Have you changed your shopping habits ? Do you now purchase everything online and pay for it with a credit card ? or do you still like to go out and EXPERIENCE shopping. Feeling, smelling, tasting (if appropriate) and actually having a conversation with the vendors and other shoppers ? How times change, and as Christmas is fast approaching I am sure that there are many who will buy everything online through their computers. I spend quite a bit of time singing nursery rhymes to small grandchild. We cuddle up in a rocking chair, I put a blanket round him and sing old fashioned rhymes until he goes to sleep (then I have a sleep as well). But all these are now so old fashioned that apart from teaching rhythm and rhyming patterns of language, will the present generation ever need to know that Jack can be nimble and quick and jump over the candlestick ? And how many pretty maids are going a-milking, Sir she said ? And does the barber need to know how many hairs to make a wig? or indeed take snuff ? Lots of rhymes are about markets. Will markets also disappear before my grandchildren have grown up ? Simple Simon met a pie-man going to the Fair - but now he will probably be going to a Farmers' Market in a white van. But at this time of year special Christmas Markets seem to be very popular indeed. They are very colourful as well, and have jolly music and wonderful aromas of tasty food and tempting drinks on offer. This is part of the Christmas Market in York which is called the Saint Nicholas Fair and is (I think) mostly stall holders from Yorkshire. A lovely variety of crafts and produce for sale (even jams and jellies from Stalling Busk at the top of Wensleydale). I talked to other local traders from West Tanfield, they make hand made soaps. German Christmas Markets started the trend. A few years ago when I worked in Leeds I wandered round the German Christmas Market, admiring all on offer and then went up to a stall holder and asked for something in German. Total silence, repeated what I wanted, total silence, it turned out she did not understand German at all and was Polish ! Next week husband will be in Germany and make time to enjoy the Christmas Market where he works, particularly the hut that sells gluhwein. Going to Market was a very important part of culture, the geographical location of markets, the frequency of markets, the different types of markets and of fairs, all have shaped our customs and traditions. So it is not surprising that they crop up in nursery rhymes and stories. Oh dear what can the matter be (repeat) Johnny's not home from the Fair; he promised to buy me a bunch of blue ribbons to tie up my bonny brown hair. At some other point in his story Johnny was promised a new bonnet, and Johnny shall go to the fair / And Johnny shall have a blue ribbon / To tie up his bonny brown hair. So I am not sure which way round it was with the ribbons and the bonny hair, but I think he never came back again. And then there was that Old woman, as I've heard tell / She went to market her eggs to sell/ She went to market all on a market day / And she fell asleep on the king's highway. Unfortunately someone then came along and cut her petticoats up to her knees, which made her shiver and freeze..... And then there were the market traders who would "Cry" their wares, in the style of Molly Malone crying "Cockles and Mussels alive alive oh" Oh wouldn't you like this market vendor to have a song ! Markets specialised in different wares or produce or livestock. So if indeed you wanted to got to market to buy a fat pig and come home again jiggety-jig, or a fat hog and return jiggety -jog, it helped to have Owen's Book of Fairs (1824) which told you when and where to go. Richmond is very proud of its ancient Market Charter dating from 1155 and which was commemorated by a visit from the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall in 2005. Daniel Defoe, in describing Richmond in the 1720s, said that there was a market for woollen and yarn stockings which were sold for eighteen pence a dozen or three halfpence a pair or even less. Ripon has an even older market with a very ancient charter dating back to the year 886. http://www.discoverripon.org/page/history_of_the_market.html It was a privilege to have a Market, it brought commerce into a place and those who provided accommodation and food would do well. I do like the idea that Richmond Market sold wine as well as sheep and horses, although those who know me know I prefer a pint. Even small places had Markets or Fairs, Burton in Bishopdale, now called West Burton, had Fairs on the 10th of March, 6th of May, 30 August, 26th of November and 3rd and 4th of November. Askrigg, now a small village, once a place of commerce, had markets for cattle, woollen cloth, pewter, brass and milliner's goods. And talking of hats, on the ordinary market in York at the back of the Shambles, there were TWO stalls selling cloth caps ! Is the distinctive headgear of Yorkshiremen coming back into fashion ? if you want to get ahead get a Yorkshire flat cap. Of course Markets and Fairs attracted all kinds of rogues as well as those going to sell and buy. In 1877 four miscreants were up before the Bench for misdeeds at Bedale Market. George Anderson alias Cooke, Joseph Spriggs, and Jacob Ralph Jelly, cheese and bacon factors and Jonathan Battersby, fish and fruit merchant, all of Northallerton were charged with relieving James Bartle, cattle dealer, of £125 in Bedale Market on 12th December. Bartle said they had surrounded him when he was sitting on Battersby's stall and Cooke had taken his purse from his inner pocket, who still had some of the money when apprehended. York had a Soulmas Fair which was for selling horses and cattle. This