Tag Archives: england

Haunted Houghton Mill of St. Ives

After asking my dad for some ghost stories of his childhood he remembered this specific one that he heard in primary school (elementary). It was based in his small village where he grew up, outside of Cambridge called St. Ives. It was based on a thousand year old Houghton Mill that was seen as a monument and preserved as a historic sight. The ghost story is a spooky story that the older kids would tell the younger kids on the bus to scare them and be funny. Haunting the kids, there was a sense of shaken up when walking past the mill in town.

GP “There was a story of the ladies who would mend the sacks for storing flour or grain at the Houghton Mill in Cambridgeshire, UK. It was a type of local legend that was passed down from the kids of the town to scare them into staying away from the watermill that was on the River Great Ouse, it was such a crucial hub for primarily grinding grain. The legend was based on the tasks of mending sacks and these women supposedly fell into the mill pond that powered the millwheel, they drowned and died. The reason they fell into the water was unclear and never confirmed but it was assumed that the women could have been caught off balance when they were working around the edge or a mishap on the structure. The story continues around the town that the mill is haunted by their spirits, and apparently the visitors and locals have heard some ghostly sounds around the mill and felt some eerie sensations like a ghost was present near the millpond. Being told this story in primary school led to my friends and I steering clear of the mill.”

Analyzing this haunted tale, I felt as though the idea of the ghosts presence is wildly seen through eerie feelings near the place of death or hearing sort of ghostly noises that would represent the souls that have died is such a common functionality of spirits reappearing in the real world. Hearing this story made me realize that ghost stories are passed down through ages and are told with a purpose, it was told to my dad in primary school from the older kids which would try to scare them into running past the old mill in town.

Haunted Hotel in Manchester, England

Nationality: China
Primary Language: Mandarin
Other language(s): English, French
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Beijing
Performance Date: Nov.28, 2023
Tags: #legend #england #Hotel #victorianhouses

“Once I stayed England and we decided to spend a night in Manchester. We chose a very famous hotel in the city center. The hotel itself is a historic building, built in the Victorian era and used to be the site of a refugee insurance company. This hotel has an old ballroom, corridors, and guest rooms, all furnished in the Victorian era. The guest room, when we stayed in it, felt too big and spacious for two travelers, giving people a sense of liminal space, which can’t help but feel a little creepy. When we had finished our dinner and were going up the old stairs to our room, we seemed to hear footsteps, and the feeling of being watched appeared, but no one was there. At night, I would lie in bed and listen to the trains passing through the window, and when the trains passed and quieted down, the same feeling that someone was staring at me from somewhere in the room occurred. The next morning, while having breakfast in the dining hall, a local staff told us about the history of the place. One of the staircases is said to be haunted by a grieving war widow who committed suicide by throwing herself down it from the top floor. The staircase in question was only accessible to men at the time. Also, the room 261, the one downstairs from us, is allegedly haunted, with reports of the sound of children playing at night.”

Context: This story, which I personally experienced, was told by a local tour guide in Manchester, where it took place in this haunted hotel. The tour guide tells us the story of the place, which he thinks may be true because Manchester experienced a severe post-Victorian recession and the great bombing of the Second World War. This has made the whole city full of many tragic experiences and legends.

Personal Thought: Given Manchester’s history and the way the tour guide tells it, the story is highly believable. The haunted experience is also my personal experience, so I think this building is indeed haunted. This hotel is a wonderful ghost story location, it includes plenty of history, outdated architecture and decoration, and many liminal spaces. It’s psychologically creepy. But the ghost story is also a reminder of Manchester’s painful, war-torn history

Simnel Cake or Judas doesn’t get a marzipan egg for Easter

S is 54, he lived in England where his mother is from for the first ten years of his life before his family moved to California. He is soft spoken and pauses thoughtfully while speaking. He told me about this Easter tradition of a cake his mother used to bake.

“And then this is something my mom did… I’ve never heard it done anywhere else… for Easter she would bake a cake and make eleven marzipan eggs and put them on top of it… and it represented each of the disciples… except for Judas (laughs). I think it was a white cake… or I think a plain yellow… we always went outside and took an Easter picture with one of us five kids holding the cake.”

