THE ENGLISH VILLAGE.

CUSTOMS AND
TRADITIONS IN BRITAIN
Staicu Denisa
Vespremi Timea
Great Tew,
Oxfordshire
Castle Combe,
Wiltshire
Hawkshead, • What feelings do these images evoke?
Cumbria • Have you ever visited any of these
villages?
 What is a village?

• Old Country Church

• A Fine Village Pub
• Pretty Cottages
• Village Green and Water (optional)
The definition is vague because there
are towns which have shrunk to be little
more than a village and hamlets which
have expanded rapidly to become
similar in size to one. Neither is how
long a settlement has existed important
as to whether it is a proper village, some
will are older, others surprisingly
modern
 The Beginnings
• 1300 BC - the henge civilisation seems to have
become less important, and was overtaken by a
settled farming class
• Family villages and fortified enclosures appeared
across the landscape, in lower areas as well as on
the chalk hills, and the old central control of
Stonehenge and the other henges was lost
• With the arrival of the Celtic tribes the number
of hill-forts (village-type settlements) increased
as a result of better agriculture
• The insides of the hill-forts were filled
with houses, and they became the simple
economic capitals and smaller "towns" of the
different tribal areas into which Britain was now
divided
• Danebury Hill Fort - YouTube
 The Roman Period - Pre 410
• Towns were the basis of Roman administration and civilisation
• Three different kinds of towns in Roman Britain: coloniae, towns
peopled by Roman settlers; municipia, large cities in which the
population was given Roman citizenship; and civitas, included the
old Celtic tribal capitals, through which the Romans administered
the Celtic population in the countryside
• The Romans left about twenty large towns and almost one
hundred smaller ones, built with stone as well as wood, and
planned streets, markets and shops; some buildings had central
heating; they were connected by roads
• From the end of the second century to the end of the third century
AD, almost every town was given walls
• While the richer Britons lived on large farms, called "villa", most
people still lived in the same kind of round huts and villages, like
before
• Britain’s Amazing Roman Structures That You Can Visit Today 🧱 Aeri
al Britain | Smithsonian Channel - YouTube
Tudor Period - 1485-1603 CE
• In 1485: forests, unused land, villages and towns (large villages with their own fields
and farms)
• In the sixteenth century the population increased, the unused land was cleared for
sheep; large areas of forest were cut down to provide wood for the shipbuilding
industry
• In the countryside the yeoman farmers (who had at least 100 acres of land): they
produced food to sell, and employed men to work on their land
• Many fenced off land from the village: poor people lost the land they farmed as well
as the common land where they kept animals
• The introduction of chimneys: cooking and heating easier and more comfortable
• Housing boom termed The Great Rebuilding: successful members of the village could
build themselves new houses, at first timber-framed with closely positioned verticals
or decorative panels on the finest examples but then increasingly in brick.
• Birmingham grew in the sixteenth century from a village into an important industrial
city
• Many of the larger villages would host a weekly
market, this would generally be centred around
the market cross, this was the Medieval High
Cross which would stand in the centre of most
villages
• Tudor villages in England would be surrounded
by land used for growing vegetables and crops,
there would be pigsty’s and hen houses as well
as a dairy so that all of the daily needs of the
villagers were met
• The villages in Tudor times would become quiet
after dark; people would spend their time
talking and sitting by the fire
• On Sundays people went to the church; they
would gather around, gossip and play games
• The women in the villages would work together
sewing and spinning while the men played
games: bowling, chess and nine man’s morris
Stuart Period - 1603-1714
• The majority of people during the era of Stuart Britain were
poor, with a large portion living in terrible poverty
• Most of the working population tended to work for a
‘master’, with some historians estimating this to be two-
fifths of the labour force
• The situation for the poor improved in the second half of
the seventeenth century: prices fell compared with wages,
and fewer people asked for help from the parish
• Most towns and villages did not have shops before the
seventeenth century; they had market days when farmers
and manufacturers sold their produce in the town square or
market place
• By 1690 most towns had proper shops; towns which had
shops grew larger, while smaller towns without shops
remained no more than villages
• In towns, people were employed as shoemakers,
smithies, tailors, porters, saddlers, glovers and
chimney sweeps
• On the streets were people selling a variety of
objects and human wares: prostitution
• Those who worked in agriculture had jobs involving
all aspects of husbandry, including milking cows,
collecting eggs from chickens, toiling in the fields
and others
• People in Stuart Britain enjoyed a variety of
pastimes, including country dances, singing and
listening to live music, going to see a play at the
theatre, and witnessing the gory spectacle of blood
sports including cock-fighting and bear-baiting
 Georgian Period - 1714-1837
• In 1700 England was still a land of villages
• By the middle of the century Liverpool, Manchester,
Birmingham, Sheffield and Leeds were already large, but
such new towns were still treated as villages and so had
no representation in Parliament
• Towns: no drain, streets were used as lavatories, muddy
and narrow --> centres of disease
• After 1760: tax system in order to provide social
services, such as street cleaning and lighting
• At the beginning of the century most villages were in the
middle of three-four large fields
• During the eighteenth century most of this land was
enclosed and used for mixed animal and cereal farms
• Common land was transformed into enclosed land,
factories replaced the cottage industries, the villagers
became the factory workers
Victorian Period - 1837 – 1901

