Nottingham Goose Fair

As I mentioned a couple of posts ago, Michaelmas Day and the arrival of October marks the time when geese are absolutely at their best to eat. And, traditionally at this time, goose fairs took place up and down the country. Few remain today but the last day of September is still celebrated at the Nottingham Goose Fair. And it's been going on for a staggering 700 years. 

The origins of the fair are associated with the sale of 20,000 geese which were driven from the fens to be sold in Nottingham to provide the traditional Michaelmas dish, which is believed to bring luck for the next year. However, rather than selling geese, the event is now celebrated with one of the largest funfairs in the UK, along with many food and goods stalls. The fair runs for ten whole days from today, Friday 30th September to Sunday 9th October. It's huge.

When Nottingham Goose Fair was granted a Charter by King Edward I in 1284 it was actually already in existence. The name Goose Fair was first documented in 1541 in the accounts of the Borough Chamberlain. 

As well as being famous for the sale of geese, it was known for its autumn trade and enjoyed a reputation for its high-quality cheese. In 1764 there was a cheese riot due to an increase of a third on the price of cheese compared with the previous year. Outraged punters ransacked the stalls and huge cheeses were rolled down the slopes of Wheeler Gate and Peck Lane. The Mayor’s attempts to calm things down resulted in his dignity being flattened by a 100lb cheese.

The fair also featured a 'Pie Powder Court' dispensing instant justice for on-the-spot offenders. The name comes from the French pied-poudre - dusty-feet - referring to the state of the many travellers who arrived. 

There is a whole gaggle of Goose Fair songs, and a few rhymes. One of them sums up the noisy, cosmopolitan atmosphere: 

Twas Goose Fair cracked the merriest wheeze 

Where Babel's babble filled the breeze.

A large goose - called Goosey - appears on a plinth on the Mansfield Road about a week before the fair to remind everyone what’s coming. 

There may no longer be geese but the event does boast some unique local foodstuffs, most notably the Nottingham Cock on a Stick - a cockerel-shaped sugar lollipop - and minty mushy peas. But, I assume, not together.

The cocks come in three sizes - small, medium and giant (stop sniggering) and were invented by local man Ben Whitehead at the end of the 19th century. The recipe has passed down through several generations of the same family and, most recently, to 90 year old Ray Brooks who has been selling them since the 1950s but is now looking to retire and pass it on.

Interestingly, only yesterday someone on my local Facebook community group was bemoaning the fact that when she enrolled her child for badminton lessons at a sports venue, she was pulled up by a member of staff for using the word shuttlecock. 'We call them shuttles', said the member of staff. 'We don't want anyone to be offended.'

This is a classic case of over-zealous political correctness. There is nothing even vaguely sexual about the shape or form of a shuttlecock or the origin of the name. The game was originally called battledore and shuttlecock (a battledore being a kind of wooden paddle). It dates back to the 18th and 19th centuries but may have roots in ancient China and other Asian countries. The word 'shuttlecock' refers to the movement of the game - back and forth like the shuttle in a loom (or indeed any kind of shuttle - such as a taxi, train or starship shuttlecraft) - and the fact that it was made from feathers. 

A male bird is a cock and there are many species of birds with cock in the name (eg peacock, woodcock etc.). A small tap is a stopcock or bibcock. The part of a plane where the pilots sit is the cockpit. We have cocker spaniels, Cockburn's port (yes I know it's pronounced 'Coburn's'), weathercocks, cocktails, and cocky Cockneys. And there are towns and villages all over the UK with 'cock' in the name (eg Cockfosters, Cockermouth etc.) or which have streets that are similarly be-cocked. There's a Cock Lane just a mile from where I'm sitting right now.

And the various ruling bodies that govern the professional sport call a shuttlecock a shuttlecock (including the International Olympics Committee).  

Words are only rude if you choose to see them that way. 

Chill out and enjoy your cock on a stick.

An oaky palette

It's the last day of September but the Oak King isn't handing his crown to the Holly King quite yet. Meanwhile, the range of beautiful leaf colours to be found on our native oaks at this time of year is absolutely stunning.

Taken by me on iPhone.

Hazlemere, Bucks.

Michaelmas Day

Today is Michaelmas - the feast day of dragon-slayer St Michael, who was popular during mediaeval times and had many churches dedicated to him. Traditionally, a roast goose was eaten on this day (September is when geese are in their prime condition). 

