cumbria

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it’s a strange place, Cumbria

Zoomed out on google maps, there is nothing to see, but zoom in and sure enough,

the pranks and festivities of invisible villages

their life as if nothing has changed since their new milking machine 20 years ago. Every

words georgia weaving, photos bess grant, tatlin

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wedged in between the Yorkshire Dales and the Scottish border a lot of farmers living year, these little rainy hamlets and villages get together to celebrate the changing of the seasons in festivals whose meanings are long since forgotten.

Bill, a born and bred Cumbrian farmer grew up a few miles outside of the small village of Walcop on his families farm. His thick accent and gentle smile tells stories of a youth with no electricity and cows for playmates, living for the seasonal festivities between the hard graft of farming.

With Bill’s wise words to guide us, we learnt the subtle humour of the hidden Cumbrian villages and the most important celebrations that bring the people together.

To celebrate the arrival of summer and all the crops it brings with it, a few villages around Appleby; made famous for the gypsy horse fair; have traditions that even Bill can’t explain the roots of satisfactorily. (Imagine everything he says in a strong Cumbrian accent and it’s even more magical.)

Rush Bearing To celebrate summer arriving, the children of two villages came together to decorate the church and themselves in a procession of flowers and woven reeds from the fields.

“We lived between these two villages which did this thing called rush bearing. What happens is all the boys in the village, they make crosses out of rushes that they’d cut from the fields. All the girls in the village would make crowns that they’d decorate with all the wild flowers that they could find. The church is the end point of a procession through the village where the boys carry their crosses. So you’d go into the church and all the crosses are displayed around the church door, they’re kept there all winter and dry out. Then there’s the inevitable cream tea in the village hall and photo opportunities and this that and the other. We used to love it because we got the day off school. My parents did it, I did it and my kids did it. There’s not many villages do that.”

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Pace Eggs

Cumbrian Pranks

April brings Easter, and with it, not chocolate eggs but

Not necessarily seasonal, but equally traditional in these

Pace eggs. These bizarre concoctions sound fairly disgust-

teeny invisible places were pranks played on newly weds.

ing but Bill loved them and remembers creating them with

They sound pretty cruel by Southern standards but Bills

a fond smile.

assures that they were all in good fun.

“All the children collect things that stain the eggs, like

“It’s often not the size of the prank, its the subtlety of it.

stony rag which grows on the windward side of stone

Whenever there was a newly wedded couple in the vil-

wall. You wrap the egg in that, onion peel, coal, orange

lage, we used to throw a whole load of nitram (which is

peel, anything and everything. It was a right mess. The

a very potent fertilizer) onto the newly married couples

egg is completely wrapped in herbs and moss that you’ve

lawn so instead of doing what newly weds do, they had

gathered and then you wrap that up in radio times pages

to spend lots of time mowing grass! On top of that, there

and make it like a little parcel. Then put it in a pot and boil

was a group lads down back end that all used to go drink-

it for hours. The local joke is, that you put a 6 inch nail in

ing together. One of them got married and went off on

with the eggs and then when the nail is cooked, you give

his honeymoon, and when he came back with his new

the eggs another half hour. These were brought out and

bride, his brothers had bricked up the back door with real

rubbed with butter to shine and then there were competi-

cement and bricks! When you opened the kitchen door

tions for the most colourful egg in the village hall. Then on

you were just confronted by a wall. After that, it became a

Easter Monday, we used to throw them down the hill until

regular thing, so not only would you have a lawn to mow

they’d break and then we’d eat them. They acquire all the

but you’d have to go through the front door to get to it!”

flavours of all the things they’ve been boiled in and they taste lovely. Around Easter time everybody has pace eggs in wooden bowls because the hens have just started laying then. I did it every year and my kids did it.”