Plough Monday

Traditional English start of the agricultural year From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Plough Monday is the traditional start of the English agricultural year. It is the first Monday after Epiphany, 6 January.^[1]^[2] In England, customs associated with the beginning of the ploughing season can be traced back to the medieval period, and by the mid-fifteenth century, they were generally observed on Plough Monday. Before the Reformation, parish churches lit candles called "plough lights" for farmworkers, and in some areas ploughs were taken around the parish to raise money for the church. After the Reformation, religious Plough Monday observances were suppressed, but private customs featuring house-visiting with a plough to collect money continued.

Plough Monday customs declined in the nineteenth century and died out in the early part of the twentieth century, partly due to social changes driven by increased industrialisation and the advent of mechanised farming, and partly due to pressure from the authorities. Various Plough Monday customs have since been revived. As early as 1923 the Goathland Plough Stots, a north Yorkshire longsword dance team, was revived under the influence of Cecil Sharp; since the second British folk revival in the 1960s and 1970s East Anglian Plough Monday customs such as molly dancing and the Whittlesea Straw Bear have also been revived.

History

A plough being pulled through the streets of Whittlesey as part of the Whittlesey Straw Bear Festival procession. Ploughs were traditionally taken around by Plough Monday mummers and molly dancers in parts of eastern England and in some places were used as a threat: if householders refused to donate to the participants their front path would be ploughed up.^[3]

Plough Monday was usually celebrated on the first Monday after Twelfth Night,^[a] and marked the beginning of the ploughing season and the start of the agricultural year in England.^[5]^[6] Customs associated with the beginning of the ploughing season are known from the medieval period – for example a plough race on 7 January was held at Carlton in Lindrick in Nottinghamshire in the late thirteenth century. By the mid-fifteenth century, these celebrations were generally observed on Plough Monday.^[5] The earliest source known to name the day Plough Monday comes from Cambridgeshire in 1529.^[7]

In the fifteenth century, churches lit candles called "plough lights" to bless farmworkers. Some parishes kept a plough in the church for those who did not own one, and in some parishes, the plough was paraded around the village to raise money for the church. This practice seems to have died out after the Reformation.^[8]

While religious Plough Monday celebrations were suppressed, private observances continued. The most common custom involved dragging a plough and collecting money.^[9] The Plough Monday celebrants were known by a variety of regional names, including Plough Boys, Bullocks, Lads, Jacks, Stots, and Witches. The Plough Boys usually dressed in costume, often with one or more in female clothing.^[10]

Though mostly associated with the east of England, Plough Monday celebrations are also known elsewhere in the country, for instance in Warwickshire, Worcestershire, and Cornwall.^[11] The customs observed on Plough Monday varied by region, but a common feature to a lesser or greater extent was for a plough (known variously as the "fond plough", "fool plough", "stot plough", or "white plough"^[12]) to be hauled from house to house in a procession, collecting money. They were often accompanied by musicians, an old woman or a boy dressed as an old woman, called the "Bessy", and a man in the role of the "fool". Plough Pudding is a boiled suet pudding, containing meat and onions. It is from Norfolk and is eaten on Plough Monday.^[1] In Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, and Rutland, a kind of Mummers' play called a Plough Play was performed.^[13]

Modern observances

Plough Monday customs declined in the 19th century. The advent of mechanised farming meant that agricultural workers were less numerous and relatively better paid, and thus did not have to beg for money in the winter.^[14] Additionally, the rowdy and threatening behaviour of the plough gangs was increasingly controversial in this period, and there was pressure from authorities to stop, or moderate their excesses.^[15] Though some Plough Monday customs continued into the 1930s, they did not continue past the beginning of the Second World War.^[14]

Following the Second World War, the Church of England and members of the Royal Agricultural Society of England attempted to revive Plough Sunday, the day before Plough Monday, as a Christian feast, although there is little evidence that it was historically so celebrated. These efforts were largely unsuccessful.^[16] From the 1960s, Plough Monday customs began to be revived following the second British folk revival.^[14] In 1972, the tradition of traveling around the village with a plough to collect money was revived at Balsham in Cambridgeshire.^[17] Subsequently, the Cambridge Morris Men revived the practice of Plough Monday molly dancing in 1977.^[18]

Whittlesey Straw Bear festival

In the Cambridgeshire villages of Ramsey and Whittlesey during the nineteenth century, on Plough Monday or Tuesday men or boys would dress in a layer of straw and were known as straw bears, who went door to door dancing for money. The tradition died out around the time of the First World War.^[19] In 1980 the straw bear tradition was revived at Whittlesey, inspired in part by Ashley Hutchings' album Rattlebone and Ploughjack, which included G. C. Moore Smith's 1909 description of the custom.^[20] The revived tradition is now part of the Straw Bear Festival, held every year on the nearest Saturday to Plough Monday, which features a procession of the straw bear, a ploughgang, and molly and morris dance teams.^[21] In 2009, a straw bear was also revived at Ramsey, where schoolchildren recreate the bear on Plough Monday.^[22]

