CotswoldXL Magazine Issue 15

Welcome to our Easter issue from all the CotswoldXL team.

FOUNDER

Chris Brown

MAGAZINE COORDINATOR

Kim Raxter

EDITOR

Mide Carter

GRAPHIC DESIGNER

Joshua Higham

DIGITAL CONSULTANT

Tobias Taylor

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Celebrating Easter Around the World

Find out about the often strange to downright bonkers ways Easter is celebrated across the globe.

The History of Wool in the Cotswolds

find out more about sheep and wool and how integral it is to the Cotwsolds.

Easter Simnel Cake

Enjoy this recipe for the a very tradational Easter Sinnel cake.

A Letter From The Editor.

A warm welcome to our Easter issue. It’s been a long grey, winter hasn’t it? Not bitterly cold, but wet, dull and muddy. I think we’re all sick of the mud, aren’t we? I’ve slipped and fallen in the mud three times this winter, luckily only my pride was injured! The prospect of a lush spring seems particularly inviting this year and what better way to kick start the season of new beginnings than the Easter weekend.

I’ve mentioned before how much I love the long weekend. For me it’s a slightly more relaxed version of Christmas with more chocolate and longer days in which to walk the dog. Thank goodness for the longer days; it really is time to get out and about in the Cotswolds.

I’ve been enjoying the new-born lambs in the past few weeks as I’ve been trudging about on the hills. I see them every year and yet still they make me stop and smile. To find out more about sheep and wool and how integral it is to our region turn to p12 for ‘The History of Wool in the Cotswolds’. To find out about the often strange to downright bonkers ways Easter is celebrated across the globe turn to p6

for ‘Celebrating Easter around the world’.

Read up on the elusive and beautiful Lesser Spotted Woodpecker on p27 and enjoy my recipe for a very traditional Easter Simnel Cake on P38.

Have a really relaxing Easter and fingers crossed by the next issue there will be less rain and more sunshine for all of us.

Mide x

Celebrating Easter Around The World

Easter is the most important festival in the Christian calendar, and it’s celebrated widely across the world in a number of diverse and surprising ways. Find out below how different countries, towns and cities around the globe mark this special time that’s synonymous with rebirth, fertility and hope for the year ahead.

Wet Monday

Traditionally celebrated early in the morning on Easter Monday with young men throwing water and reciting poetry over young women as they sleep. In return the women give the men painted eggs (seems fair). This soggy spectacle is seen as a fertility ritual. It’s evolved over the years into a huge communal water fight.

Pot Throwing

On Easter Saturday in Corfu, old pots called ‘Botides’ are filled with water and thrown out of windows into the streets below as an orchestra plays. This spectacular and slightly unnerving tradition symbolises the resurrection of Christ.

POLAND, UKRAINE, SLOVAKIA AND CZECH REPUBLIC

GREECE- CORFU

FINLAND AND SWEDEN

BERMUDA

Kite Flying Witches

During Easter, children in Finland and Sweden dress up as witches with broomsticks and wander about the streets together hunting for treats. The story goes that during Easter the witches fly off to talk to Satan. The treats are seen as bribes, so the witches will then chase away Satan’s evil spirits.

Bermuda has a long history of kite-flying at Easter. On Good Friday, people come together to make colourful hexagonal kites to fly over the weekend. They do this alongside food festivals, spring activities and sunrise services to celebrate the important time in the Christian calendar.

FRANCE, BESSIERES

Festival of the Enormous Omelette

Every Easter in a small town in southern France, north-east of Toulouse, 15,000 eggs are collected. Not for Easter eggs, but for an enormous omelette big enough to feed thousands of people. For free! There’s a legion of volunteers, a huge number of spectators and an energetic festival atmosphere. Legend says that when Napoleon travelled to the area, he was so enamoured with the omelette he was served at a local hotel, that he returned every year with all of his men to have another. It’s an unusual and delightful tradition that brings people together over a long weekend of festivities.

DENMARK

Teasing Letters

During Easter, Danes send out ‘teasing’ letters written on paper with elaborate cut-outs. The tradition dates back to the 16th century when it was originally a bit more like a valentine. It’s now developed into the teasing letters. This is where an individual sends a letter to a friend or family member before Easter with a riddle inside. The sender must give a clue to their identity by putting a number of dots that correspond to the number of letters in their name. If the recipient guesses who they are the sender owes the recipient an Easter egg!