The festival is not as widely known as it used to be and was historically a major landmark in the calendar. Because it falls near the equinox, this holy day is associated in the northern hemisphere with the beginning of autumn and the shortening of days. It was one of the Celtic quarter days, when accounts had to be settled (ever wonder why the tax year starts when it does?). The day was also considered a 'gale day' in Ireland when rent would be due, as well as a day for the issuing or settling of contracts or other legal transactions. 

Saint Michael portrayed in a stained glass window in the Pfarrkirche St Martin in Linz am Rhein, Germany. Photo by Warburg (Creative Commons).

Michaelmas Day marked the end of the harvest, often the end of the farming year itself. And that meant that there were dozens of fairs, trading in people (Hiring Fairs) and livestock. Workers, in between farm jobs, had a relatively large amount of cash to spend at these fairs. It was also when a reeve was elected from the peasants - the 'Shire-reeve' or Sheriff. At Kidderminster, Hereford and Worcester, there was a 'Lawless Hour', called Kellums that started at 3pm when the old sheriff or bailiff stepped down, and finished at 4pm when his replacement was elected. During Kellums there were pitched fruit and veg fights, the bailiff-designate receiving much pre-emptive abuse with hurled apples, while the villagers bombarded each other with cabbage stalks. Other Michaelmas 'lawless' pursuits included bumping - pouncing on a passer-by, hoisting him up, and throwing him at the next passer-by. There were many other local quirks at the Michaelmas celebrations. At Clixby in Lincolnshire, for example, land tenure was fixed by an eccentric annual gift to the King of a nightcap and a falcon. 

On several Hebridean islands, beach-racing was the sport of the day. The horses were ridden bare-back, and the harnesses were made of straw. This was a survival of a sea-god festival. St Michael took on board many pagan aquatic attributes, and was the patron of horsemen and fishermen. 

St Michael is one of the patron saints of Cornwall and gave his name to St Michael's Mount where he is supposed to have appeared in a vision to 5th century fishermen. However, this is a modern myth. The story was found to be based on a 15th-century misunderstanding of a mediaeval legend regarding Mont-Saint-Michel in France. 

St Michael has, in the past century or so, been overtaken by St Piran as the main Cornish patron saint but his influence is still strong in the town I grew up in - Helston. He appears on the seal of the town, the main church is named for him and so is one of the local primary schools. He also appears in the Hal-An-Tow, a mumming play that forms part of the annual Flora Day celebrations (see here).

According to legend the Devil was flying over Cornwall with a huge boulder to block up the entrance to Hell when St Michael challenged him to battle. In the battle the Devil dropped the stone and where it fell the place became known as Hell's Stone or now commonly as Helston. To celebrate this victory the people of the town danced through the streets and it became known as the Furry Dance which still takes place during Flora Day on May 8th. Of course, that isn't the origin of the name at all - its original name was Hellys from the Cornish hen lis or 'old court' and 'ton' (town) was added later to denote a Saxon manor - the Domesday Book refers to it as Henliston (which survives as the name of a road in the town). 

Also associated with this season are Michaelmas Daisies (Aster amellus) which flower around this time of year. An early rhyme assures us: 

The Michaelmas Daisies, among dede weeds 

Bloom for St Michael's valorous deeds.

In the West Country girls used to collect crab apples today and then arrange the fruit into the initials of the men they loved, as a less than subtle clue that the named man should do the decent thing.

Michaelmas Day is also, according to British folklore, the last day that blackberries can be picked. It is said that when St Michael expelled Lucifer, the devil, from heaven, he fell from the skies and landed in a prickly blackberry bush. Satan cursed the fruit, scorched them with his fiery breath, stamped, spat and urinated on them, so that they would be unfit for eating. 

And I thought that foraging away from the 'dog pee zone' was my biggest concern.

The Holly and ...

There are few wild plants associated more with Autumn and ancient tradition than Holly and Ivy (although Mistletoe is up there too - I'll do a post on that plant soon). The red berries of Holly are bursting out all over and the Ivy is in flower.

We'll look at Holly in this blogpost and Ivy in the next.

Superstition, magic and myth surround the Holly tree. The Druids, Celts and Romans brought evergreens into their homes during winter - the idea was to bring Nature through the darkest part of the year to re-emerge in spring for another year’s fertility.  In times past, a  boy in a suit of holly leaves and a girl in ivy, paraded around the village. 

