How Watford celebrated the merry month of May

I remember a public house above the sloping right-hand bank at what was known as Crook Log on London Road; past Brent Timber & Fencing and before Merry Hill Road. It was The Merry Month of May. The view from the rear was across Attenborough's fields where, every May, the hawthorn hedgerows were covered in may blossom. At the left-hand end of the row of properties known as Crook Log Cottages, the public house looked more like a private residence.

As a child, I'd occasionally bring home a small branch of may blossom from Attenborough's fields, but my grandmother would quickly dispatch it to the garden, considering it unlucky. Similarly, we could never open an umbrella in the house. Old country folklore.

Geoffrey Chaucer wrote of the royal court going to the fields on May Day. A celebration of winter's end, maypoles with long attached ribbons abounded in villages. Groups of children went ‘a-maying’. Wearing white dresses, with may blossom and wild flower crowns in their hair, they danced around the local maypole. Singing old established May Day carols, they went from house to house collecting pennies, taking their flower-bedecked hoops with them. They also placed branches on farm buildings and door knockers of leading residents; the size of the branch denoting a residents' standing. Solomon's Wood was a popular source for may and wild flowers.

Local milk and water seller, Johnnie/Johnny Green, was a ready participant in the annual May Day celebrations. His usual eccentric way of dressing went into top gear each May Day, when he displayed a larger number of ribbons than usual and wore ladies' hats instead of his own familiar ones.

Traditional May Day celebrations died out in the early 20th Century, but I recall Bushey & Oxhey Infant School children joyfully dancing around a maypole at Oxhey Village Green during a Oxhey Village Environment Fayre in the late 1970s.

In the early 20th century, when May Day carols and traditions were being relegated to memory, forward-thinking folklore author WB Gerish recorded old folk songs for posterity. Here are the words of a May Day carol widely sung in the 19th Century in Watford to a long-forgotten tune:

"Here begins the merry month of May,

The bright time of the year,

When Christ our Saviour died for us

He loved us so dear.

This day, this day hath Christ loved us

And all our sins forgiven.

And if we do no wickedness

We are bound to go to heaven.

We have been walking through the night

And the best part of the day,

And now returning back again

We bring you a bunch of may.

Our song is done and we must be gone,

No longer can we stay.

God bless you all, both great and small,

And send you a joyful May."

While on the subject of blossom, south west Hertfordshire used to be well known for its wealth of white-blossomed sweet dark cherries. Old Hertfordshire Black/Coroon cherry trees grew in abundance in orchards on farms in Rickmansworth, Aldenham and Watford.

Cherry picking in July, before the blackbirds stripped the shiny red/brown fruit from the trees, was often undertaken by poor families and children, prior to which children were employed to shake wooden rattles to scare birds away from the ripening fruit.

Early 18th century Hertfordshire Sessions Rolls tell us that the word 'ripe' was used to describe the time of year when locally-grow black cherries were starting to ripen; such was the importance of the crop that provided an important source of summer income. Arthur Young, author of the General View of the Agriculture of Hertfordshire, in 1804 wrote "cherries are very beneficial to the poor, in the quantity of employment which they require for the gathering of the crop, for which the poor are paid from 4d to 8d per dozen pounds". Much of the crop, traditional to Hertfordshire alongside local watercress, was sold to dealers and transported to Covent Garden, to be purchased by shopkeepers and hoteliers. The remainder appeared on market stalls, barrows and at cherry fairs.

Nowadays, we occasionally see traditional apple bobbing at village fairs, but in the mid-18th century Dr Samuel Johnson included a reference to the game of 'bob-cherry' in his Dictionary of the English Language. I’m sure that local people would have hung up Hertfordshire Black/Coroon cherries for the purpose of bobbing at cherry fairs.

Cherry turnovers and pasties were a local speciality, whilst every July the essential task of concocting brandy-based cherry bounce took place alongside the home production of apple cider and sloe gin, not only in farmers' kitchens but also in local manor houses. Coincidentally, cherry bounce was a favourite tipple of General George Washington, later President of the United States.

But, by the end of the 19th century, local cherry orchards were becoming less profitable and many were neglected or destroyed. So, wouldn’t it be great for Hertfordshire Black/Coroon cherry trees to make a 21st century comeback to the area, if only in back gardens? And what about cherry bounce? There are plenty of recipes online. Cheers!

With thanks to Martin Skipper, East of England Apples & Orchards Project and Dr Matthew Ordidge, School of Agriculture, Policy & Development, University of Reading.

Lesley Dunlop is the daughter of the late Ted Parrish, a well-known local historian and documentary filmmaker. He wrote 96 nostalgic articles for the Evening Post-Echo in 1982-83 which have since been published in Echoes of Old Watford, Bushey & Oxhey, available at www.pastdayspublishing.com and Bushey Museum. Lesley is currently working on Two Lives, Two World Wars, a companion volume that explores her father’s and grandfather’s lives and war experiences, in which Watford, Bushey and Oxhey’s history will take to the stage once again.