Goathland Plough Stots

In the village of Goathland in North Yorkshire, Plough Monday was traditionally celebrated with a plough procession, mummers' play, and sword dancing. In 1913 Cecil Sharp visited Goathland but was unable to find anyone who remembered the sword dance, last performed around 1868. Inspired by Sharp's work, the dance was revived for Plough Monday in 1923. Since the revival the sword dance has become the main feature of the tradition, and continues to be performed on the Saturday following Plough Monday.^[23] Money collected by the sword dancers at Goathland was originally used to buy food and drink for the "finish-up feast" at the end of the celebration; more recently it has been donated to the local hospital and lifeboat station.^[24]

Notes

[a]
In some areas, it was the second, or less often the first, Monday in January^[4]

References

[1]
Hone, William (1826). The Every-Day Book. London: Hunt and Clarke. p. 71.
[2]
"Plough Monday". Oxford English Dictionary (online edition, subscription required). Retrieved 1 December 2006.
[3]
Jo Draper (January 2010). "Plough Monday in Dorchester". Dorset Life Magazine. Retrieved 27 January 2014.
[4]
Cawte, E. C. (1978). Ritual Animal Disguise: A Historical and Geographical Study of Animal Disguise in the British Isles. Cambridge and Totowa: D.S. Brewer Ltd. and Rowman and Littlefield for the Folklore Society. p. 228. ISBN 978-0-85991-028-6.
[5]
Hutton, Ronald (1996). The Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in England. Oxford University Press. p. 124.
[6]
Roud, Stephen (2006). The English Year: A Month-by-Month Guide to the Nation's Customs and Festivals, from May Day to Mischief Night. Penguin. p. 19.
[7]
Millington, Peter T. (20 October 1979). "The Origins of Plough Monday".
[8]
Roud, Stephen (2006). The English Year: A Month-by-Month Guide to the Nation's Customs and Festivals, from May Day to Mischief Night. Penguin. p. 20.
[9]
Hutton, Ronald (1996). The Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in England. Oxford University Press. pp. 126–127.
[10]
Hutton, Ronald (1996). The Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in England. Oxford University Press. p. 127.
[11]
Needham, Joseph (1936). "The Geographical Distribution of English Ceremonial Dance Traditions". Journal of the English Folk Dance and Song Society. 3 (1): 18. JSTOR 4521092.
[12]
Ridden, Geoffrey (1974). "The Goathland Plough Monday Customs". Folk Music Journal. 2 (5). London: English Folk Dance and Song Society: 353. ISSN 0531-9684.
[13]
Hutton, Ronald (1996). The Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in England. Oxford University Press. p. 129.
[14]
Hutton, Ronald (1996). The Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in England. Oxford University Press. pp. 132–133.
[15]
Roud, Stephen (2006). The English Year: A Month-by-Month Guide to the Nation's Customs and Festivals, from May Day to Mischief Night. Penguin. p. 21.
[16]
Roud, Stephen (2006). The English Year: A Month-by-Month Guide to the Nation's Customs and Festivals, from May Day to Mischief Night. Penguin. p. 19.
[17]
"Balsham to Mark 50 Years Since Plough Monday Revival". BBC News. 9 January 2022. Retrieved 9 May 2024.
[18]
Irvine, Richard D. G. (2018). "Following the Bear: The revival of Plough Monday traditions and the performance of rural identity in the East Anglian fenlands". Ethnoscripts. 20 (1): 20.
[19]
Roud, Stephen (2006). The English Year: A Month-by-Month Guide to the Nation's Customs and Festivals, from May Day to Mischief Night. Penguin. pp. 24–25.
[20]
Irvine, Richard D. G. (2018). "Following the Bear: The revival of Plough Monday traditions and the performance of rural identity in the East Anglian fenlands". Ethnoscripts. 20 (1): 21.
[21]
Irvine, Richard D. G. (2018). "Following the Bear: The revival of Plough Monday traditions and the performance of rural identity in the East Anglian fenlands". Ethnoscripts. 20 (1): 22.
[22]
Irvine, Richard D. G. (2018). "Following the Bear: The revival of Plough Monday traditions and the performance of rural identity in the East Anglian fenlands". Ethnoscripts. 20 (1): 23–24.
[23]
Schofield, Derek (1991). "The English Long Sword Dance: A Comparison Between Two Contemporary Traditional Teams". Studia Musicologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae. 33 (1): 321–322. doi:10.2307/902454. JSTOR 902454.
[24]
Ridden, Geoffrey (1974). "The Goathland Plough Monday Customs". Folk Music Journal. 2 (5). London: English Folk Dance and Song Society: 358. ISSN 0531-9684.