"Old Robin Hood" (1918)


Source:

"Old Robin Hood" (Auth.)
LOCAL NOTES AND QUERIES: No. 237: Plough Monday [St. Ann's Well Road, Nottingham]
*Nottinghamshire Guardian, 12th Jan.1918

"This is the first Monday after Twelfth Day by the country almanack. In all agricultural districts the labourers used to drag the plough about and plough up your "doorstep" if you did not give them money. I remember 'plough bullocks,' or lads with blackened faces, marching about St. Ann's Well road and singing doggerel for money on Plough Monday. They had no plough, although there were plenty of green fields about in those days.

But I expect it would be a great day in the country in old times. Did the farmers all plough together on that day, or was it the opening of the ploughing season? I have some recollection that in Yorkshire there was a general plough day."

The editor then goes on to quote extensively from W.Hone's (1837) description of the Yorks., custom of ploughing for a new tenant.

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Index Terms:

Locations: St. Ann's Well Road, Nottingham, Notts. (SK5741); Yorks.
Years: Publ. 1918
Subjects: Plough Trailing; Malicious Ploughing; Ploughing for New Tenant; Plough Monday; Plough Bullocks; Hone,W. (1837)
Archives: TDRG Archive, Ref. TD00195;
Local Notes & Queries Scrapbook, 1908-1918

* indicates data that has not yet been validated against the original source and/or has yet to be completely indexed.


Last Updated Mar 1990 by Idwal Jones.