WORDS BY MIDE CARTER

ITALY, FLORENCE

The Explosion of the Cart

Every year on Easter Sunday in the city of Florence they celebrate with ‘The explosion of the cart’. A tradition that dates back 350 years. An elaborate, tall wagon, built in 1622 is pulled by a pair of decorated oxen through the streets of Florence to the Piazza del Duomo. At 11am, when the Gloria is sung inside the church, the Archbishop lights a small rocket which flies down a wire and travels outside to the cart, setting of a magnificent fireworks display. This is accompanied by loud cheers from the crowds in the square.

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The History of Wool in the Cotswolds

In around AD 43, the seemingly unstoppable Roman Empire invaded England. They would remain here for over three and a half centuries changing our country forever.

When the Romans arrived in the Cotswolds, they found the rolling hills ideal for their very own breed of sheep and rapidly introduced them to the landscape. Nowadays the breed is known as the ‘Cotswold Lion’ and notable for its exceptionally long fleece and the role it played in transforming life in the Cotswolds forever.

Since Roman times our region has been known as the ‘Cotswolds’. It basically means ‘sheep’s hills’. ‘Cots’ meaning ‘sheep’s enclosure’ and ‘wold’ is rolling hills. After the Romans left, the sheep ownership was transferred to landowners. This was initially the church and then gradually wealthy families. The wool from the prized sheep was highly desirable and as a result was considered very valuable. It was shipped all over the world and became an incredibly profitable European export. Merchants and weavers from Italy were particularly enamoured with the fine quality wool and enthusiastically sought to possess it.

By medieval times, the industry was thriving all over the UK and the saying ‘half the wealth of England rises on the back of sheep’ was both popular and true. The Cotswolds remained central for the production of fine wool. As a result, the region thrived and created wealth for the merchants and the communities around them. There were signs of growing prosperity everywhere. Houses were built and people basked in the economic stability the wool trade had brought to the region.

Rare breed sheep ‘Cotswold Lions’ grazing near to Broadway Tower

Cotswold wool merchants were particularly fond of giving large donations towards the construction of grand and ornate churches in the hope that they would secure their place in heaven as a result. They were often built to replace a less impressive place of worship. This meant the church also stood as testament to a whole communities’ growing prosperity. Across the Cotswolds many of these ‘wool churches’ still stand. There are ornate and beautiful wool churches in Chipping Campden, Northleach, Cirencester and Winchcombe with many more around the country. Today, embedded into the worn floors of these impressive structures, you can still see the brass merchant’s woolmarks. These woolmarks would have been stamped onto the sack of a merchant’s wool as a means of identification and authentication. When wealthy wool merchants paid large donations to a church’s construction, they had their woolmarks incorporated into the flooring for all to see. A visible testimony to their wealth and, of course, their devotion to god.

The wool trade quite literally shaped the villages throughout the Cotswolds. Village layouts were designed with sheep trade in mind. In Stow-on-the-Wold for example, come market day 20,000 sheep would head for market square. They’d spill out of the alleyways named ‘trues’ which controlled the flocks as they arrived for trade. The wide grass verges you see in places such as Burford or Broadway,

for example, served as places to hold the sheep for market.

Eventually the wool trade declined and evolved, and locals began to weave the wool rather than just raising the fleece. This brought about the establishment of the trade’s guilds. Trade guilds ensured standards were maintained and consequently this meant Cotswold cloth became incredibly desirable. Again, this trade moulded the villages we see today, many rows of Cotswolds cottages that flank our village streets were originally weavers’ cottages.

The Cotswold weaving trade began to decline with the industrial revolution. Some merchants diversified into the silk trade, notably in the village of Blockley. However, on the whole the area remained predominantly rural and untouched by the ravages of large-scale industry. The farming of livestock and crops began to takeover where wool and cloth had once thrived.

Whilst the wool and cloth are no longer produced in the same way in the Cotswolds you can still see an abundance of sheep grazing our rolling hills. With our hills flanked by cottages built from the famous honey coloured Cotswold Stone, it’s easy to imagine how life once looked for the wool merchants and the weavers of the Cotswolds.

To get up close to a real Cotswold Lion, head over to The Cotswold Farm Park at Guiting Power for a really lovely family day out –www.cotswoldfarmpark.co.uk.

To get a taste of the wool and weaving trade in the Cotswolds, a day out at Cotswolds Woollen Weavers in the village of Filkins is definitely worth it – www.cotswoldwoollenweaver.co.uk

WORDS BY MIDE CARTER

Lesser Spotted Woodpecker

The clue really is in the name; the lesser spotted woodpecker is an elusive bird that likes to dwell out of sight, in the tops of trees. It’s also small – about the same size as a sparrow – and chronically endangered.