People brought holly into the house for other reasons too. Sometimes it was to protect the home from malevolent faeries. It was also to allow faeries to shelter in the home without friction between them and the human occupants. In pagan times, Holly was thought to be a male plant and Ivy female. One old tradition from the Midlands says that whichever plant enters the house first in winter will dictate whether the males or females rule the home for the following year – although bringing either inside before Christmas Eve is again said to be unlucky. Prior to Victorian times the term ‘Christmas tree’ actually referred to Holly. However, before considering it as an alternative to the now traditional fir tree, remember that it’s considered bad luck to cut down a whole Holly tree. 

Christianity adopted the Holly as a symbol of Christ’s crown of thorns - which is why the Christmas carol The Holly and the Ivy has the line 'Of all the trees that are in the wood, the holly wears the crown'. The crimson berries are also supposed to represent drops of his blood and the evergreen leaves are a metaphor for life after death. Of course, the crucifixion is more associated with Easter than with Christmas but, as with many other pagan festivals, the tradition of decking the halls with protective boughs of Holly was absorbed into Christian tradition. 

John Leech's influential 1843 drawing of the Ghost of Christmas Present that appeared in the first edition of Charles Dickens' novella 'A Christmas Carol'. The figure draws on the older tradition of the Holly King - note the crown of Holly and the green robes.

In Celtic mythology the Holly King ruled over the half of the year from the summer to the winter solstice. At this time the Oak King defeated the Holly King to rule for the time until the summer solstice again. These two aspects of the Nature God were later incorporated into Mummers’ plays performed around Yuletide. The Holly King was depicted as a powerful giant of a man covered in holly leaves and branches, and wielding a Holly bush as a club. The Green Knight of Arthurian legend may have been based on this same archetype. In this tale Gawain rose to the Green Knight’s formidable challenge during the Round Table’s Christmas celebrations. However the folklore of the Holly is not solely connected with Yuletide festivities. 

'But the hue of his every feature 

Stunned them: as could be seen, 

Not only was this creature Colossal,

He was bright green. 

No spear to thrust, 

No shield against the shock of battle, 

But in one hand a solitary branch of holly 

That shows greenest when all the groves are leafless'.

from ‘Sir Gawain and the Green Knight’ ca. 1370 – 1390, author unknown 

As mentioned above, people believed that Holly had protective properties. Bushes were often left uncut in hedges when these were trimmed. A more arcane reason for this was to obstruct witches who people believed ran along the tops of hedges. More practically farmers used their distinctive evergreen shapes to establish lines of sight during winter ploughing. The Duke of Argyll even had a prospective road rerouted to avoid cutting down a distinctive old holly in 1861. 

Holly leaves also proved to be particularly nutritious as winter feed for livestock. Some farmers even installed grinders to make the pricklier leaves more palatable. Holly was an important element in deer parks and old hunting estates – and the name holly still survives in modern place names such as Hollins, Holm Hodder, Hollyoaks and Hollywood – and were important for winter food. In the New Forest, in southern England, Holly is still cut down for the ponies to graze on.

Coppicing also allowed the Holly’s hard, white, close-grained wood to be used for inlaid marquetry and to make chess pieces and tool handles. Folklore suggested that the wood had an affinity for control, especially of horses. Most whips for ploughmen and horse-drawn coaches were made from coppiced Holly, which accounted for hundreds of thousands of stems during the eighteenth century. As well as its decorative uses, Holly wood burns hot and long, making it a perfect fire fuel on cold, winter nights.

Holly trees were traditionally planted near houses to offer protection from lightning. European mythology associated Holly with thunder gods such as Thor and Taranis. We now know that the spines on Holly leaves can act as miniature lightning conductors, thereby protecting the tree and other nearby objects. Science occasionally catches up with old country lore! 

Holly and Ivy are often linked together at Christmas. 

But more on that in the next blogpost.

... and the Ivy

Ivy, like Holly, is an important evergreen edible plant species in UK woodland. It's one of only five woody climbers and, like Mistletoe, it can form dense growths in canopies that can cause harm to the host. 

There are many different species of Ivy - English Ivy, Glacier, Swedish, Needlepoint, Boston, Algerian, Irish, Himalayan., Poison, and more - and they vary in colour from near white through variegated forms to deep glossy green. The leaf shape can also be anything from spear shaped to three lobed to five lobed depending on maturity and where on the plant the leaf is. 

Even common English Ivy (Hedera helix) can have a number of variant shapes and colours.  Here are a few I photographed in the wild yesterday lunchtime:

They have two leaf types: lobed juvenile leaves are found on creeping and climbing stems; and unlobed adult leaves grow on fertile flowering stems exposed to full sun. The juvenile and adult shoots also differ. The former are slender, flexible and have small roots that anchor the shoot to rocks or tree bark. The latter are thicker, self-supporting, and don't have roots. 

