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April 2021
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Delamere Clinic by JDA Architects
The Origins of April Fool’s Day
Mountain Oak Woodcraft Turning local wood into beautiful projects
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Dr Maurizio Bragagni billion pound journey from Merseyside to global business
Take a visit to Sausage Island Co-op Funeral Director reveals how lockdown impacted bereaved families across the region
Origins of April Fool’s Day By Mark Bateman
Above: Mad folks of Gottam
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April Fool’s Day is celebrated annually on April
pointless ‘fool’s errands’ purely for the humour value of it. Ultimately the servant recognises that he is being pranked as an April Fool’s joke.
1st throughout the world. It is marked by people playing good- natured jokes and hoaxes on each other. It’s as popular today as it has ever been, these days even the media get involved, but its origins and roots stretch back thousands of years.
Another possible origin theory for the day comes from France in 1564 when the citizens were ordered to (under the Pope’s edict) reform their calendar by moving the end of the year from the end of March to the 1st of January. Those citizens who refused to change and still celebrated New Year between the 25th of March and April 1st were mocked and had pranks played on them. For example, pranksters would often stick paper fish to their victim’s backs and refer to them as ‘Poisson D’Avril’ (April Fish) which is still the French term for April 1st.
Almost every culture has a long-held tradition of what were known as ‘renewal festivals’ held at the start of April to celebrate the end of Winter and the return of Spring. These often involved forms of misrule and mayhem where people played pranks on friends and even their masters. Social order was inverted with children playing pranks on parents, servants on masters. Behaviour normally frowned upon such as lying, deception and playing pranks was tolerated but only until 12 midday when order is restored. April’s Fool’s Day is believed to have evolved from festivals held as far back as Roman Times. The Romans celebrated a feast called ‘Saturnalia’ at the end of December. This involved lots of dancing, drinking, and exchanging of gifts. A king of misrule was elected who oversaw a temporary inversion of the normal social order, where slaves could pretend to mock or even rule their masters. This idea of a ‘lord of misrule’ and a fool who could question, and mock, his social betters was to become popularised in the U.K. by Shakespeare in the 16th Century.
The tradition of fooling and the character of ‘the fool’ hence became embedded in popular culture. Towards the end of the 16th and into the 17th Century the playwright William Shakespeare’s plays became very popular. Shakespeare included over 20 ‘fools’ in his work such as ‘The Fool’ in ‘King Lear’ who, under his guise as a fool, was able to point out the King’s errors and follies. Another character Falstaff in the King Henry IV plays was a ‘lord of misrule’ serving to challenge and undermine the nobility’s position through clowning and acting up. Above: The Washing of the lions
In the Middle Ages festivals that have similarities to April Fool’s Day became popular. These included ‘Hoke Tide’ or Hock – Tide and involved men and women tying up strangers of the opposite sex and charging them a tax to be released. The tax was usually donated to the church. Another festival ‘Shig- Shag’ (or Shick -Shack) was celebrated on May 20th when people put sprigs of Apple- Oak in their buttonholes to honour Charles II who was said to have hidden in an Oak – Apple tree to escape Cromwell. Anyone not wearing a sprig was mocked, or fooled, but only until midday. The Town of Gottam (or Gotham) in Nottinghamshire also features in a comic tale about April 1st. In the 13th Century it was law that any road King John stepped on became public property. The citizens of Gottam did not want their road to become public property so they refused him entry. The furious King sent his soldiers to the town but when they arrived there they found the citizens engaged in such foolish activities as trying to drown fish and cage birds in pens with no roofs. The soldiers reported back that the Citizens of the town were mad so there was no point going anywhere near it. Then in 1561 Flemish writer Edward De Dene who published a humorous poem about a nobleman planning to send his servant on a series of www.lancmag.com
Fooling continued in the U.K. On April 1st, 1698, several people were tricked into going to the Tower of London to see the ‘lions being washed’ after a fake advert in a newspaper. This became a popular prank claiming at least a handful of victims each year. The tradition of fooling continued to be recorded, for example when a writer wrote in the Gentleman’s magazine in April 1766 that there was, ‘A strange custom prevalent throughout the kingdom, of people making fools of one another on the 1st of April.’ In modern times the tradition of pranking people on 1st April has continued. The media, with its large audience, and the BBC in particular has played some great pranks on the nation as a whole. In 1957 on its ‘Panorama’ news show they appeared to show footage of the Swiss ‘spaghetti harvest’ being gathered in. The BBC was subsequently flooded with enquiries as to where people could buy the plants before they declared the hoax the next day.