It has a black and white head with a red cap on the males. It also has a stripe effect on its wings and a white breast with dark streaks. Not to be confused with the Great Spotted Woodpecker, it’s much larger cousin, which has a red rump under its tail feathers and lacks the same white stripes on the wings.

If you’re lucky enough to spy one, it’s a real treat. They have a really sweet way of bouncing about on a branch.

FEEDING

Lesser spotted woodpeckers like to feed on insects and invertebrates. Their powerful beak enables it to peck at dead and rotten wood to gain access to the beetle larvae within. They’ll also feed on other insects they find on tree trunks and branches.

NESTS AND BREEDING

Lesser spotted woodpeckers like to raise their young high up in old trees, where they’ll often create a hole and chamber by using their powerful beaks to drill into the wood. Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers like to breed in late April, only producing a single clutch. They’ll lay between 4-6 eggs, which hatch after about

two weeks. The chicks will spend about 3 weeks in the nest before fledging.

WHERE DO YOU FIND THEM?

The Lesser Spotted Woodpecker loves a mature woodland. It particularly enjoys the dead and rotting trees found in this environment. The species is rare with the largest numbers found in southern England with the odd scattered populations in Wales and a small number in Yorkshire.

If you’d like to spot one, get a good pair of binoculars and aim them at the tops of trees and be patient.

They have a distinct way of flying in an undulating manner. If you’re privileged to see a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker up close, you might notice that it can stand vertically on tree branches. This is because, unlike most birds, they have two forward facing toes and two backward facing toes enabling them to stand securely in an upright position on the trunk of a tree.

CONSERVATION

Lesser Spotted Woodpecker is an endangered bird with roughly 2,000 pairs thought to be left in the UK. The loss of ancient woodlands and the habitat of dead and rotten wood they provide has contributed to this decline.

WORDS BY MIDE CARTER

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Cotswolds

The Vale of Evesham.

Easter Simnel Cake

Simnel cake is a delicious and traditional Easter cake that dates back to medieval times. Originally, it was probably an enriched, yeast-leavened bread. However, it was considered special because it was made from the finest flour. Simnel is derived from the Latin simila – meaning ‘the whitest and finest of flours’. By the 17th century, the bread

had evolved into a pudding a little bit like a spotted dick and was given by servant girls to their mother’s when they returned home on mothering Sunday. By the 18th century, the cake had become similar to the cake we know today with fruit, marzipan layers and the 12 disciples on top.

FIND MY RECIPE ON THE NEXT PAGE FOR A RICH AND TASTY CAKE THAT BRINGS A LITTLE EASTER MAGIC TO THE TABLE.

Ingredients

• 500g marzipan

• 225g softened butter

• 225g muscovado sugar

• 4 eggs

• 225g plain flour

• 2tsp ground Cinnamon

• 1tsp ground spice

• zest of 2 oranges

Method

STEP 1

Preheat your oven to 150°C. Grease and line a 20cm/8in cake tin with greaseproof paper.

STEP 2

Open up the marzipan so it’s at room temperature when you’re ready to use it, place it to one side.

STEP 3

STEP 4

Cut the cherries into quarters then pop them in a sieve and rinse well under running water, then dry thoroughly on kitchen towels. Then place the cherries in a bowl with the butter, sugar, eggs, self-raising flour, sultanas, currants, candied peel, lemon zest and mixed spice and beat well until thoroughly mixed. Pour half the mixture into the prepared tin.

STEP 5

Take one-third of the marzipan and roll it out to a circle the size of the tin and then place on top of the cake mixture. Spoon the remaining cake mixture on top and level the surface.

• zest of two lemons

• 325g mixed fruit

• 100g glacier cherries

• icing sugar for dusting

• 1 beaten egg

• apricot jam

• icing sugar for dusting

STEP 6

STEP 7

Bake your mixture in the pre-heated oven for about 2½ hours, or until well risen. You want it to be evenly brown and firm to the touch. If the top is browning too quickly cover with some foil to prevent burning. When it’s ready, leave it to cool in the tin for 10 minutes then turn out, peel off the greaseproof paper and let it finish cooling on a wire rack.

STEP 8

When the cake is cooled, brush the top with a little warmed apricot jam and roll out half the remaining marzipan to fit the top. Press firmly on the top and crimp the edges with a fork to decorate. Form the remaining marzipan into 12 balls, mark a criss-cross pattern on the bottom of each

STEP 9

Brush the marzipan with beaten egg and arrange the marzipan balls around the edge of the cake.

Brush the tops of the balls with beaten egg and then carefully place the cake under a hot grill

STEP 10

Enjoy with a strong cup of tea!

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