NORFOLK CHRISTMAS PAST
Christmas in the 1780’s
Parson James Woodforde
Although Norfolk turkeys were already a seasonal treat in the seventeenth century, none was served at Weston Longville parsonage on Christmas Day in 1782. During the previous week however, Parson Woodforde held a party at which roast turkey (as well boiled mutton) was on the menu. The party food included currant jelly, apple tarts and custard. Custard in those days meant what we now call egg custard.
In the eighteenth century Christmas Dinner was very similar to what we ate when I was a boy, two hundred years later. As we have already seen, turkey was eaten by the wealthy at Christmas time, but on Christmas Day itself the Parson had roast beef. The ‘roast beef of old England’ was clearly the height of luxury to James Woodforde. At home in our modest surroundings at Poringland, we sometimes had a leg of beef for Christmas Dinner, but more often it was a roast cockerel. Turkey never appeared on our table until the industry started selling the smaller white turkeys. The tradition black Norfolk turkey was just too big to fit in our little oven! Such considerations would not have applied at Weston Longeville parsonage. Turkey may have been absent from the Parson’s Christmas table, but plum pudding certainly was on the menu in 1786 in Weston, just as it was in 1986 at Poringland. (Nowadays many people don’t like Christmas pudding and would rather have something lighter and more modern.) Mince pies also featured as part of Parson Woodforde’s Christmas fare, but in the eighteenth century mincemeat was still what it said it was – a concoction of minced mutton, beef or venison.
Woodforde invited twelve old men from the village to join him for Christmas Dinner, and besides the food they each got half a pint of strong beer. The old men’s wives were not invited, but each went home with a shilling that was intended for them. (A shilling was worth about £10 in today’s money.) This was at the Parson’s table; at the kitchen table a few days later the squire’s servants arrived from the Hall for an evening’s entertainment, and shared a more homely repast of roast fowl and punch. (This was a drink of alcoholic liquor with sugar, citrus fruit juice and spices added.)
It was the tradition to extend hospitality to those of a lower station in life at Christmas time. The Hardys of Letheringsett, who owned the local brewery, had their workers over for Christmas Dinner; with the Hardys the workers’ wives were included in the celebration. (Perhaps the bachelor Parson of Weston Longville felt more comfortable in an all-male gathering.) Unfortunately Mary Hardy (the diarist) was not so interested in those minor details that the Parson recorded, and are so fascinating to us, and did not record what the guests actually ate. I would love to know what their Christmas Dinner consisted of, but it would have been similar to the meal served at Weston.
Christmas, together with Easter and Whit Sunday, were, in many parishes, the only occasions during the year when communion was celebrated. If Christmas Day fell on a weekday, the sacrament could be delayed until the following Sunday. Having been to communion in Letheringsett in the morning, after Christmas Dinner the Hardy family would walk the mile into Holt for the afternoon service there. The return journey would be undertaken in the gathering dusk. If the snow was falling they would omit this second visit to church. It was not solely for devotional reasons that people attended church; it was also an opportunity to engage in social contact with your friends and fellow locals.
It was colder in the eighteenth century than it is today; frosts could continue into May, and a hard frost or a covering of snow was usual at Christmas time. This meant there was nothing especially Christmasy about a roaring fire; this was a necessity all winter long. Coal was available across the land by the late eighteenth century, but it was expensive; wood fires still heated the homes of the poor, or else they had to wrap themselves up as best they could. At Weston parsonage five chimneys needed sweeping at Christmas time in 1786. Five fires sounds a lot, but that was little enough to keep the whole household warm. The kitchen fire would perhaps have been the only source of warmth for the servants.
Hulver in dialect, from ON hulfr, holly. An age-old Christmas decoration.
Christmas was still very much a religious celebration, and Christmas decorations in the modern sense did not really start until Prince Albert, Consort of Queen Victoria, introduced the Christmas tree from his native Germany. This was in the middle years of the nineteenth century. The Christmas tree, although a late comer in England, is in fact a reminder of pre-Christian worship, when trees were seen as sacred. Ivy, Holly, and especially the mysterious mistletoe, that grew with no roots in the ground, were other sacred plants. Mistletoe must have played a part in the Christmases of the eighteenth century, but I can find no reference to it in the diaries from the period. Holly however (under its Norfolk dialect name of hulver) occurs in Parson Woodforde’s diary at Christmas time; it has been used as a feature of the winter festival since time immemorial. Dear old Parson Woodforde records the minutest details of his life, but in this instance he only mentions the holly because in that year he got a double supply of it by mistake. The decorations were put up on Christmas Day, not even on Christmas Eve, and certainly not weeks or months in advance. I do not know for sure when they were taken down, but I expect they stayed up until twelfth night.
St Thomas’s day (which then fell on the 21st December, the winter solstice) was the time for the distribution of money or goods to the poor, so they could have some basic Christmas fare (a pound or two of flour was a common gift). The phrase ‘going a-Thomasing’ has long been forgotten, but centuries ago everyone would have known it meant begging by the poor. The 26th of December was the day for giving Christmas gifts (or boxes, hence Boxing Day) to the deserving tradesmen who had supplied the Parson throughout the year. On Boxing Day in 1786 Parson Woodforde provided a gift of a shilling for his maltster’s man and a gift of half that amount (sixpence) went the blacksmith’ son. There were many other recipients. When I was a postman we got some Christmas tips (though far less than half of our customers were generous enough to give us anything); since Boxing Day became a Bank Holiday such gifts are no longer given on that day, and most tipping takes place before Christmas.
During the first week in January Woodforde paid his servants their annual salary, ranging from five guineas for his housemaid to ten pounds for his manservant. (This latter sum equates to £1,700, but all his everyday requirements for food etc were supplied by the parson.) His servants were not universally grateful for their pay; his horseman thought he should have got more than eight pounds per annum for his skills. The sums were not very large by modern day standards, even allowing for 250 years of inflation, but you should remember that all their accommodation, most of their food and living expenses were provided by the employer. Woodforde set out for Norwich in January, to settle his accounts with his mercer and coal merchant etc.
The Weston Ringers got half a crown each for their year’s labours. (According to the Office for National Statistics this equates to £20 in today’s money.) As a young lad, my son was persuaded to join the bell ringers at the Parson’s old church at Weston Longville, though it had nothing to do with the Woodforde connection; I am sure he had not even heard of him. It is merely the best peal of bells in a nearby church. Anyway, after a few attendances he dropped out – bell ringing was not for him. If they were still so well rewarded at Christmas time he might have stayed! Nowadays bells are rung just for the pleasure they bring, nobody pays the bell ringers. Still it is nice to have this line (however tenuous) to connect my family to the Christmas celebrations of the Parson, a quarter of a millennium ago.
JOSEPH MASON
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