When I researched this, I found that this is a traditional cake known as a Simnel Cake. This tradition goes back to medieval times and started out as something more like bread than cake. Simnel comes from the Latin Simila – a fine white flour. In the 17th and 18th centuries it was something more like pudding. It wasn’t until the 19th century that it became recognizable as cake and the marzipan eggs don’t appear until the 20th century. It is described as a fruit cake, but lighter than the traditional Christmas version. S didn’t mention fruit in the one his mom used to make, but the white cake would have been in line with the original use of fine white flour. For more information and a recipe please see https://britishfoodhistory.com/2018/03/19/simnel-cake/

An Orange in your Christmas Stocking

S is 54, he lived in England where his mother is from for the first ten years of his life before his family moved to California. He is soft spoken and pauses thoughtfully while speaking. He told me about this tradition of receiving an orange in his Christmas stocking and carrying it on with his family.

“An English tradition I like is that you would always get an orange in your stocking at Christmas time… because oranges were exotic I think… especially during the winter. That was something my mom shared with me and my siblings. And it was just for the kids, so… that made us feel special… I still do it… only it’s a chocolate orange now… Terry’s chocolate orange because I like chocolate! It’s a good feeling from my childhood…it’s a good memory from my childhood… and even though my family is diabetic now, I feel happy giving the chocolate orange now because it reminds us all of happy Christmases.”

According to an article in Smithsonian magazine (https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/why-we-should-bring-back-tradition-christmas-orange-180971101/), the tradition of an orange in Christmas stockings started in the 19th century and may be related to a legend about the real Saint Nicholas, the Bishop of Myra and three gold balls (bags, bars, or coins?) known as “the Miracle of the Dowries.” The orange was an affordable stand in for the gold, yet still a rare treat. In the early 1900s, the citrus industry incorporated the tradition in marketing campaigns featuring a cartoon Santa offering oranges as a healthy alternative to candy. Later, during the Great Depression, oranges took on renewed importance as an exotic and rare treat during hard times. The trajectory of this tradition reveals interesting intersections with the focus of Christmas moving away from a religious focus to a consumer one.

Folk Belief: It’s Good Luck to Kill a Scotsman

Nationality: English
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Cobham, England
Performance Date: April 22nd, 2021
Primary Language: English

Main Piece: 

Informant: “There’s a law in England that in York on Sunday, you’re allowed to kill a Scotsman with a bow and arrow. So- I mean, this was put in place in the 1700s when England was at war with Scotland and it was never repealed, so it still exists. So, apparently, some people think that if you do this— Of course, there are like law kinda hierarchies, so the murder law I think also applies. I mean, it’s apparently supposed to give you luck if you do kill a Scotsman. I mean, I’ve never tried it but…”

Collector: “Is there any like traditions or things that people do on a Sunday to celebrate this law? Besides killing Scotsmen.”

Informant: “Well, you know, I don’t know. I heard, you know, a thing once. This might be one guy. I heard people like treat the Scotsperson as an animal and they left, you know, a bowl of haggis outside as bait. And they would wait in the bushes. I mean, this is England, so…”

Collector: “Do the Scotsmen like this?”

Informant: “I don’t think so. I don’t think they go to York on a Sunday.”

Background:

My informant had not personally partaken in any of the rituals surrounding this law. From the way he presented it, it was up to individual interpretation how to personally engage with this law, hence the singular person hiding in the bushes. No set rituals necessarily exist in any official or widely known capacity. My informant said he understands it as the good luck associated with the killing is what is well known. He also made it clear that these efforts were obviously facetious and the repetition of “it’s good luck to kill a Scotsman in York on Sunday with a bow and arrow” is something of a running joke.

Thoughts:

There are direct ties between this piece of folklore and intercultural tensions. At the time of the laws establishment, there was an active war between England and Scotland. However, in the modern United Kingdoms, there is a different sort of tension. The Scottish Independence Movement is largely championed by Scots and largely blocked by British government. As such, while the two cultures are within the same nation, there is a tension between the Scots’ desire to leave and the relative power that the British have. I think it’s possible that this folklore is a piece of malevolent humor shared between the Brits. It serves primarily to denigrate the Scots as a group but is obviously facetious enough not to be too egregious for public.