• "The move from village to town could be perceived as something

to be aspired to, with its apparent promise of employment and
perhaps greater freedom, but simultaneously, and subsequently,
rural life would be seen as something that was being lost."
(Worth, 8)
• Still, during the Victorian era the majority of villages were
supplied with clothes by the village shops, while shoes were
made by the local shoemakers
• Even though much of the rural land was lost, the Victorian era
saw an intense interest in village life; the urban elite desired the
idealized rural life
• The migration from villages to towns continued and peaked in
the second half of the 19th century
Customs and Traditions
in Scotland, Wales,
Yorkshire, North-East
and North-West England

• Scotland and Wales are both

lands with rich heritages, full
of unique customs and
traditions
• Some of these are unique to
them, while some are shared
with England
 New Year and First
Footing
• The welcoming of New Year in Scotland: Hogmanay
"We wish you a merry Christmas, a Happy New Year
A pocket full of money and a cellar full of beer
A good fat pig to last you all the year
Please to give us a New Year's Gift." (Wales)
• They carried: a callenig in Wales, red herrings in Scotland
• First Footing: good-looking, well-made man; a red haired man was the
"Lucky Bird"
• "Flat-footed people are therefore very unlucky, as are those with any
kind of lameness, squint, or natural blemish, or whose eyebrows meet
in the middle: so too are people dressed in black or mourning clothes,
carrying knives or pointed tools, or known for stinginess. An empty-
handed visitor was so badly omened that he might be suspected of
deliberately ill-wishing the house." (Kightly, p. 175)
• The visitor shall pour a drink for the head of the house and not speak
other than wishing 'A Happy New Year'; he should also leave through
the back door
Sword Dancing
• Traditionally performed by 5-6-8 men, on
Plough Monday
• The 'Longsword dances' (Yorkshire): semi-
rigid wood or metal sword, three feet long,
with a simple hilt on one end
• The 'Rapper dances' (Northumberland and
Durham): two-foot 'rappers' of flexible sprung
steel, with fixed hilt and a swivelling point-
guard
• The rapper dances are more showier and
modern
• Newcastle
Kingsmen Rapper dance at the Hub, Sidmout
h Folk Week 2012. - YouTube
Whuppity Stourie
• At the parish kirk, whose bells resume their nightly ringing at 6 p. m. on March 1st
• The primary schoolchildren run around the church three times, in a sunwise direction
• The first boy and girl receive prizes while the rest "scramble for a shower of coins thrown by the
Provost" (Kightly, p. 235)
• Origins: a ritual to welcome spring, to exorcize evil spirits, whipping of penitents around the
church
 Pax Cakes on Palm
Sunday
• After the Palm Sunday service the
Pax Cakes are distributed to
everyone
• 'Peace and Good Neighbourhood' is
repeated
• Formerly washed down by a cup of
free beer or cider
• Originates from 1670, by Lady Jane
Scudamore
Highland Games
• Highland Games: held in spring and
summer mainly in Scotland;
celebrates Scottish and Celtic culture,
especially that of the Scottish
Highlands
• The games are the following: caber
toss, hammer throw, shot put, weight
for height/ weight over the bar, tug-
o’war
• The competitors wear traditional
Scottish Clothes
• Scottish Highland Games: Explained -
YouTube
 Common Riding
• The Scottish version of Beating the
Bounds, originated from the need to
inspect boundary lines and markers, to
protects the territories and borders
• The Riding-day ceremonies in Selkirk:
begins at dawn when the bands start
playing; the riders follow the route; 'The
Casting of Colours' - commemorating the
defeat at Flodden in 1513; afternoon
horse race and Standard Bearer's evening
ball
• Hawick Ride: Cornet's Dash –
commemorating a victory over English
raiders at Hornshole in 1514
• Selkirk Common Riding 2018 | Highlights
- YouTube
 • The head of Mari Lwyd is made of wood or real horse's skull
and glass eyes; it's carried by a white-sheeted man on a pole
• Before entering the house they "fight" a verbal battle in Welsh
verse, if the insider loses, Mari can enter, if not, she has to
leave
• If she enters she pushes and bites the people
Mari Lwyd • After food and drinks are served, Mari wishes a lucky New Year
and continues her journey
Tolling the Devil’ • Mari Lwyd - Welsh Christmas Tradition - YouTube
s Knell • The custom of 'Tolling the Devil's Knell' originates from Thomas
de Soothill's story
• All Saints' Church, Dewsbury at 10 p.m.: "the tenor bell sounds
as many strokes as there are years since Christ's Nativity, the
last timed exactly to coincide with the first chime of midnight,
when Jesus was born and Satan died." (Kightly, p. 219)
• Each year one stroke has to be added to his knell, or he will be
free to trouble the parish for a year
Bibliography:
• Facts about Medieval Tudor Villages | Leisure Activities (elizabethaneng
landlife.com)
• Stuart Britain: A Look at Everyday Life | HistoryExtra
• McDowall, David. The Illustrated History of Britain. Essex, England,
Longman, 2006.
• Lengyel-Marosi, Renata. Culture and History of Great Britain. Komarom,
Hungary, J. Selye University, 2021
• Worth, Rachel. Clothing and Landscape in Victorian England. London,
England, I.B.Tauris & Co. Ltd, 2018
• Kightly, Charles. The Customs and Ceremonies of Britain. London,
England, Thames and Hudson, 1986