B.Pegg (1981)

Source:

Bob Pegg (Auth.)
RITES AND RIOTS: FOLK CUSTOMS OF BRITAIN AND EUROPE
Poole: Blandford Press, 1981, 0-7137-0997-9

*A well illustrated book, with the chapters; Introduction, 1 A Passage through the Wilderness, 2 The Light Months, 3 The Dark Months, 4 Dance and Drama, 5 The Human Seasons, Conclusion, and Bibliography.

Page 85 gives following;

"Gain was also one of the motives for my paternal grandparents when, as children some eighty years ago, they too went around on Plough Monday through the streets of Long Eaton, a small town in East Derbyshire. They had no plough, but they did black their faces and turn their jackets inside out, and they carried brooms (though not to sweep with). Sometimes the boys would wear their mother's jackets. They went around the houses singing:

Plough Monday, Shrove Tuesday when the boys went to plough,
My mother made some pancakes and she didn't know how.
She buttered them, she sugared them, she made them turn black
She put some rat poison in to poison poor Jack.

'After we'd been singing one or two songs, you see, we used to sing that', said my grandmother, 'and then we knocked at the door and of course the people came to the door. When they saw you they asked you in the house and sometimes they'd give you something to eat or they'd give you ha'pennies and pennies. And of course we'd got a chip shop in the district and we used to go and buy chips and eat them'."

The text of a Pace-Egg Play is given on pages 104 to 107. This came from Blackshaw, West Yorks., and was performed on Good Friday by Mr. Harry Greenwood shortly before the World War 1. It has the characters; St. George, Slasher, Doctor, Black Morrocco Prince and Tosspot.

Index Terms:

Locations: *Long Eaton, Derbys. (SK4933); Blackshaw, West Yorks., Yorks. (SD9527)
Years: Perf. about 1901; Perf. before 1914
Subjects: *Plough Monday; Costumes; Song; Text Fragment; House Visiting; Full Text; Pace-Egg Play; Plays; Good Friday; St. George; Slasher; Doctor; Black Morrocco Prince; Tosspot
People: Mr. Harry Greenwood (Perf.)
Archives: TDRG Archive, Ref. TD00495

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

Last Updated Jan 1992 by Peter Millington.