April’s Fool’s Day is believed to have evolved from festivals held as far back as Roman Times
Then in 1965 the BBC announced they were trialling a new type of technology where smell could be transmitted over the airwaves in so- called ‘Smell-o-vision’. Dozens of people contacted the BBC to say it had been a great success before the BBC again confirmed it was a hoax. April fooling is seen as a great benefit to mental health, it brings people together and it gets them laughing which increases people’s well- being. Just remember if you’re planning any fooling, keep it light and good – natured and do it before 12 midday otherwise you become the fool! LANCASHIRE & NORTH WEST MAGAZINE 21
Boredom – The Father of Creativity? How a mother-daughter team became Fairy property developers... to Reverse the Lockdown Low By Denise Mullen
T
he first Fairy House appeared, magically, alongside a popular woodland trail in Lancashire. It was a sturdy trunk of ash boasting a tiny slate roof, a sun terrace balcony with French doors, an impressive entrance and a little swing for the Fairy Folk children from a sturdy branch off to one side. The more you look at, the more incredible detail you find. When its creators, mum and daughter team Katherine and Hattie Grimes went back to visit their small people’s ‘show house’ two weeks later they were amazed and delighted to find local children had left little house warming notes for the new Fairy residents. Parents had added their
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own thanks to the ‘developers’ for turning a simple walk into a fairy story their children couldn’t stop talking about. The first house was Hattie’s initiative, it was the start of a special journey. Lockdown had been difficult for both women. Hattie and her partner had just welcomed their new baby into the world, they could have done with an experienced extra pair of hands and their little girl was missing her grandmother terribly. It cut both ways, Katherine was desperate to help her daughter and just dying to cuddle newborn Tommy and hug granddaughter Ila.
Above: Hattie, left and Katherine with one of Katherines Fairy Houses
Talking with small children through devices via www.lancmag.com
video isn’t always easy. Shared tasks seemed a much better way to go to maintain a bond and keep the conversation flowing. Creativity courses through the Grimes’ DNA – granddad Steve is a member of the 90s Indie band The Farm (remember All Together Now?). He is the talent behind the music for the band’s hits and, when the band isn’t touring, turns his attention to writing club anthems and, now, a number of film scores. These days he’s branched out yet again. This time its writing and narrating a charming series of children’s books. This was his Covid-inspired step to ensure his special Granddad bedtime stories could still be relied upon - even during the most challenging social distancing restrictions. And, of course, daughter Hattie (32), a talented artist in an endearing and accessible naïve style, designs the book covers. What started with the first Fairy House inspired a little more magic. That first very attractive detached residence got the women thinking. They had worked together before. Katherine is a trained and qualified florist and artisan jeweller with a BA hons in 3D design. Team Grimes ran The Chocolate Shop in Churchtown, Southport, which featured their stunning
What started with the first Fairy House inspired a little more magic bespoke jewellery alongside outstanding sweet treats for some years. The muchloved little treasure trove of confectionary and gorgeous adornments closed only when Hattie was expecting Ila. Instead the women turned to Etsy and other quirky online platforms to sell their original works. In the background Katherine had been working at garden centres. Both women share a passion for nature and Hattie’s little ones are showing clear signs of the apple
not falling very far from the tree. Hattie and Katherine, who qualified to teach floristry at HE colleges, and had been teaching courses at garden centres, started thinking about where next for the duo. They knew they needed to find something that was right for them, and they understood just how engaging, energising, fun and mood-lifting their creative endeavours at home had been. They were enjoying themselves and they wanted others to benefit. When the Fairy Dust settled, Nature’s Treasure Trove rose like a sustainable phoenix from the fanciest of ashes. “Nature is very much our major influence; we are poor mimics but we never stop trying. We both love the work of William Morris and that of more current artists like Andrew Goldsworthy. I’m also a fan of European floral arts, they have a much looser style and invite nature in, beautiful wild rose hips aren’t uncommon, I’ve never seen them for sale here,” said Katherine. “Being back working together again really works for us, both of us have our individual strengths. Its great as we can bounce ideas off each other, it helps that we are both open to new ideas. “Getting crafty has helped many people recently, some
