Common Ground Common Ground
J U L Y
This page will change from month to month - perhaps you can help us with information on seasonal fruit and vegetables, seasonal dishes, observations of customs and the natural world. Contact us - e-mail: info [at] commonground . org . uk.
Imperious July
July takes its name from Julius Caesar, the Roman leader who first took the legions (albeit briefly) to Britain in 54 BC. Amongst other things, he was princeps (first citizen), imperator (commander), dictator perpetuum (perpetual dictator) and pontifex maximus (chief priest - "greatest bridge-builder") of the Roman world, but never specifically "Emperor" - his successor Augustus was the first to take that title.
What's happening in July? What's in Season?What's happening in July?
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July - August
The Dog Days
Days of hot weather, which the Romans thought were warmed up by the combined heat of the Dog Star which rose with the sun.
Rushbearing St Mary's Church, Ambleside, Cumbria; St Theobold's Church, Great Musgrave, Cumbria.
Held on the first Saturday in July - "Originally the floors of Churches were simply of earth, covered in rushes, and it was commonplace to bury bodies of parishioners within the Church as well as in the Churchyard. In ancient times parishioners brought sweet smelling rushes at the feasts of dedication to strew within the Church, to purify the air and help insulate the worshippers from the cold. The festivity gained the name Rushbearing. This practice stopped in the 1800's, when the floors were flagged, but the ancient custom still continues in five Cumbrian Churches, where wild rushes and flowers are paraded round the village in procession, and ending in a rush strewn Church. Today the 'rushbearing' is is a cross made of rushes or flowers and carried by the children of the parish. A procession is led by a band, followed by the clergy, and then the children of the village, and ends at the Church with hymns and prayers. Traditionally the children of Grasmere and Ambleside are given a piece of Grasmere gingerbread if they have carried one of the rushes. Some of the festivals are accompanied by children's sports."
From www . visitcumbria . com / rushbear . htm . Contact +44(0)1539 433433
Banbury Hobby Horse Festival, Banbury, Oxfordshire.
Established in 2000 making this the seventh Banbury Hobby Horse Festival. A wild gathering of hobby horses and other beasts from across the country indulging in racing, dancing and performing all because of a nursery rhyme.
Friday: Schools Festival; Hook Norton Brewery Visit
Saturday: Morris, mumming and general horsing about in Banbury; Rolling lunch break in the Old Reindeer Inn in Parsons Street; procession down High Street; the Feast of the Beasts.
Sunday: performaces in High Street and outside the Town Hall; Mayor's procession; parade of beasts, dancing, beer tent, comic cockhorse races for adults and children (feel free to enter a team), sideshows, fairground rides, teas, children's fancy dress on cockhorses.
Contact Banbury Tourist Information Centre on +44(0)1295 259855,
or adrian [at] adrian-lay . demon . co . uk.
See www . hobbyhorsefestival . co . uk for a full programme and further details.
13th July
John Clare’s birthday
Midsummer cushions were pieces of turf or mole hills full of wild flowers cut from meadows and placed on window ledges for decoration much admired by the poet John Clare. For years these cushions have been placed around Clare’s grave in Helpston churchyard, Northamptonshire on or near his birthday (13th July 1793).The John Clare Festival
Exhibitions and lectures are held by the John Clare Society. Midsummer Cushion Ceremony by Clare’s grave at St Botolphs church, Helpston on the 13th.
www . johnclare . org . uk.
15th July
St Swithun’s Day
If it rains of St Swithun’s Day there will be rain for 40 days … St Swithun, Bishop of Winchester died in 862. He had wished to be buried in the churchyard so that the ‘sweet rain of heaven might fall upon his grave’. When he was canonised in 971, the monks thought they would bring him inside and arranged for his body to be brought to the cathedral on July 15th, but it rained for 40 days, delaying the proceedings. It is now a traditional time for weather forecasting, but very unreliable..
Swan Upping, on the River Thames from Sunbury, Surrey to Abingdon Bridge, Oxon.
A very ancient and colourful ceremony which now has a conservation role as well. In mid-July, the cygnets are marked by the Keeper of the Queen's Swans and assigned between two London Guilds, the Vintners and the Dyers who in 1470 were given the rights of joint ownership of swans in the Thames with the Crown. Contact +44(0)1628 523030 or look at this web-site for more details :
www . thamesweb . co . uk
Whitstable Oyster Festival
The Patron Saint of Oysters and oyster fisheries is celebrated. www . whitstableoysterfestival . co . uk
22nd July
St James’s Day
St James was the fisherman whom Jesus made a fisher of men; his traditional emblem, reflecting his trade, is the scallop shell (which was also worn by pilgrims travelling to his shrine at Santiaga de Compostela in Spain). His association with shellfish has lead to his feast day being the time favoured for festivals celebrating them, like the Whitstable Oyster Festival (see above).
Inscription for a Fountain on a Heath
This Sycamore, oft musical with bees, -
Such tents the Patriarchs loved! O long unharmed
May all its aged boughs o’er-canopy
The small round basin, which this jutting stone
Keeps pure from falling leaves! Long may the Spring,
Quietly as a sleeping infant’s breath,
Send up cold waters to the traveller
With soft and even pulse! Nor ever cease
Yon tiny cone of sand its soundless dance,
Which at the bottom, like a Fairy’s page,
As merry and no taller, dances still,
Nor wrinkles the smooth surface of the Fount.
Here twilight is and coolness: here is moss,
A soft seat, and a deep and ample shade.
Thou may’st toil far and find no second tree.
Drink, Pilgrim, here; Here rest! And if thy heart
Be innocent, here too shalt thou refresh
Thy Spirit, listening to some gentle sound,
Or passing gale or hum of murmuring bees!
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Featured in
our poetry anthology
The Rivers Voice
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What's in SEASON?
Fruit & Vegetables
Artichokes (globe), aubergine, beetroot, blueberries, broad beans, broccoli, baby carrots, peas/mangetout, new potatoes.
Apricots, black, white & red currants, gooseberries, raspberries, runner beans, strawberries.
Glow-worms
As with the flash of the kingfisher, you always remember where you have seen glow-worms. And an evening walk after dusk on a warm moonless evening in June or July has one scanning the edge of tall grass and short springy downland turf, hedge bottom along lanes or disused railway lines for the pinpricks of pale greenish light. These magical little signals from female glow-worms, actually small flightless beetles which look like grubs, are searchlights for males who do take flight after dark in search of mates. The light is a kind of bioluminescence, produced by a chain of chemical reactions and emitted from the last three segments of the female’s body.
After mating the female lays her ‘pale luminous yellow’ eggs, as John Tyler described them, on the underside of leaves and on grass stems and dies. Adults only live for two or so weeks, the bulk of their lives, about 3 years, is spent as larvae, sucking the juices from small slugs and snails.
Glow-worms are mainly found in southern England and on the chalk, where snails are most numerous, but also in other parts of the country. They appear to be declining, probably owing to the destruction of their habitat and difficulties the females find in colonising new areas, but an additional problem could be the proliferation of street lighting which may prevent the male from seeing the female’s glow.
Look out for glow-worm walks organised by wild life groups and the National Trust.
Swifts begin their migration south at the end of July.
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Common Ground can accept no responsibility for the accuracy of the information given on this page. Events may be altered or cancelled without our knowledge - Always check first with organisers before travelling.