Flowers are produced in late autumn. They are individually small, greenish-yellow, and are grouped in 3–5 cm diameter umbels. They are very rich in nectar, which makes them an important late food source for bees and other insects. The fruit are small black berries that ripen in late winter, providing yet another food source - though not for humans because, like all parts of the Ivy plant, they are poisonous to us.

Despite this fact, people in Ancient Greece believed that the effects of intoxication could be removed by bruising and boiling a handful of Ivy leaves in wine before drinking it. However, the idea that Ivy could, in some way, purify alcohol persisted for centuries and led to Ivy wood being used for filtering wines and spirits. Many English pubs used to have the sign of an Ivy bush over their door to indicate the excellence of the liquor supplied within. 

As with Mistletoe and Holly, Ivy is linked with both Christmas and romance. Greek priests presented a wreath of Ivy to newlyweds as it was regarded as a symbol of fidelity. The custom of decorating houses and churches with Ivy at Christmas was forbidden by one of the early Councils of the Church, on account of its pagan associations, but the custom still remains. Bringing Ivy into the house may have some real benefits as it does help to purify the air by absorbing carbon monoxide and other nasty stuff. But it's not such a good idea if there are pets or small children around due to its toxicity.

The plant lives to a great age, its stems become woody and often attain a considerable size – Ivy trunks of a foot in diameter are often to be seen where the plant has for many years climbed undisturbed over rocks and ruins. Near where I live, a hazel tree has been bent over into a natural arch by the weight of Ivy that now covers it in something akin to Celtic knotwork.

Ivy is a symbol of fertility and women often used to carry Ivy leaves to aid fertility and general good luck. Wands entwined with Ivy were used in the worship of Bacchus, and were used in nature and fertility rites.

The Ivy is considered to be feminine and the Holly as masculine and tradition has it that, if both and brought into the house at Christmas, it will bring peace in the home for the following year. 

So now you know how to decorate your house this year.

More fungal forays

In my desire to learn more about identifying wild fungi I've been deliberately looking out for them while out on my daily country walks.

One of the first things I learned is that, if you want to find a good variety, you need to look for the 'Holy Trinity' of trees - beech, oak and birch - or BOB for short. And if there's a good amount of moist moss and grass around the trees, you have the ideal conditions.

Unfortunately, the open land closest to my house are dominated by hazel, ash, oak and cherry so it's not optimal. However, I have found a few interesting specimens including three chicken of the woods, which is a real treat.

I've also found some yellow stainers. These are frequently mistaken for edible field mushrooms and look, in many ways, like the mushrooms you get in the shops. However, break the skin and they turn a bright yellow. That's a dead giveaway. The stainer is poisonous and is responsible for quite a few upset tummies every year.

Other nice finds include a turkeytail bracket fungus and lurid bolete that turns blue when you bruise it., 

And there have been a few sepia boletes, some grisettes and waxcaps.

And there have been many others. 

Every day is a school day!

The guelder rose

This was a nice find on yesterday's lunchtime dog walk. It's by no means a rare plant but it's not very common around where I live. 

It's the guelder rose (Viburnum opulus).

Pronounced 'gelder' (to rhyme with elder), it takes its name from the Dutch province of Gelderland, where it grows in profusion. Other common names include water elder, crampbark, snowball tree, common snowball, and European cranberrybush. 

It's not, in fact, any kind of a rose. The confusing name probably arose from the fact that its flowers can look a bit like rose heads from a distance. The flowers do vary considerably between cultivars though.

In the Autumn the plant produces a profusion of red berries which are edible. However, they are very bitter and mildly toxic and too many of them will give you a tummy upset (just like elderberries). However, the toxins are removed by cooking so they are good for jams and jellies. Like sloes, they are best picked after a frost but freezing will achieve the same thing as it breaks the cell walls and sweetens the fruit. 

As always, don't eat them unless you are 100% of identification as some red berries from other plants are dangerously toxic. 

The old name 'Crampbark' refers to the plant's ability to reduce muscle tightness. The bark contains viopudial, a compound that relaxes muscle and lowers blood pressure. Preparations were used in the past to relieve period pains and cramps during childbirth. 

The leaves turn from green to glorious yellows and reds in Autumn and then drop. However, the berries can remain on the naked plant throughout the Winter, providing wildlife with much needed food.

The plant is known as kalyna in Ukraine, and you'll often see guelder rose berries embroidered on ceremonial clothing. The berries symbolise home and one's native land, blood, and family roots. In Slavic paganism kalyna also represents the beauty of young women.