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We Saw the Rivington Pike Beast in 2012 Witness Report: “Hi Deborah I have been struggling with something that I experienced with a few of my friends a number of years ago now. Writing it down to send
to you made it more real somehow, and I have to admit after hearing about the other reports of creatures around here I started thinking about that night
I
lived in the local area at the time and as my other half was working that night, I’d invited a couple of my friends over so that we could go and watch the beacons being lit. We didn’t want to be in a mad crush of people as we wanted to take our dogs with us, so rather than going to one of the beacons nearby, we decided to go up to Great Hill to watch from there as we would be able to see a few different ones from that spot like the one over at Rivington, Darwen Tower, Pendle Hill etc. My friends came over around tea time and we had something to eat and then set off with our dogs about an hour before it was due to go dark. I drove my Land Rover up Well Lane to the gate leading onto the moors and we walked to Great Hill from there. I do remember that it was quite a nice evening as I had got a pair of flip flops on and a pair of ¾ jeans. We took up a flask of coffee and some crisp and cakes and a radio so we could have a little party up there – only realised later on that we’d forgotten to take a torch with us. The first thing that was odd – not at the time but it sort of made sense later on when I was going over things in my head – was as we got up to Great Hill, there were quite a few sheep milling about and they made no attempt to 82
and wondering what I saw. My experience happened back in 2012 – the night that all the beacons were being lit for the Queen’s Jubilee.
us – but he’d come like a proper hiker with a rucksack and head torch etc and then a big group of people came up the White Coppice gorge and joined us and surprisingly one of the group was a girl that my two friends and I work with. So we all hung out chatting, listening to music, and the big group had fetched beers with them so they were all getting merry and enjoying themselves, and our dogs were playing around together and exploring in the dark.
move. My friend’s Cairn Terrier wasn’t good with livestock and she was worried about not being able to let her off her lead, my dog was used to working sheep as we used to live on a farm, I got him to run the sheep off. But I had to do this 3 times as they kept coming back which as I said was very odd as they’ll usually take off if a dog is near and won’t come back. Just before it went dark, a bloke on his own turned up with the same idea as
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I can’t remember what time the beacons were lit, but we saw the one over towards Rivvy, Darwen, Pendle and some in the far distance that may have been the south lakes. Quite a few fireworks were also set off in various places so we stayed to watch those and then after about an hour we all decided to walk back down from the hill together. My friend who owned the Cairn terrier was having a good chat with the bloke who had turned up alone, about hiking and camping and fell running and so on as she was wanting to get into that and as it turned out he’d parked his car in the village, so I made a joke about 3 unprepared women out in the dark and I offered him a lift back down Well Lane to his car in exchange for him lighting the path for us with his head torch. www.lancmag.com
So we all set off and when we got to the left hand pathway that leads off the main path down towards White Coppice gorge we said goodbye to our work mate and all her friends and they all started trundling off down the pathway. I do remember saying that I thought they were mad doing that in the dark as the path is dreadful in spots but they were laughing about it and headed off. At this point, I’m walking with my friend “L” and the two dogs were in front of us and my other friend “R” was walking, chatting to the bloke with the headtorch and they had dropped quite a distance behind us. It was dark, but I seem to remember that it was a full moon that night and as the pathway there is a sort of lightcoloured stone surface, we could see where we were going so rather than hang about for them we just strolled on with the dogs. The voices of the other group going down the gorge were now quite faint (we’d been able to hear them laughing and talking until they dropped below the level of the flat bit of moors on our left) so now all we could hear were the two dogs mooching about and our friend “R” and her new pal chatting behind us. I’m not sure how far behind us they were by now – I’m going to guess around 100 feet or so. Although we could hear them chatting, they weren’t www.lancmag.com
