{"id":2560,"date":"2024-02-11T15:10:26","date_gmt":"2024-02-11T15:10:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crimesofthecenturies.com\/?p=2560"},"modified":"2025-07-15T15:23:15","modified_gmt":"2025-07-15T14:23:15","slug":"shrove-tuesday-customs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crimesofthecenturies.com\/index.php\/2024\/02\/11\/shrove-tuesday-customs\/","title":{"rendered":"Shrove Tuesday customs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Shrove Tuesday = Pancake Day. That is pancakes as in cr\u00eapes, not American-style. Served with sugar and lemon juice. Or maybe Nutella, if you have a sweet tooth. Or flamb\u00e9ed with alcohol, for the grown-ups. Shrove Tuesday is also possibly the ONLY day Brits bother to mess up their kitchens making pancakes. And is followed by Ash Wednesday, when a lot of us start to give up something for Lent, possibly trying to reboot the New Year\u2019s resolution that only lasted a fortnight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This year, Ash Wednesday coincides with Valentine\u2019s Day. No comment on that one!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But pre-chocolate spread and \u2018just add water\u2019 batter mixes, what was Shrove Tuesday like?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Poor poultry<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In the Westmorland Gazette<\/em>, in January 1820, \u2018a correspondent\u2019 asks:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

From whence arose that inhuman and barbarous custom of throwing at cocks on Shrove Tuesday?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

No one seems to have replied, or explained how wide this custom was. I found a later detail that the poor cock was tied to a stake. But not what it was that was thrown at the innocent birds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, a year later, the Gazette did inform readers that the custom of eating pancakes on Shrove Tuesday originated in London, in 1446, when the Lord Mayor \u2013 a shoemaker called Simon Eyre \u2013 made a pancake feast for all the apprentices in London.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, it makes as much sense as the idea of \u2018using up forbidden foods\u2019 ahead of Lent. Given that pancakes are made from flour, eggs, and milk \u2013 cows don\u2019t stop producing milk in March, so giving up milk would mean pouring it down the drain. Ditto hens\/eggs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Collop Monday<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The day before Shrove Tuesday is called Collop Monday. Collops are thin slices of meat, and you can read about this tradition here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, got to say, it\u2019s a tradition that hasn\u2019t exactly stood the test of time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back in 1834, however, collops were served up to around 50 children in Westmorland \u2013 along with pancakes \u2013 by a Mrs Nowell. This would appear to have been at Underley Hall, at Kirkby Lonsdale, which was then owned by Alexander Nowell and his wife Charlotte. (They both died, she a few months before him, in 1842).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ‘primitive church’<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In 1836, one A Campbell \u2018inserted at the request of a friend\u2019 an article on The Christian Religion into the pages of the Kendal Mercury<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Campbell wrote that the first churches \u2018had no festivals\u2019 \u2013 and didn\u2019t do politics, or divisions. I suspect Campbell\u2019s lecture on \u2018the pure and undefiled religion\u2019 tells us more about the author than old customs. But the claim is that:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u00a0\u2018in the primitive Church, they had no Easter Sunday, Thanksgiving Monday, Shrove Tuesday, Ash Wednesday, Holy Thursday, Good Friday, nor Preparation Saturday. All days were alike good\u2019.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Thanksgiving Monday\u2019 and \u2018Preparation Saturday\u2019? The former seems to have been a very moveable feast, as searches (1840s) pull up dates in December, January, May, June and July. The latter doesn\u2019t seem to have been a universal \u2018thing,\u2019 either.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plough Monday<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Ah, the good old days. If A Campbell was sniffy about the present, a year later a writer in the Gazette was looking back at \u2018Customs and Superstitions of the Good Old Times\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Including Plough Monday. Which is still a thing in some places<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But by 1837, it had already lost one custom, whereby:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u2018If the ploughman\u2026 came to the kitchen with his whip in his hand and cried: \u201cCock in the pot\u201d before the maid could say: \u201cCock on the dunghill,\u201d he gained a cock to throw at on Shrove Tuesday\u2019.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Shrove Tuesday celebrations<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Other than isolated stories about pancake-eating contests (a winner ate 25, the loser 23) in Barnsley, and \u2018the vulgar\u2019 in London devoting the day to \u2018idleness, oranges and gin,\u2019 there don\u2019t seem to have been any widespread events in the 1800s. But in individual homes, pancakes were whipped up. And it seems they were especially popular in Barnsley, for it was reported in 1850 that such was the demand for milk to make them that:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u2018so much as a halfpenny and a penny a pint above the usual price was offered for it\u2019.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

As for Cumbria, there was an annual hunt at Wreay for many, many years (bar 1866, when it was called off due to cattle plague in the county). This included sports such as \u2018racing and leaping\u2019. And a substantial dinner later, at which a new mayor was chosen.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It wasn\u2019t a great day to be a local fox. But at least the cockerels could sleep easy on Collop Monday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Shrove Tuesday = Pancake Day. That is pancakes as in cr\u00eapes, not American-style. Served with sugar and lemon juice. Or maybe Nutella, if you have a sweet tooth. Or flamb\u00e9ed with alcohol, for the grown-ups. Shrove Tuesday is also possibly the ONLY day Brits bother to mess up their kitchens making pancakes. And is followed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2561,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[320],"tags":[52],"class_list":["post-2560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-customs-and-traditions","tag-westmorland"],"yoast_head":"\nShrove Tuesday customs - Cumbrian Characters<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Shrove Tuesday has meant pancakes since at least the 15thC. 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