It is also one of the national symbols of Russia where it is called kalina. The fiery red colour of the berries represents beauty and passionate love, and berries are an erotic symbol. The bitter taste of the fruit symbolises lost love and separation. 

Songs about the berry are a traditional part of Russian weddings. And it gave its name to the Russian song Kalinka which started being played before matches at Chelsea FC after Roman Abramovich bought the club in 2003.

From foraging to football, all human life is here on this blog.

Jolly hollyhocks!

The seed heads of some flowers are so sculptural - like works of art. Except, of course, they're not. Nature does not create 'art' as art is a deliberate act with thought and process behind its creation. Forms in nature are the by-product of adaptation to environment or sexual selection - the need to attract a mate or pollinator. The fact that humans find some natural shapes extraordinarily beautiful is a due to aesthetics - the shape, colour and form of objects that stir our senses (the opposite is, of course, anaesthetic - to dull the senses).

The poppy seed head with its built in sprinkler is gorgeous. And so too is the hollyhock with its chocolate orange arrangement of disk-like seeds. Just wonderful.   

Magnificent Waddesdon Manor

I had occasion to visit Waddesdon Manor a few months back. 

Okay, it was a for a job interview. 

Which I didn't get. 

But it's always nice to look around the place. 

Waddesdon, near Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire, was built by Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild between 1874 and 1885 to display his collection of arts and to entertain the fashionable world. He wanted a house in the style of the great Renaissance châteaux of the Loire Valley so he employed French architect Gabriel-Hippolyte Destailleur to build it. It’s something of an architectural rarity in the UK and, as the result, has been used as a location in many films and TV shows. 

The front of the manor, with its distinctive angled staircases makes it easy to spot - like here in the classic comedy Carry on Don't Lose Your Head.

The art collection is staggering. The Rothschilds were the greatest collectors of the 19th century and were formed principally by four members of the family: Baron Ferdinand (1839-1898) who built Waddesdon and created the interiors, his sister Alice (1847-1922), their cousin Edmond (1845-1934) and the present Lord Rothschild (b. 1936). 

As near contemporaries, Ferdinand, Alice and Edmond – who lived in Paris – shared similar collecting interests and often competed with one another in the auction rooms and dealers’ galleries of Europe. With their strong interest in 18th-century France, their collecting habits were so influential that people followed their lead and their choices became known internationally as the goût Rothschild ('the Rothschild taste').

Ferdinand and Edmond, in particular, built a number of lavish residences fitted out with original 18th-century interiors in which to show their superb works of art. Masterpieces created by the royal French porcelain manufactory of Sèvres were placed on furniture produced by the most significant French craftsmen of the 18th century, much of it made for the royal family and important members of the court. The floors were covered with Savonnerie carpets exclusive to the Crown and walls hung with tapestries from the royal Gobelins and Beauvais workshops on top of sumptuous silk fabrics. 

Paintings from the 17th and 18th centuries by famous Dutch, Flemish and French artists adorn the walls. Baron Ferdinand also prized 18th-century British portraits by Reynolds, Gainsborough and Romney. The Wine Cellars are world famous. They were modelled on the private cellars at Château Lafite Rothschild. More than 15,000 bottles are stored in the Cellars, some 150 years old, the majority from the Château Lafite Rothschild and Château Mouton Rothschild estates. It is the largest private collection of Rothschild wines in the world. Some of the family's wine labels were designed by artists such as Salvador Dalí and Andy Warhol. 

The National Trust took over ownership of Waddesdon in 1957 and it was opened to the public in 1959. The estate is managed by the Rothschild Foundation, a family charitable trust, on behalf of the National Trust. It's one of the UK's most visited properties, with over 450,000 visitors a year. 

The house is amazing but so too are the gardens and park, first laid out by the French landscape architect Elie Lainé. Elaborate flower beds were planted, centred on the south Parterre. Several artificial rock formations were created by James Pulham, including to house animals as, for a while, Ferdinand had a small zoo. He also created a cast-iron aviary, inspired by 18th-century pavilions at the Palace of Versailles and Château de Chantilly. 

An interest in animals infected all of the family and Walter Rothschild (1868-1937) in particular. He, famously, had an estate nearby in Hertfordshire where he trained a team of zebras to pull a carriage and he was not averse to riding a giant Galapagos tortoise. His collection was donated to the Natural History Museum upon his death and now forms the core of the museum's annexe at Tring.

Visit the Waddesdon website here.

Visit the Natural History Museum at Tring website here.