was regularly reported in old newspapers in November. It was also a target for horse thieves, and after the Soulmas Fair there would also be advertisements for information on stolen horses with rewards offered. Regular weekly markets supply fresh food, and I always buy my fruit and vegetables and fresh fish from the Saturday market in Richmond. There is a monthly Farmer's Market which sells a delightful selection of tasty food, and we have our favourite stalls which we go to each month. This is the Butter Cross in Barnard Castle, and every week my Aunt would go and sell her butter and eggs here, (hopefully she never had her petticoat cut to her knees), but she would meet other farmers, their wives and daughters, and have her regular customers. This history of markets and fairs is rich and varied, and served a purpose. Another type of commodity was people, Hiring Fairs were regular features at the end of the year, often at Martinmas time , 11th November. These are all advertisements from newspapers in November 1859 This one above was for Bishop Auckland. The sister of my great grandmother could have gone to any of the above Hiring Fairs, but she did not she went to this next one at Darlington. I wonder if she was attracted by the Menagerie ? She was hired at the fair by a farmer called Burnside. Within a month she had taken her own life. She wrote home to tell her family that she loved them and that the key for her trunk was in her hat box. We will never know what happened. But we can guess. So many servants were subject to abuse. But let's move back to cheerier times. Live Music, wonderful food, hot drinks, lots to look at, people to talk to. There are lots more things I could tell you about Markets, perhaps more another month. Meanwhile good luck with your Christmas Shopping and I do hope that you do not purchase everything online !
Markets deserve to survive and thrive.
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A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of visiting a care home for the elderly to have an afternoon of "Memories" with them based on old fashioned remedies for everyday ailments. Starting with a dock leaf that was passed around we remembered how we used it for rubbing on a nettle stings, and then I produced a whole range of everyday things out of my kitchen cupboard or leaves I had picked in hedgerows and my garden to remember how in days gone by home grown remedies were always the first things used to make you feel better. I just grew up with this sort of knowledge and knew what sort of plants were used for different things. About half of the residents in the care home had this knowledge as well, and about half did not. But most curious of all was the number of staff who gathered around the door quite incredulous at some of the things I suggested. But I still use some of them, and really like herbal teas. So what herbal and folk remedies can you recall and do you still use them ? I had a long walk home from school through country lanes and over fields, over two miles, and was often accused of "dawdling", but in actual fact I was botanising, looking in great detail at the plants, flowers, trees, hedges, that I passed, and I knew exactly where I would find any particular plant in the whole parish. Coltsfoot in early February was the first real flower of the year, and grew at Jack Dunn's Lane End, right through to the late flowers of ivy. Harebells, eyebright, cuckoo flowers, milk maids - they all had lovely names. When I got home I would get the Observer's Book of Wild Flowers out of the bookcase and identify my discoveries. I have long wondered what happened to this book, I loved it so much. To my delight I found a second hand copy on a stall selling odd bits of this and that (I won't call it junk) on York market last week. Oh joy, it was mine for £3.25p ! and an Observer's Book of Birds as well. My brother had the Observer's book of Birds and Bird's Eggs. Yes, it was so long ago that little boys went Bird Nesting (now illegal thank goodness) and he carefully blew the eggs and put them in tissue paper in a shoe box. I was no good at spotting birds, and am still no good, my eyes need to be close to something to identify it. Flowers and trees don't move, so I got to know them very well indeed. Some of the illustrations are in black and white and others in colour. They are really very beautiful but best of all is the description of the plants. What a joy to a small child to read the description of Ragwort with the words lyrate, pinnate, corymb, involucre. I love words, and read the descriptions to see if they matched my specimens. I hasten to say that we did NOT have ragwort on our farm. Father said it was a shameful thing to have ragwort. It was uprooted immediately it appeared. The other aspect of collecting wild flowers and plants is their names. Speedwell, Toothwort, Nipplewort, Hare's foot trefoil, Herb Robert, Butterbur, Coltsfoot, Jack By The Hedge, such lovely names. Bristly Ox Tongue - how did they get these names ? Of course there were local or dialect names for flowers as well, my father called knapweed " 'oss nobs", because the flower heads were like a horse's head I suppose. Lots of wild plants included wort as part of their name, stitchwort, St John's wort, lousewort, and such plants have ancient medicinal uses. I discovered this strange looking plant early in the spring in some woods, and now, with my Observer's book of wild flowers, have identified it as Toothwort, lathrae squamaria, a very strange plant indeed. The leaves around it are wild garlic, it is leafless, but needs hazel bushes in order to grow. A symbiotic relationship between plants. Whether it was used for toothache I do not know but I can now see why it