Traditional pursuits in July in UK

 

               Traditional pursuits in July in UK

All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons  

             'Swan Upping on the Thames', from Henry Robert Robertson's; 'Life on the Upper Thames.', (1875)              
    

I am indebted to Andrew for inadvertently suggesting this post.

Roast swan was a favoured dish in the Tudor courts of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I.  Swans are no longer eaten but the ownership of all mute swans is shared between the sovereign, the Vintners’ Company (Vintners are people who make and sell wine) and the Dyers’ Company.

The Swan Master, by Diana Thomson  

The annual tradition of Swan Upping has been practised for 900 years. This year, 2023, it commenced on Monday, 17^th July in Sunbury-on-Thames and will finish five days later in Abingdon, covering a distance of seventy miles. The King’s swans are recorded by the Marker of the Swans. They are marked with a ring linked to the British Trust for Ornithology. Those belonging to the Vintners and Dyers have an additional ring on the other leg. Originally, the swans’ beaks would be nicked with a metal tool to indicate who owned them, which was probably no more painful than clipping one’s nails.

Worshipful Company of Dyers' Flag  

Swan Upping provides an opportunity to count, weigh and measure the young cygnets, as well as ringing them. They are also checked for injury, as often birds have been caught and damaged by fishing lines and hooks.

The Royal Swan Marker commences swan upping in Sunbury

The Royal Swan Uppers wear a scarlet uniform, under the guidance of the King’s Swan Marker, who wears a swan feather in his cap. The Vintners wear white and are commanded by their Swan Master and the Dyers wear blue and are under the control of the Barge Master. All travel in a small fleet of skiffs under the royal flag of King Charles III. The skiffs work together to pen the birds so that they can be picked up. The cygnets are pulled from the water onto the river bank, quickly checked and marked and returned to their parents. The cygnets belong to the same owners as their parents.

Avian flu had a devastating effect on swans in 2022, hundreds dying from a disease that is so easily spread in the wider bird population. There is concern that it may still be wreaking terrible harm. Swan Upping may provide some answers.

Why is it called Swan Upping? The King’s Swan Marker, David Barber, says that is so called because the skiffs travel ‘up’ the Thames and pick up the cygnets from the water.

"PROCLAMATION OF THE LAWS OF MAN. The famous Tynwald Hill from which the laws of the Isle of Man are annually proclaimed in Manx and in English, is situated nine miles from Douglas, and is supposed to be in the very centre of the island. The hill itself is made by the hand of man, and is said to be composed of earth brought from each of the twenty-four parishes of the island. On July 5th, the eve of old Midsummer Day. the quaint and ancient ceremony of proclaiming the laws takes place. The ladies, as is proper in a land where women have long exercised a vote, play a prominent part in the ceremony. It is not till the Acts of Tynwald have been proclaimed from the Tynwald Hill that they become law. The name "Tynwald" itself recalls the language and the history of a very ancient day. It is the same as the Danish Thingvalla and the Icelandic Thingwall and means the "Field of the Popular Assembly."

Another tradition in the UK in July is the annual observance of Tynwald Day, (Laa Tinvaal in Manx) in the Isle of Man, on 5^th July. 

On this day, there is an open air ceremony at Tynwald Hill in the small village of St John’s. The Governor of the Isle of Man officiates, unless the Sovereign or another member of the Royal Family, attends. You can read more about it here and here.

               Bakewell, Derbyshire, 2014

An interesting tradition that takes place in Derbyshire between May and September is well dressing, also known as well flowering. Wells and springs are decorated with mosaics created from flower petals. The origins of the practice are not clear, and range from a pagan custom offering thanks to the gods for a consistent water supply, a celebration of water purity after the Black Death, or gratitude for the constancy of water during a long drought in 1615.

                                                    Bradwell, Derbyshire, 2007

In 1840, Buxton introduced well dressing in thanks to the Duke of Devonshire who arranged and paid for the supply of water to the town. Over time, well dressing was extended to include piped water taps.  Although principally a Derbyshire tradition, it has also been adopted in various parts of Staffordshire, South Yorkshire, Cheshire, Shropshire, Worcestershire and Kent.

                                                    Whitwell, Derbyshire, 2012

To dress the well, wooden frames are covered with clay and a design is traced onto it. Usually, the design is religious in nature, and is completed with flower petals and mosses, sometimes with the addition of seeds and other natural materials.                              

Post-Referendum Blues

                                                                     

It’s a complicated story. Prime Minister David Cameron was continuing to have long term problems with so-called Euro sceptics within his party and an emerging threat of losing votes to UKIP. He thought a good way to quieten the Euro sceptics and minimise vote loss to UKIP would be to have a referendum on the European Union. This promise was made before the last election and was probably an important element in the Conservative win.  

Most unusually, the Great British Public was invited to vote to Remain in the EU or Leave. We have never been invited to vote on other serious issues, like Hanging or Fighting in the Falklands/Iraq/Afghanistan wars or even declaring war in 1914 and 1939, so why choose this subject? The promise of a referendum was a device to save the Conservative party and most immediately enhance their chances of winning the last election.