close enough for us to hear what they were saying – just the sound of their voices - and the light off his head torch wasn’t lighting anything up for us. I remember glancing back and had a bit of a giggle with “L” joking that it looks like “R” has pulled and as I turned back to look in the direction we were going, I walked straight into my dog and nearly fell over. He was standing there rigid, looking off to the left and all of his hackles were up. “R”s dog was also standing stock still at his side looking in the same direction, but her tail was tucked right underneath her back legs. I started to tell him to move, I said something along the lines of “come on lad shift yourself” or something similar when I heard a really low growl/snarl coming from the direction the dogs were looking at. My friend “L” was talking away slightly behind me (she talks really loudly) so I said “what the f*ck was that. Did you hear that?” then I followed with “shut up yapping for a minute will you” she tried whispering and said “what? What was it? No I didn’t hear anything” and as she finished talking I heard it again and this time she heard it too. Again, I did swear and said f*cking hell is that a dog? Which made me panic as my dog was a bit of a fighter if he came across another male dog, but had nothing to back it up with and my first
thought was that it was a lost dog or something and my dog would end up getting hurt by starting something he couldn’t finish, but he wasn’t making any move to go towards it. He wasn’t a big dog but he had balls of steel and he wasn’t afraid of anything so to see him in a bit of a state of alarm/fear/concern spooked me. It felt like we were there standing there for ages but it probably wasn’t any longer than a minute. I suggested that we keep walking and try to get past this “dog” and hope that my dog didn’t decide to leg it after it in the dark and end up getting hurt. So I nudged him with my foot and said go on, get on, and he was literally talking one step forward at a time with very stiff legs with his tail up like a poker and never once took his eyes off the spot we’d heard the growl come from. I’d guess it was maybe 20 or 30 feet from the path at that point. My friend “R” and the bloke she was chatting to had caught up with us quite a bit but seemed totally oblivious to what was going on with us or the dogs, so “L” and I walked on but at a lot slower pace than we had been doing, and we now had a bit of light from the headtorch hitting us and the sides of the path. Both dogs were sticking pretty close a little way in front of us, but although they were
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Mountain Oak Woodcraft Natural. Traditional. Local. Renewable. Beautiful.
Products that can claim all of these titles are not easily found in the North West of England. But find them you can if you head a little north of Lancashire and stop off in the delightful enclave of Witherslack. Here, you’ll find Jack Holden and his team hard at work with pieces of local wood, turning them into something
town folk wouldn’t think possible. Mountain Oak Woodcraft make this craft look easy but anything could be further from the truth – you only have to listen to how hard Jack and the team had to work to get to where they are to know that.
Above: Framed cruck pailing gate
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A
fter years of passion in the outdoors and a lengthy path of formal training and hands-on experience, Jack himself is an accomplished and skilled woodsman. He works with like-minded individuals who create all manner of items from the raw materials they have on the doorstep. From timber frames, to gates, garden structures such as potting sheds to fences, the end result is always precision finished and as stunning as you would expect from such good quality local wood. So what is Mountain Oak Woodcraft’s story, how did Jack end up a woodsman and what is his real passion?
The path into the woods Growing up in the Ribble Valley, Jack most certainly wasn’t deprived of beautiful scenery and ever since he can remember, he has had a passion for the great outdoors. Somewhat conversely to his current career, Jack read
Growing up in the Ribble Valley, Jack most certainly wasn’t deprived of beautiful scenery and ever since he can remember, he has had a passion for the great outdoors.
English Literature at the University of Cumbria, the Lancaster campus. When questioned on this seemingly odd choice, Jack told me “I managed to incorporate my love of nature into my degree by specialising in nature writing. In fact, that’s what I wrote my dissertation on.” And all of a sudden, it becomes a little clearer. Shortly after uni, and a sojourn globetrotting, Jack increasingly saw others launching projects and it was something he wanted for himself. It made sense for his
Above: The Witherslack Workshop. Built by hand just last year using traditional timber framing joints and featuring a ‘cruck’ frame at the end which is formed from the natural curve of the tree as it grows and bends to seek sunlight.
