St Michaelmas Day

Firstly sorry for the lack of blogging. I could go on to say that this is due to being very busy with work family etc., but that would be a lie. I have no trouble in writing blogs – it’s just I can never think of anything to write about, but while at work today, I was reviewing some of the presentations that I have not used for a while and clearing the Company server of unwanted junk and, as you do, I got distracted by one of the presentations on ‘fire risk assessment’. I spent the next hour looking through this and came across to the section on the history of fire legislation, and there it was, a bit of trivia I have forgotten all about, that of Curfew. And so this has primed me into writing this blog. Although nothing directly to do with canals/narrowboats there are a couple of loose links. Now I know that Sarah, or Chertsey girl as I like to think of her, reads my blog and so the one loose link is specifically for her as I know she likes anything to do with the town of Chertsey, so here goes.

St Michaelmas Day is the feast of Saint Michael the Archangel celebrated on 29 September.St Michael being the patron saint of the sea, ships and boatmen.(first loose link) He was the Angel who hurled Lucifer down from heaven for his treachery. St Michaelmas day is traditionally the last day of the harvest season. The harvest season used to begin on Aug 1^stand was called Lammas, meaning ‘loaf mass’. Farmers baked loaves from the newly harvested wheat crop and gave them to their local church.

Michaelmas used to be a popular day for the winter night 'curfew' to start. The first hint that winter was on it’s way. Curfew took the form of a tolling of the church bell, usually one strike for each of the days of the month that had passed in the current year and generally rung at about 8pm.

The word Curfew is derived from the French word couvre feu, meaning ‘cover fire’ Curfew was the time when household fires were supposed to be doused, and so a bell would be tolled every night except Sunday.

n. curfew; scuttle-shaped device for covering fire at curfew

A benefit of covering up the fire in the evening was the prevention of destructive fires caused by unattended live fires that were a major problem then since most of the structures were made of wood and would easily ignite. The curfew bell acted as an ancient police on fire prevention in towns of the northern hemisphere and acted as way of stopping sparks and burning embers from getting out and causing damage. (Not much different from the modern use of the term when applied to badly behaved youths by stopping them getting out and causing damage!)

Chertsey (second loose link) is one of the very last places to still ring a Curfew bell at 8pm from Michaelmas day to Lady day (29^th September -25^th March ) The oldest Curfew bell dating back to 1380.

I have a head full of this useless junk, like many of the urban myths that surround such things as 'Nitty Gritty' being something to do with slave trading ships (bulls**t) or 'cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey' being something to do with early sailing ships and storage of cannon balls (more bulls**t) so perhaps I will fill in the times when I can not think of anything 'boaty' to write about with some of these, I'll have to see, in the meantime,

Don't bang 'em about

Blossom