Common Ground Common Ground
J U N E
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.
Matrimonial June
June is named for the Roman goddess Juno, an important maternal figure who was also goddess of marriage - her month was regarded as a very favourable time to wed - hence the surfeit of June Brides.
What's happening in June? What's in Season?What's happening in June?
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Appleby Horse Fair, Appleby, Westmorland.
Main Days are Saturday, Sunday and Monday. On Fair Hill, a mile out of town. Horses are lead trotting up and down lanes to show them off before the sales, which are in the form of one-to-one bartering rather than a traditional type of auction. There will be harness racing on ????? at Holme Farm Field (as well as ??? May and ??? August).
Contact Appleby Tourist Information Centre on +44(0)1768 351177, email: tic [at] applebytowncouncil . fsnet . co . uk or see www . applebytowncouncil . fsnet . co . uk
Bawming of the Thorn, Appleton Thorn, Warrington, Cheshire, 12.45-4.00pm.
An offspring of this legendary Christmas flowering hawthorn tree from Glastonbury, Somerset, (which is said to have grown from the staff of Joseph of Arimathea) was planted in Appleton Thorn in 1966 to replace an older tree and to re-introduce the ancient custom of 'bawming' (adorning) the thorn. The tree is decorated with flowers and ribbons; children of the village wear garlands and dance to the bawming song around the tree. This tradition is said to come from the time of the Crusades, when a returning Norman Knight brought a cutting from Glastonbury.
Contact Appleton Thorn Primary School on +44(0)1925 266764, or visit www . welcometowarrington . com
Golowan, Penzance, Cornwall.
2008 Mazey Eve is on Friday ?, Mazey Day on Saturday ?, and Quay Fair Day on Sunday ? (main part of festival starts Friday nearest St John's Day, 24th June). A revival of the Feast of St John (Gol-Jowan) with fireworks and bonfire on the hills on Mazey Eve. St John's Eve also sees the Golowan Band leading hundreds of people through the streets in the ancient Serpent Dance and there are torchlit processions throughout the town. Penglaz, Penzance's 'Obby 'Oss, parades the streets and each village displays its distinctive banners. The Quay Fair is on St John's Day and, the day after, Mazey Day sees the town decorated with laurel leaves and banners remembering when girls in dresses decorated with laurel leaves and decked with garlands danced through the streets. Laurel leaves have signified divination and recognition of the gods authority since Roman Briton, and many May Queens wear wreaths of laurel on their heads. The last day of the festival maintains the harbour's place at the centre of the celebration. All kinds of working and classic craft make their way to the harbour from Cornish Luggers to square riggers called Kruzenshtern.
Contact +44(0)1736 332211 or visit www . golowan . org
Midsummer Fair, Midsummer Common, Cambridge.
Granted by charter of King John in 1211 to the manor of Barnwell, this fair still takes place on its original site, Midsummer Common, a tree-lined open space just a few minutes' walk from the city centre. With the River Cam forming one of the boundaries of the common, this is one of the most beautiful fairgrounds in England with traditional as well as modern funfair rides. It is the largest fair in East Anglia.
Contact Cambridge Tourist Information Centre on +44(0)1223 322640 or visit www . cambridge . gov . uk
21st June
Summer Solstice
What better time to think about Solar Power .... ?
23rd June
Midsummer Bonfires, Cornwall.
Eve of St John Day or Midsummers Day. A chain of bonfires to celebrate Summer (originally to give strength to the waning power of the sun) are lit one after another on hilltops from Carn Brea south of Redruth in the West to Kithill on the border with Devon in the East, with St Agnes, Castle an Dinas at St Columb Major, and St Breock between. The ceremonies are spoken in Cornish and herbs thrown into the fire. The fires have also acted as warnings in times of trouble such as the coming of the Spanish Armada. The Old Cornwall Societies and local people uphold this tradition as at:
Seer Green Cherry Pie Fair & Village Day, Buckinghamshire.
Cherries were once the mainstay of Seer Green, with men being given special dispensations to return home during World War II to help with the harvest. Seer Green is still known for its cherry trees and the parish council is funding new trees so far planted in the grounds of schools and nurseries. Locally made cherry pies are for sale at the fair and there are other stalls, displays, and activities from village groups and societies.
Contact Mrs Helen Lindsey-Clark +44(0)1494 680736.
Rushbearing at St Columba's Church, Warcop, Cumbria.
St Peter's Day: a procession from the Reading Room is headed by a band and banners (for the Reading Room and St Peters Day) and with girls wearing crowns of flowers and boys carrying crosses of rushes. Followed by a service in the church. The crosses are laid around the altar where they remain over the following Sunday. They are then hung at the back of the church until a few days before the next Peter's Day.
What's in SEASON?
Springhead at Fontmell Magna
Music within the green and rounded hill,
A gift of the chalk,
Downland that bubbles to the surface
A small white symphony of clear water,
Pure and without distraction,
Each note, a silver messenger
Glistening in the sun light,
A miracle that you can dip your hand into.
And once you have tasted that music
You return again and again
To hear the echo running downstream,
Fleet of foot, its innocence engraved on your heart,
Beneath the roots of trees,
A sacred welling up, a hidden purpose
A place of pilgrimage and offering,
A prayer that is answered, and never runs dry.
James Crowden
From: The River’s Voice, Common Ground, Green Books, 2000.
Buy a copy from our MARKET PLACE
Fruit & Vegetables
Asparagus, broad beans, beetroot, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, celery, cucumbers, French beans, kohlrabi, lettuce, peppers, peas, early potatoes, radishes, rocket, seakale, shallots, sorrel, spinach, spring onions, turnips.
Cherries, currants (black & red), gooseberries, raspberries, rhubarb, strawberries.
The Gooseberry Season has Arrived!
The humble and much underrated gooseberry has been bred to perfection by British gardeners. It is a ‘cottagers’ plant that has been sown by seed and cross-fertilised by generations to produce bigger and better varieties. Widely grown in gardens and the market gardens around London since the 1700s, it was used when green to make a sauce for fish (it is a perfect accompaniment for oily food such as mackerel), pork, duck or goose, and when unripe, for tarts. They were cooked in pies, eaten raw and used for making sparkling wine equal to the Champagne of the day. In 1697 John Worlidge remarked that they had the closet resemblance to grapes of any English fruit.
In the 1750s, the weavers of Lancashire founded the Gooseberry Clubs and Shows whose sole aim was to produce the heaviest berry, and their popularity soon spread to Cheshire, Derbyshire, Staffordshire, Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire. Over 2,500 different varieties were raised during this time, many of the most successful were introduced at the shows, such as Mr Hartshorn’s rub red Lancashire Lad in 1824, Crompton’s large yellow Careless and Greenhaulgh’s large oval yellow-green Leveller in 1851, and they are still available from nurseries today.
Commercial production was boosted by the abolition of sugar tax in 1874. Along with strawberries and plums, gooseberries were grown extensively for jam and as a pectin in jam making and the confectionary trade. The production of artificial pectin and the reduction in the consumption of jam has resulted in a decline in commercial gooseberry growing, but most gardens still have their bushes.
All but one of the seven remaining Gooseberry Shows now take place in Cheshire at the end of July and beginning of August. One show survives at Egton Bridge, North Yorkshire, in early August.
Things are looking up for the gooseberry once more. R.V Roger of Pickering, a nursery in North Yorkshire specialising in fruit, has 64 varieties of gooseberries in its catalogue. www . rvroger . co . uk, +44(0)1751 472226.
More information on gooseberries can be found in England in Particular.
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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.