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vocation to incorporate his love of the outdoors and so, the Mountain Oak Woodcraft journey began. But it wasn’t as simple as just ‘going for it’. No, a craft such as this needs to be respected and the skills required take a great deal of time to build up. So Jack invested three years of his life into an adult apprenticeship, run by the Bill Hogarth Memorial Trust and known as BHMAT. “In order to complete the training, the apprentices need to work on the job and you’re essentially self-employed through the process. I was lucky enough to secure a position with Lakeland Coppice Products and the owner, Ian, was a great support to me,” Jack said. Without this kind of opportunity, who knows how difficult it might have been
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I always say that herbal medicine starts in the kitchen...
H
ippocrates, the father of medicine himself said “Let thy food be thy medicine and let thy medicine be thy food.” Modern society is so removed from that concept these days that I wanted to bring some good old fashioned kitchen medicine into the limelight. Good nutrition is important for good health, but did you know that your spice cupboard could be key to tackling specific symptoms? Last year I gave a talk to a class of 9 years olds on herbs and their medicinal properties, but I wanted to make it about herbs they could relate to. When I started looking around my kitchen I even shocked myself at how many of those ingredients are also stored in medicine bottles in my clinic. Take garlic for example. Garlic is immune boosting and antiviral, it’s also a great combater of mucous. If I have a poorly household, the garlic comes straight out, usually crushed into a paste and then added as the base of a curry, chilli or soup. I rarely get complaints as I’m surrounded by garlic lovers but the goal is always to have them sweating it out the day after. Naturally, I don’t tell them this, but if they’re sweating the garlic out I know my meal was strong enough to do its job. Sage is another handy herb. It makes an excellent gargle for sore throats, but it can be equally useful to load it into stuffing or on roast potatoes, especially for fussy children who might not like the taste. I sell a sage and echinacea throat spray that’s usually popular at this time of year as the onset of coughs and colds come as the children return to school.
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Sage is cooling and can reduce hot flushes induced by menopause or hormone treatment for prostate issues. I recommend making a pint of strong tea with it then letting it cool in the fridge and sipping it throughout the day. Sage is very effective for temperature regulation and the tablets I keep in my shop are sold purely for that. Ginger and chilli are possibly my two kitchen favourites. They thin mucous so always go into my recipes with the masses of garlic I use while the house is suffering with a cold. Ginger is antinausea and gentle on sickly tummies when one is recovering from a stomach bug. You can easily
If I have a poorly household, the garlic comes straight out, usually crushed into a paste and then added as the base of a curry, chilli or soup. www.lancmag.com
make your own ginger cordial, biscuits, cakes or syrup, but if kitchen creativity isn’t your thing then most supermarkets and health food shops will stock these items.
You can easily make your own ginger cordial, biscuits, cakes or syrup
Ginger and chilli work on inflammation, so they can help with pain when rubbed into the sore or injured muscles and joints. A large jar of oil, sat in the sun for a few days and stuffed with chilli makes a beautiful bright red capsicum oil. I actually use my own capsicum oil for nerve pain and neuropathy more than I do for injuries. Nerve pain is notoriously stubborn to treat but chilli seems to nail it where other herbs fall short. The first time I made my own capsicum oil, it was for a lady with diabetic neuropathy. All standard pain killers had failed to touch the pain and the new morphine they’d given her was making her feel unwell. After making my own Capsicum oil I blended it with some ginger, mint and rosemary and popped the leftovers on the shelf in my shop in case she wanted to come in and buy a second bottle. I called it Nerve Oil as I’m fairly uncreative when it comes to naming mixes but that trusty Nerve Oil has never left my shelf. My lady with diabetic neuropathy is getting relief and everyone else that has tried it has come requesting more. As a simple herbalist I couldn’t be more proud that my humble kitchen medicine did what morphine couldn’t and I’ve been encouraging people to get hands on in their herb cupboards with a fresh enthusiasm ever since. Herbs can be powerful, accessible and fun to play around with. As some of our original medicines, they can be just as relevant today as they were many years ago.
Above: Fresh ginger root
Nicola Parker MNIMH has a herbal medicine clinic located on the picturesque coast Morecambe Bay where she offers face to face and virtual appointments. For more information on the topics she writes about or to book an appointment, contact her clinic on 01524 413733 or via email at helpmebehealthy@gmail.com.
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