Been spending time on my contribution to the Clovelly Community Archive Association Heritage Lottery Funding bid. Suffice it to say that if I never see another lottery application form it will be too soon. Also gave a Healing Herbs talk to a local WI. A refreshing change to find the average age of my audience was thirty something. We were however sharing the venue with the most raucous Parish Council meeting imaginable. Good job I can talk quite loudly!

I’ve offered to co-ordinate references to disease, injusry and death in the High Court of Admiralty depositions for the Marine Lives project – looking forward to that one.

Snow Day? These are a recent invention. I can remember being at infants school in the bad winter of 1962/3 (that gives my age away). We walked to school and back twice a day – no school dinners – climbing up and down piles of snow as we did so. Never any suggestion that schools might close. Ok so the snowy weather is good practice for Lapland but will we actually get that far? We just need the coach to run – please. Maybe I could just import a few reindeer and huskies and we could stay at home. Ah but then we would miss spending the night in minus 5 temperatures in the ice hotel and the igloo with the rotating bed. The brochure tells us we may want to follow our sauna by rolling naked in the snow – or maybe we won’t.

Now time to get back to what passes for ‘normal’ in my post-Christmas mad historical existence. The transcribing and indexing of the gravestones in the three churchyards in Buckland Brewer is almost at the point of being made available online – watch this space.

Two thirds of the ‘Enquire Within’ alphabet is now completed. ‘L’ threw up some interesting websites including a growing database enabling online searches for apprentices and freemen of various London Livery Companies 1400-1900. Allowed myself to be diverted looking up the World War 2 damage to my grandparents’ Battersea home on Bomb Sight – couldn’t make the search facility work but found them by moving the map around. Bit disappointed that they had no date for the incendiary falling in the adjacent graveyard but I can probably help with this as I have a letter from the landlord concerning the house repairs. Only snag was there didn’t seem to be a ‘contact us’ on the site. How is this ‘L’?, you may ask – ‘L’ is for London and rather a lot of other things unfortunately. ‘M’ is next – manorial records, maps, marriage and medals, to name just some that will take a bit of editing.

Just taken part in a forum for the Marine Lives Project. Some interesting possible uses of these C17th admiralty documents were suggested. Fortunately conference skyping means no accompanying video so I didn’t have to dress for the occasion.

Things are hotting up in regard to our Lapland preparations, although ‘hotting up’ is probably not the term to use. Have just spent a fortune on thermal everythings you can imagine in the sales. Then comes a brochure warning us that our night in the Ice Hotel means a night spent at minus 5 degrees. They recommend merino wool undies. That does sound a tad scratchy not to say very expensive – have to hope the thermals and thoughtfully provided ‘artic sleeping bag’ will suffice. Have just looked at the 10 day weather forecast for Kittila – with wind chill, minus 25 on the day we arrive! At least it will mean the ice hotel will feel cosy by comparison.

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

600 people reached the top of Mt. Everest in 2012. This blog got about 5,700 views in 2012. If every person who reached the top of Mt. Everest viewed this blog, it would have taken 10 years to get that many views.

Click here to see the complete report.

Spent the last few days breaking the back of indexing the transcripts of the local memorial inscriptions that my helpers and I (well mostly my helpers) have completed. The end is in sight but there is a fair bit of checking to be done. The sun came out – you may remember  this – it is a circular golden object that used to appear in the sky sometimes. Ideal, we can start some checking. Ah – sunny it may be but juggling lap top, pen, camera and sheets of paper in a force 8 gale with a wind chill factor of minus quite a lot, means checking was abandoned for another day. My companion was heard  to mutter ‘this is warm compared to Lapland’ – still worrying about that one. We are combining the information on the gravestones with that in the burial register and I am surprised by the level of discrepancy – different ages, different versions of names and several poor folk being buried a year or two before they died!

Still struggling through ‘C’ on my re-edit of Family Historians’ Enquire Within just how many things related to family history can begin with C? And they include many entries that need severe revision since the mid 1990s – ‘Canada’ and ‘Census’ accomplished now preparing to bite the bullet that is ‘Civil Registration’.

The holiday season is obviously prompting people to revisit their family history and I have exchanged useful information on Buckland Brewer families, including additions to my ’emigrants’ collection.

Had the first ever refusal of one of many corrections to Findmypast. Resubmitted  it with War and Peace in the ‘comments’ box. I did find ‘Seamster’ (if this exists as a word – presumably the masculine of seamstress) an unlikely occupation for a 19 year old male on a farm. I then worked back a few pages to find other upper case ‘T’s that were identical to the initial letter – this time mistranscribed as ‘L’ so another correction has gone in.

Enjoyable first Christmas Eve for our community shop. Now sat in front of the woodburner half watching Christmas TV and yes, indexing memorial inscriptions and burials from transcripts. Before you suggest I should get out more, one of my party has succumbed to yet more plague so it will be a quiet Christmas. West Country rail routes are still impassable so I hope everyone has got to where they need to be. I am happily tracking Santa as he speeds across the globe – he’s currently approaching the Taj Mahal. Looking forward to Skyping friends and family tomorrow.

Happy Christmas and a peaceful joyous 2013 to all – thanks for following my ramblings – more historical trivia soon.

Wren hunting

Hunting a wren by wren boys on 26^th December, primarily in Ireland and on the Isle of Man, has possible associations with pagan or druidic rituals. The live wren would be tied to a pole and donations sought from townspeople, often in return for a feather, to pay for a dance that evening. Later the live wren was replaced by an artificial one.

Yule

Jol or Jule was the feast to honour Jolnir, another name for the Norse Odin, god of alcohol and ecstasy. It commemorated the winter solstice and was celebrated on 21^st December. Large logs would be dragged in and burnt to create light on a time of darkness. The feast lasted until the Yule log burnt out.