got its name as the flowers look like teeth. This is a very useful book and it has survived from the bookcase in the farmhouse kitchen. It does tell you all about the medicinal uses of different plants, and therefore it was quite natural to make some sage tea and gargle with it when you had a sore throat, or use feverfew for headaches. One little bit of wisdom that I stored up and used when it was necessary was Raspberry Leaf Tea. Swore by it on both occasions when it was needed (in childbirth) . I use comfrey to take out bruises, works a treat. Father used to point out that animals also instinctively knew which plants would make them better when they were not well. If a cow had been ill and was kept inside for a few days, or if she had just calved, once turned back out into the fields she would go round the hedge-backs eating leaves of plants, not grass, because she knew what would make her well again. This is another gem from the bookcase in the farmhouse. My mother treasured this book, and it also gave descriptions of plants and their medicinal uses. It has instructions on how to distill them, dry them, make pills and potions, syrups, oils and preserves, because, of course, plants are not growing all the year round. How did my mother come by this book ? I have no idea but the frontispiece has the name of Aaron Arrowsmith and the date June 1847. There was a famous Aaron Arrowsmith, a cartographer, who lived from 1750 to 1823 and was born at Winston on the River Tees. He went to London and became very famous and very rich, but it did not belong to him. Curiously when we visit my husband's father's family graves at Stanwick Saint John we pass by the gravestone of another Aaron Arrowsmith who must have lived in a nearby village. My mother was billeted in villages all around the area, at one time she was in Winston and Caldwell, during the Second World War, when she was a landgirl working on local farms. Did some kind person give her the Culpepper's herbal with this inscription of Aaron Arrowsmith ? Thinking about the knowledge of plants reminded me of a little bit in Elizabeth Gaskell's "Mary Barton", the novel of Manchester life, which is quite brutal in the descriptions of poverty and death always knocking on the door. It shocked at the time and it shocks now. But Will Wilson remembered with fondness his Aunt Alice Dear old Aunt ... she's sadly failed since I was last ashore... when I lived with her, a little wee chap, I used to be awakened by the neighbours knocking her up; this one ill, or that body's child restless; and for as tired as she might be , she would be up and dressed in a twinkling, never thinking of the hard day's wash afore her next morning. How happy I used to be when she would take me into the fields with her to gather herbs ! A wise woman who was called on in times of sickness who gathered herbs. Oberon in A Midsummer Night's Dream I know a bank where the wild thyme grows, Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows, Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine, With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine: There sleeps Titania sometime of the night Lull'd in these flowers with dances and delight. And yes I do know a bank where the wild thyme grows. And I will keep drinking herbal tea, nettle is a favourite at the moment, and I also like liquorice, and chamomile and peppermint and have started taking turmeric in drinks. My last reflection is on other childhood books. Alison Uttley's Little Grey Rabbit was fond of making things out of flowers and hedgerow plants, I remember she had some remedy made of coltsfoot and made cowslip wine. We made a cough remedy out of elderberries. It was delicious, flavoured with cloves. I had the job of picking the elderberries and then using a fork to take the berries off the stalks. My mother then boiled them up into a syrup and bottled it for winter chesty coughs. Alison Uttley traded on her country upbringing for the rest of her life and wrote extensively, not just books for children but collections of essays on country lore and a book of recipes (which I have and love). Beatrix Potter's naughty rabbit Peter, having lost his clothes and got soaked by hiding in a watering can, was put to bed with camomile tea. I think I would have given him a dose of something a bit stronger ! And here are some Rosehips, the fruit of the wild rose. Does anyone else remember rosehip syrup ? It was lovely and supposed to be rich in Vitamin C. Our village school used to collect rosehips. In the autumn we children used to pick hips from the hedgerows and take them to school and get something like an old one penny per pound and when you had picked ten pounds you got a badge. I can also remember that the cook in the school canteen used to put rosehip syrup on milk puddings such as semolina or sago or rice pudding. Oh those were the days ! But I have never found anyone else who collected rosehips and took them to school. What happened to rosehip syrup ? Someone must know. Not liking to see anything go to waste I have been making jam with windfall apples that somehow fall at my side of the fence from my neighbour's tree. As they are bruised they have to be used quickly, but are delicious either as eaters or cookers. Such a shame they all fall on the floor at the other side of the fence. I do give my neighbours some jam. And we all know the medicinal uses of cranberries !
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AuthorThis is where you can share creativity with me. I believe that everyone has something creative within them, and it is a joy to find ways of being creative. Blogging is NEW to me, so here goes ..... Archives
January 2024
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