy for a sexton and Toby was not unknown for anyone with a face like the jug of that name! Later, Hobbs or a similar well-known name would be given to a particularly avid cricket fan. Other one-time common names were Nipper, Stubby, Mossy, Sammy Rags, Wagger, Dripping, Dribbler, Goggy, Hedgehog, Spider, Monkey, Ferret, Donkey, Whoppy, Bodger, Bobby Noddles, Fiddler, Fidgit, Doshy, Spot, Fleshy, Pudden, Porky, Giant, Snobby and Spud. An unusual county version of the common expression ‘like father, like son’, was ‘such words, such chips’.

A famous deer stealer active in Rockingham Forest in the seventeenth century was Jack o’Lantern of Kingscliffe. Another, active around Gretton, was Jumping Jack. At Brixworth, there were two brothers with the same first name who were known according to their occupations: Chip Bob was a carpenter and Dough Bob a baker. At Higham Ferrers, there was a poor couple known as Lord and Lady Higham. Watercress Harry was the name given to a Kettering inspector of milestones, who plied his wares in the area. In early Victorian times, lads named Albert were given the epithet Prince, in honour of the Prince Consort.

Field Names

Life, Lunch, Wormstalls, Deadman’s Grave, Grimble White, Ankers, Cobra, Jack Arthur, Wounds, Easter Hill – the names conjure up all kinds of images – are just a few of the many colourful descriptions of landscape features around Northamptonshire that have come down through the ages, a rich vocabulary applied to the type, status or nature of a particular field, pasture, meadow, wood, hill or spring. But their names are often not what they seem. Many of these are either regional or national. Most are no longer known by their original fanciful names – names that would have changed in pronunciation and spelling over the years and have now become part of folklore. So why were they given such interesting names, making our modern-day imagination work overtime, trying to guess their meaning?

Unlike place names, field names are often more difficult to trace, firstly because written records before the thirteenth century do not usually mention them, so we have to rely on their Middle English (medieval) or later names, many of which have been changed etymologically, in spelling or in pronunciation. In this chapter and in the Glossary, the following codes are used for the three language sources: OE (Old English), ON (Old Norse), and ME (Middle English).

In some exceptional cases, there may be a hidden or implicit meaning, using sarcasm, irony or humour. For example, Van Dieman’s Land, a name usually applied to a distant working field, may be a play on the word ‘demon’, implying that it is land that the Devil own, i.e. hard to plough. The name also had criminal connotations current at the time the field was named, as criminals were transported to Van Dieman’s Land on the other side of the world; in this case the name implies that the field would be the ideal location for certain elements of society meeting under dubious circumstances, e.g. poachers!

More straightforward is Dedequene Moor, near Towcester. In 1907, a thirteenth-century document was discovered detailing a grant of land by Edward I at ‘Dedequenemor’, leading to speculation that the name referred to a dead queen, probably Boudicca. For centuries, the exact location of Boudicca’s burial site has been a source of intrigue and one of the supposed sites was off Watling Street, near where the fatal British tribal battle took place with the Romans, and where the queen is said to have taken poison in defeat. The field is in the right region, albeit further south of the struggle. Unfortunately, any speculation by county people must be dashed, since the word ‘quene’ was the Old English word for ‘lady’; today it is still found in the Danish ‘kvinde’ and Swedish ‘kvinna’, where ‘kv’ is the equivalent of our ‘qu’. Blatherwycke, at the other end of the county, also laid a claim to having Boudicca’s remains, as two separate stone coffins containing the upper and lower parts of a very tall female skeleton were once discovered. Being so tall of course would be a mark of distinction – not just physically but also in status!