Despite generally enjoying watching ‘Merlin’ on BBC TV, I was somewhat irritated yesterday when King Arthur, presumably speaking at some point during the Dark Ages, referred to the United Kingdom!

Waits

Waits were the night watchmen who played instruments whilst they patrolled the streets, to warn townspeople of danger. From this they developed into minstrels who gave performances in private homes or innyards. Villages often had their own band of waits.

Wassailing

Wassail was a traditional toast ‘waes hael’ (be well), to which the response was ‘drink hael’ (drink and be healthy). Wassailing, also known as apple howling, was particularly common in the west country. The apple king and queen, followed by a rowdy procession, would go from orchard to orchard blessing the trees. This was accompanied by shouting, the banging of drums and the firing of muskets.

Parcel wrapping today. I am going for a subtle brown paper and jolly ribbon look this year. I don’t know who invented brown paper (allegedly around in the C17th as seeds were wrapped in it in order to store them) but you’d think they would have made it a little easier to handle. I once papered a room in brown paper. The end result was fine but it stretched all over the place and was decidely the trickiest wall papering I’ve ever done. My wall papering days are now over as the walls in my cottage are too full of lumps and bumps.

25^th December

In the early years of Christianity, Easter was the main Christian holiday; the birth of Jesus was not celebrated. One of the earliest references to Christmas being celebrated on December 25th appeared in Antioch in the middle of the second century. At that time, Christians were still persecuted. It was not until 350 that Pope Gregory declared 25^th December to be the official date for celebrating Christ’s birth.

Turkey

Before turkey became the traditional Christmas meat, pheasant, swan or goose was eaten. It is believe that the first person to bring turkey to Britain was William Strickland in 1526. He sold the six turkeys he brought back from America in Bristol, for two pence each.

Well, contrary to Mayan opinion, 11.11am has passed and we are all still here. I was prompted to wonder about the effect of the switch to the Gregorian Calendar. May this mean we are eleven days out?

What to do with the rest of the day – apart from spreading Christmas Cheer in the Community Shop? I think it may be an occasion for indexing a few more gravestones – I know how to party!

Tree

The Christmas tree is a C16^th German tradition. Its use was first recorded in England in 1829 and it was popularised by Queen Victoria. It was derived from the ancient pagan traditions of bringing evergreens into the house during winter to symbolise the hope of spring.

 Twelfth Night

Twelfth Night was followed by a day when the home was blessed. The Puritans discontinued this custom and Twelfth Night lost its religious connections. It then became an occasion for over indulgence. It was therefore banned as a feast day in 1870.

‘P’ and ‘E’ now done for the Family Historians’ Enquire Within edit. ‘Emigration’ took some time. Have finished now for the holiday season but did have a quick look at forthcoming ‘C’ and wished I hadn’t.

Events in my village this week have reinforced my belief in the need for proper history teaching. We need to equip people with the ability to gather facts from a variety of sources and to evaluate the accuracy of the evidence. Maybe then ludicrous rumours wouldn’t find their way on to social media sites so easily. Rant over!

Lovely time with Highampton History Society last night. I even sold copies of Coffers, Clysters, Comfrey and Coifs to 40% of the audience! Mistress Agnes is now off duty until the New Year.

Snowmen
Snowmen are thought to be a survival of a totemic pagan ritual. The largest snow person was built in 2008 in Maine and was 122 feet 1 inch tall.

Stable
There is no biblical evidence for Jesus’ birth in a stable. The references to the animals and a manger have led to the association with the stable, although at the time of Jesus’ birth animals would have been brought in to share part of the living accommodation.

Star
The star is another nativity tradition for which there is no biblical evidence. It is, in literal translations, a ‘bright light in the sky’, regarded by some as being a comet.

Have spent the last few days on matters relating to our newly opened community shop. At one point I ended up in the empty shop with no key with which to relock it. Hmm what to do? I had a phone, great – unfortunately I couldn’t remember the phone number of the key holders. I searched in vain for a list of numbers. We are so new that we don’t yet have a telephone directory. Fine I’ll ring Chris and see if he has a telephone directory near to hand. Me: ‘Where are you?’ Chris: ‘Out to sea off Clovelly’ – that would be a no then. Fortunately I then realised that I was staring at the list of phone numbers I needed.

Carol singing round the village last night. As I may have said before, I am strong on enthusiam but less good on tune. Rewarded by a delicious cider punch at my neighbours afterwards – resembled the traditional Lamb’s wool (see my ‘L’ entries). Probably best not consumed if one wishes to be compos mentis the next day though!

Here I am on the said next day, struggling through the last of the ‘P’ entries for my re-edit of Family Historians’ Enquire Within. Who would have thought that so many things could begin with P – my lengthiest letter so far:- from pinfolds and postcards to prisoners of war!

Cakes are now iced, Christmas cards delivered and things are gradually winding down. Tonight, my last talk of the year.

St Nicholas (Santa Claus)

Nicholas was the 4th century Bishop of Myra in modern day Turkey. His feast day is 6th December and he was patron saint of small boys, dockers, boatmen, travellers, pilgrims and those who had unjustly lost law suits. The 6th December remains a gift giving day in parts of Europe but much of the world has moved the tradition of St. Nicholas to 25th December. The modern Santa Claus or Father Christmas combines elements of the gift giving Saint Nicholas and the Viking Old Man Winter.

Saturnalia

This was the feast of the Roman god Saturn that took place from 17th to 23rd December. Many of its traditions were adapted or incorporated by the early Christian church.

Shepherds

The association of shepherds with Christmas is biblical in origin.