Plough Monday

The first Monday after Epiphany, or Twelfth Night.  On this day farmworkers in the east of England took a plough round the streets and performed, either dancing or a play, and in return expected reward in the form of money or food and drink.  If they were not rewarded they would plough a furrow across the front garden or plough up the doorstep. Find out more at www.ploughmonday.co.uk.

Plough Sunday

The previous day when the plough was taken to the church to be blessed.  In a number of East Anglian churches the plough remains, either inside the church as at Cawston, or in the churchyard as at Mattishall.

Molly Dancing

The form of danced practised by the ploughboys in Norfolk and Cambridgeshire, particularly in the Fens.  Died out in the early part of the twentieth century and resurrected in the folk revival of the 1970s/80s.

The Molly

The leader of the group is a man dressed as a woman.  An 18th century term for a man dressed as a woman.

Blacking 

The ploughboys blackened their faces to act as a simple form of disguise as the dancing and associated “scrounging” might get them in trouble.  There is absolutely no evidence that the farmworkers were pretending to be black people.

Ouse Washes 

The area of the Fens created by the drainage work of the 17th century, allowed to flood in the winter, where ancient fenland ways of living lingered longest.  Also the name of the dance group.