 Aren’t our politicians voted into power precisely to discuss and attempt to resolve disputes? Now, generally speaking, MPs are well educated and better informed than a large proportion of the public. If they’re not knowledgeable about a particular matter they work to acquire the facts and their advisers, including a large band of public servants, help them to understand.

There are some MPs I respect who stated that leaving the EU would be good for the UK. I don’t understand their reasoning.  Very little has been explained concerning the outcome of their solution to leave the EU. It is difficult to find any factual basis for the assertions that we would be better on our own, without the support of the other nations in the EU, that our trading potential would be greater, that we would be able to regain control of our country and our borders.

Here are the ten points made by the campaigners for Leave.

1.        Freedom to make stronger trade deals with other nations.

Apart from other members of EU we already trade with Russia, China, Canada, USA, Japan, South Africa, Algeria, Brazil . . . need I go on?

 We’ll need all that rather illusory freedom since our EU departure means we will cease trade agreements with the whole of the European Union nations. Moreover, trade agreements take considerable time so it will be quite a while to get back to where we were before Brexit even assuming that such an outcome is possible in the long term.

2.       Freedom to spend UK resources presently through EU membership in the UK to the advantage of our citizens.

This doesn’t even make sense! I think there’s a verb missing.  

3.       Freedom to control our national borders.

We already control our borders, possibly not well, but much of that is due to our poor Border Agency performance not Brussels. On the matter of immigration, Brexit is critical of the numbers but repeatedly fails to give answers about what they think are the right numbers.

4.       Freedom to restore Britain’s special legal system.

A system so ‘special’ that is it full of outdated and anachronistic laws. EU legislation and policy is the main driver of UK law and policy in agriculture, fisheries, external trade and the environment. In other areas, like welfare and social security, education, criminal law, family law and the NHS EU direct influence is far more limited.  Brexit fails to mention that the vast majority of these laws are wholly acceptable and we played a major part in their creation. Moreover, the move towards EU common law enhances trade since it reduces the complexity of commercial legal matters and cost. Brexit also fails to mention that leaving the EU will involve a huge legal task that will affect both Westminster houses with the obvious impact on time available for other important legislative measure and that all this legal retrenching will require civil servants with their host of expensive private sector consultants, mega quangos which the overtaxed British public must pay for. Recent press reports suggest that it will take ten years to unravel EU laws.

5.       Freedom to deregulate the EU’s costly mass of laws.

See above.

6.       Freedom to make major savings for British consumers.

The argument here is that British money from British taxpayers should be spent on British interests. We will no longer receive money from EU. The argument is pure blind assertion with no supporting evidence.

7.       Freedom to improve the British economy and generate more jobs.

This is a very woolly statement and does not explain HOW. It is wholly at odds with the views of most business leaders.

8.       Freedom to regenerate Britain’s fisheries.

The Common Fisheries Policy sets quotas for member states stating the amounts of each type of fish they are entitled to catch. Fishermen claim it threatens their livelihoods, although fishing stocks were in decline long before the policy was framed. The CFP was created to manage fish stocks. Isn’t that a good idea?

9.       Freedom to save the NHS from EU threats to undermine it by harmonising healthcare across the EU, and to reduce welfare payments

It will cost the NHS more to continue in its top-heavy, over-managerial ways. The NHS needs overhauling.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/apr/15/brexit-save-nhs-vote-leave-europe

Moreover, the NHS has considerable catching up to do to equal many of its EU equivalents.

10.     Freedom to restore British customs and traditions.

This is ludicrous. We still have cheese-rolling, Easter egg hunts, Maypole dancing, Morris Dancing, Guy Fawkes (usually called Bonfire Night), ceilidhs, Jack in the Green, well-dressing, wife carrying, pancake races, ferret racing . . . I suppose that some want to see fox-hunting restored, then why not cock fighting and dog fighting, and let’s import a few bears for bear baiting.

The young people in UK who will have to live with the fall-out from the decision by the so-called Brexiteers to leave EU, are rightly angry, for they will be affected for the rest of their lives – job prospects, housing, pensions, freedom to work in Europe.

The Referendum Leave campaign relied heavily on scare-mongering about immigration. I don’t know why they didn’t simply say, ‘Charity starts at home  . . . and that’s where it should remain’ for when (some of) those who voted to leave were questioned it was immigration that they all mentioned. I am reminded of Enoch Powell’s infamous ‘rivers of blood’ speech in 1968. The full text is here and his reasoning is chilling.

Nothing much has changed. Great swathes of people fear and despise those they do not understand. When will the penny drop that Great Britain is and always has been a melting pot? We have been invaded, occasionally enslaved, for centuries. There is no such thing as a pure-born Brit. When will we appreciate the rich diversity of our ‘new’ countrymen and the things they bring for us to savour?

However it would appear that the United Kingdom is less united and more divided than ever. Scotland wants independence, Wales wants independence, Ireland wants reunification, London wants independence. How long will it be before the UK, or England at least, returns to the Heptarchy of late antiquity and the early Middle Ages?

