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I have made the mistake of taking a peek in this book and now can't put it down. Looks like I'll be making my working hours up well into the night tonight

Anyway, the accounts are for the 1700's. There are many 'transactions' that say "Paid for a Hedghog". Why would the Church be buying hedgehogs?

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Mel

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It may be on the same lines as people used to pay for moles. If they were considered a nuisance then people would be paid for killing them - on production of the body. Maybe the church was plagued with hedgehogs?

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Maureen
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It could be that hedgehogs were a nuisance but I've read, can't remember where, that in the 1700s some church floors were covered with straw or rushes. Hedgehogs were used to catch the mice and other creatures that inhabited the straw.

Joan

There is a glossary at the back of the book which reads -

'Foxes and hedgehogs were regarded as vermin: foxes because they killed poultry and hedgehogs because they were supposed to drink the milk of cows lying in the fields. Bt many Acts of Parliament after 1563, wardens were encouraged to pay for their destruction.'

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Mel

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Not just a pretty face

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Maureen
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Can I just say a big thank-you to the people who contacted me from this site with regards to my mum recently passing away. A special thanks to Joan and Mel especially. I don't feel well enough at the moment to be a regular contributor but when I noticed the article on hedgehogs I realised I had just been reading about them.

The book I got from the library recently "A pocket guide to Superstitions of the British Isles" by Steve Roud quotes

Hedgehogs

It was very widely believed in past centuries that hedgehogs sucked the milk from cows' udders as the cattle lay in the fields, and they were thus killed on sight by farmers and their workers. Cows giving bloody milk was taken as particular evidence of a hedgehog's involvement The earliest documentary records show that the belief was the basis of official policy from Tudor times, and it probably existed before that time. Churchwardens' accounts from Ecclesfield, for example, quoted in Notes and Queries (1851) show that regular payments were being made from dead hedgehogs, along with other vermin from at least 1590 to the 1740's.

While educated Victorian writers tried hard to eradicate this erroneous belief, it proved remarkable durable, and was still being claimed as true in many parts of the country well into the twentieth century.

I love hedgehogs and once adopted four orphans which we overwintered in our garden under a pallet filled with straw and fed them on dog food and water of course. In the Spring we released three of them into a wood which was along way from any roads. The other one we couldn't find. Now a few years later when the security light goes on at night we see a very fat extremely well fed hedgehog! I like to think it is the one that got away. From Pollyanna

Nice to see you popping your head in Pollyanna. Keep your chin up.

Didn't people have some odd idea in years gone by.

What is the explanation for blood in cows milk today?

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Mel

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Mastitis?

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Maureen
If you can't fight, wear a big 'at

From a veterinary web site:

Q: What causes blood in milk and how do we treat this problem? Is this any danger to the calf?

A: Cows sometimes rupture a blood vessel in the udder due to trauma or a weak vessel wall. The presence of blood (pink milk) or blood clots in milk is usually temporary and treatment is rarely necessary. The presence of the blood in milk is not a problem to the calf.

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Maureen
If you can't fight, wear a big 'at

Thanks Maureen - hedgehogs indeed!

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Mel

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Hedgehogs were also known as orchants.

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Mel

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These accounts are really interesting, the glossary especially. I think we need a 'dictionary section' here on the site for old words that are no longer used or have a different meaning these days.

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Mel

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Yes when I was growing up on a dairy farm it was definitely mastitis but I'm sure we got something from the vets to treat it. Hedgehogs indeed! Milk makes them ill according to the rescue centre I was involved with.

I've just looked up a reference to hedgehogs. It's from A Brief Guide to the History and Interior of the Parish Church of St. Michael and All Angels, Ashton-under-Lyne.

"Originally the church had no pews. People stood. There were rushes to keep their feet warm. These were kept clean by hedgehogs, and changed every midsummer.... The floor was not paved until 1792....... Well-behaved dogs were allowed in for services."

I don't know if St. Peter's in Burnley was similar.

Joan