FROM HEARTH TO HALL Step back in time and discover how Christmas was once celebrated in Lancashire’s grand halls, cosy cottages, and historic manor houses. Long before fairy lights and festive jumpers, the season was marked by roaring hearths, fragrant evergreens, and age- old customs that brought warmth and wonder to the darkest days of winter. A long time ago, Christmas began with the lighting of the Yule Log on Christmas Eve, a tradition believed to bring good luck if the log burned for all Twelve Days of Christmas. Homes were beautifully adorned with holly, ivy, bay, and yew, while kissing boughs hung from beams in places like Samlesbury Hall and Towneley Hall, decorated with apples, oranges, and mistletoe.
Samlesbury Hall
On “Flesh Day,” locals from towns such as Poulton-le-Fylde, Ormskirk, and Garstang would head to bustling markets to stock up on meats for the Christmas feast, which featured hearty favourites like black pudding and frumenty, a sweet, spiced porridge. The festive season was filled with fun and folklore. Wassailing brought neighbours together, as “vessel maids” carried decorated boxes of fruit and herbs from door to door, singing for blessings and good fortune. The celebrations wrapped up with Plough Monday, when farmhands paraded through villages dragging a plough and playfully demanding “plough money” before returning to the fields.
Mitton Hall
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