September 1, 2017

Crowle Folklore

By angus

From
Household Tales and Other Traditional Remains
Collected in the Counties of York, Lincoln, Derby and Nottingham
BY
SIDNEY OLDALL ADDY, M.A. OXON.,

 

The Black Stone (p. 57)

There is a big stone in a farmyard at Crowle, in Lincolnshire, called ” the black stone.” If this stone be removed the farmer’s cattle will die within a year afterwards. It is said that upon one occasion the stone was removed when the farmer lost all his cattle and suffered great loss. It was, however, mysteriously brought back. [ The Norsemen believed that the family spirit, armafor, dwelt in a stone. ]

The Unfinished Road (p 135)

A part of a road leading out of Crowle, in Lincolnshire, is unfinished, and never will be finished. A farmer once met a mysterious person f who inquired of him why the road was not finished, and told the farmer that he would finish it if he would turn his back and not watch how it was done. But when the farmer heard the tinkering and hammering on the road he could not resist the temptation of looking round. He then saw a number of little men working at the road. But they vanished in an instant, and the road returned to its former condition and never can be mended.

From

County Folklore Vol V, Lincolnshire

Collected by Mrs Glutch and Mabel Peacock

 

P. 2

Crowle. Black Stone.  

There is a big stone in a farmyard called “the black stone.” If this stone be removed the farmer s cattle will die within a year afterwards. It Is said that upon one occasion the stone was removed, when the farmer lost all his cattle and suffered great loss. It was, however, mysteriously brought back. ( Addy, p. 57.)

Unfinished Road

A part of a road leading out of Crowle, in Lincolnshire, is unfinished, and never will be finished. A farmer once met a mysterious person, who inquired of him why the road was not finished, and told the farmer that he would finish it if he would turn his back and not watch how it was done. But when the farmer heard the tinkering and hammering on the road he could not resist the temptation of looking round. He then saw a number of little men working at the road. But they vanished in an instant, and the road returned to its former condition and never can be mended. (Addy, p. 135.)

Crowle. As the bride and bridegroom were alighting from the carriage after their return from church a woman ran out of the house and flung a plate containing cake over their heads into the road. The plate was smashed and the cake scrambled for and torn to pieces by the children waiting round.

Crowle. “Falling Out”.  A strange custom is practised in the neighbourhood of Crowle (Isle of Axholme). If a couple who have “kept company” for some time happen  to fall out, and the man afterwards marries another woman (or vice versa) the neighbours tie to the deserted one’s door, on the eve of the wedding, a cabbage or some other kind of vegetable.

Crowle. A local tradition says that the stone for building the two churches of St Oswald at Crowle and at Althorpe (3.5 miles distant, on the bank of the Trent), was floated down the Trent, and landed at the latter place, but that, owing to the difficulty of transport, the small stones only were forwarded to Crowle, while with the large ones the church at Althorpe was reared. It is a fact that the stones of the two churches fit in fairly well with this account.  (Bygone Lincolnshire, p. 76, note.)

Popular Etymology

Crowle. When the late Archdeacon Stonehouse was collecting materials for his History of the Isle of Axholme he asked one of the older inhabitants what was the meaning of the name Crowle, the place where this person lived. The reply was, “Well, sir, I doan’t knaw for sureness, but thaay do saay as afoore Vermuden time this was
omust tha’ only bit o’ land e’ this part that was unflooded, so folks crohled up here an’ built hooses.  (E. PEACOCK, IL, vol. i., p. 146.)