From Wikipedia:

  The Heptarchy (from the Greek ἑπτά hepta, "seven" and ἄρχω arkho, "to rule") is a collective name applied to the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of south, east and central England during late antiquity and the early Middle Ages, conventionally identified as seven: East Anglia, Essex, Kent, Mercia, Northumbria, Sussex and Wessex. The Anglo-Saxon kingdoms eventually unified into the Kingdom of England. By convention, the Heptarchy lasted from the end of Roman rule in Britain in the 5th century, until most of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms came under the overlordship of Egbert of Wessex in 829: a period of European history often referred to as the Early Middle Ages or, more controversially, as the Dark Ages.

The term has been in use since the 16th century, but the initial idea that there were seven Anglo-Saxon kingdoms is attributed to the English historian Henry of Huntingdon in the 12th century and was first used in his Historia Anglorum.

Meanwhile the pound continues to fall, meaning that goods will be more expensive and our standard of living will fall. Mortgages will be more difficult to arrange. The interest rate is falling. We must hope that we do not once more become the Sick Man of Europe as we were before we joined the EU.

Microfiction Monday #56

Lovely Susan from ‘Stony River’ organises and hosts this weekly meme. Thank you Susan J She provides a picture and the challenge is to create a story in 140 characters or less – including punctuation! Click here to read more marvels of microfiction – and perhaps join in. It’s fun!

Here is this week’s picture accompanied by my offering. We drive on the left in UK!

She made brmm brmm noises, longing to be old enough to drive. She knew she’d be good. Even now she was keeping closely to the left.

(131 characters)

What were you thinking, David – or were you?

It was with great surprise and some fury that the British public, along with many of their Commonwealth and former Commonwealth members, heard David Cameron declare that Great Britain was the 'junior partner' of the USA in fighting Germany in 1940. He seemed to be unaware, or perhaps had 'forgotten' that the US remained neutral until Germany and Japan declared war on it in December 1941 following the attack on Pearl Harbour. The US had supplied the UK as well as the Soviet Union, China, France and other Allied nations
with war materials from March 1941 until 1945 through the 'Lend-Lease' law. The UK finally redeemed its debt in 2006.
Nicholas Soames, grandson of Sir Winston Churchill, defended the Prime Minister's remarks, intimating that he had been misunderstood, but compounded the insult by omitting to mention the UK's allies. His grandfather must have groaned and pirouetted in his grave!
At the beginning of World War II Great Britain was indeed a 'junior partner' – but to France which had one of the biggest armies in the world. France had 86 divisions, Germany 78, while Britain had 9 and the US just 8.
After July 1940 Britain and the Commonwealth stood against Germany until Russia entered the war in July 1941. Forces from several defeated European countries escaped to UK to continue the fight – Albanian, Dutch, French, Polish, Norwegian, Belgian, Czechoslovakian to name but a few.
Russia entered the war five months before the US and arguably was a far bigger partner than the US in defeating Germany. Russia inflicted many more military casualties on the Germans than the US. Russia had the biggest army at the end of the war with 491 divisions while the US reached 94 including those also deployed in the Pacific. The sheer size of the Russian army was at the heart of the eventual German defeat.
The first important German reversal was in the Battle of Britain in 1940.
The first major land defeats of Germany were by British and Commonwealth troops at El Alamein in 1942 and by the Russians at Stalingrad in 1943.
More British and Commonwealth than US troops landed in Normandy in 1944. The RAF had many more fighters than the USAF for D Day (2172 versus 1311). The Royal Navy was the senior partner at Normandy, providing the majority of warships.
The biggest defeat the Japanese army faced was in Burma at the hands of the British and Commonwealth (especially Indian) armies.
Throughout the war the RAF was bigger than the USAF in Europe facing Germany. In June 1942 there were 9500 British aircraft and no US aircraft. A year later Britain had 12700 and the US 5000. Even towards the end of the war Britain still had the larger force with 14500 while the US had 12200.
When military deaths are brought into the equation, Russia suffered the greatest number of fatalities, followed by Britain and the Commonwealth, with the US suffering the fewest. As a proportion of population the British suffered three times the military deaths of the US.
Britain also sustained far more major warship losses than the US (260 versus 157)
Finally, Britain suffered significant civilian casualties and the US did not.
David Cameron and Nicholas Soames were both expensively educated at Eton (current basic fees are around £30,000 per annum). Is this venerable institute not able to employ effective History teachers or is it simply the case that David (and Nicholas before him) were not paying attention during lessons?
In spite of Hollywood reworkings of historical events much of the statistical evidence aforementioned has come from US Government sources, which are both remarkably accurate and well-informed.

Watch where you’re going!

Two US airline pilots were having such a heated discussion that they forgot to land the plane they were flying and 144 passengers were flown 150 miles beyond their anticipated destination. The flight lost contact with air traffic controllers for over an hour by which time fears were being expressed that a hijack might be taking place. Fighter jets had been put on stand-by.

A spokesman for the Civil Aviation Authority said that such an event was unlikely to happen in Britain since if an aircraft overflew its destination for 80 minutes it would have entered another country's airspace. Persistent calls from such a country would alert the CAA.

Suspicions have been voiced that rather than quarrelling the pilots actually fell asleep!