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My boyhood in good owd Syke

If, like me, you were born up Syke,
if you attended school at Haggate,
if you were towt wi'little Miss Carter,
then you're noorn far off seventy, old mate.

If. like me, yer caught tadpoles i' t'small tail,
if, like me, you sometimes fell in,
mi mother ud stick me i' t'dolly tub,
or else a bath made o'tin.

If yer went fishing o'er t'bridge at Cockden,
or swam i' t'river a bit lower dairn,
or picked goosebobs i' t'Battyoil Gardens,
yer couldn't do that i' the tairn.

If, like me, yer go up to Thursden,
and remember what it used to be like,
before it were ravaged wi two world wars,
that spoiled one o' the beauties o' t' Syke.

If yer remember the woodpeckers at Thursden,
chippng all day in the wood,
the cuckoo's loud call in the summer,
and seeing trees bursting airt o' the bud.

If yer picked turnips at gardens o'er golf links,
or caddied fer a tanner a rairnd,
to save up fer Burnley Fair holidays,
yer wer a long time i'saving a pairnd.

If I went on mi own to Blackpool,
I remember t'first time ut ah did,
I took a shirt an'two or three collars,
an wer rich wi'a couple a quid.

If yer can smell new mown hay in the country,
watch it change to a glorious brairn,
help to load it up on the hay cart,
it's far better na living i't' tairn.

If yer had warm milk on yer porridge,
almost as soon as it came frae a cair,
or tasted some new farmers butter,
there's nothing to equal it nair.

If yer've hed suet sad cake, straight frae th'oven,
wi' butter running dairn side o' yer mairth,
it wer a lot better na them doughnuts and biscuits,
they advertise on the telle dairn sairth.

Now I've come to the end of my story,
abairt things that I did when a boy,
of the love that I have for this village,
which to me has brought so much joy.

Th'Owd Syker

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Gloria

I'd be dangerous with a brain.

My Grandma, and my mother, both used to make sad cake. We had it warm from the oven "running with butter." Two other favourites were parkin and mushy peas.

Joan

Does anyone have a recipe for sad cake? I've searched tinternet but most of the recipes I have seen are from USA.

Perhaps I should check out my Mrs Beetons book!

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Mel

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Oddie's bakery in Nelson/Burnley make fantastic sad cakes,just like mother used to bake.

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David
Genealogists do it in the library.

It's a bit far for me, David! If anyone has a traditional Lancashire recipe I'd like to see it.

Joan

Also related to the Chorley cake is East Lancashire's "Sad Cake", made to a similar recipe. It was found in the Burnley, Nelson and Padiham areas. Sad cake is often up to 12 inches (30 cm) in diameter, as opposed to the Chorley cake being only around 3 or 3.5 inches (8 or 9 cm) and is made by rolling out the pastry and dropping raisins and or currants evenly over the pastry then folding in on several sides and then rolling out again to the required size, usually round but can be square. It was then cut into triangular sections similar to a sponge cake section and was a regular addition in a working man's lunch box (the whole meal was known as Bagging, snap or packing). The sad cake was a filler for eating either after one's sandwiches or as a separate tea break snack during the working day in the Cotton mills and coal mines of Lancashire. A spread of margarine, butter or even jam was placed on top. It is especially nice with sandwiches of jam and crumbly soft Lancashire cheese

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David
Genealogists do it in the library.

A bit far for me too...not that I want to buy it. I want to make it!

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Mel

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This is a Chorley cake recipe,Sad cake is very very similar.
Chorley Cakes Recipe

Ingredients:
* Pastry; - 8oz (225g) plain flour
* 4oz (115g) hard margarine
* Water to mix
* Filling: - 6oz (170g) currants
* 2oz (55g) finely chopped dried peel
* 1 tablespoon soft brown muscovado sugar
* 1oz (30g) butter
* ¼ teaspoon each of ground nutmeg and mixed spice

Method:

Rub margarine into flour until it resembles breadcrumbs. Add water slowly until the mixture binds together. Cover and leave for half an hour in a cold place.

In a thick pan slowly melt 1oz (28g) butter. Remove from heat, add currants, spices and sugar. Mix well and put aside to cool. Then stir in the mixed peel.

Grease a baking tray. Preheat oven to 200°C. Roll out the pastry on a floured surface until it is ¼" (5mm) thick. Using a saucer cut into rounds. In the centre of each round put a heaped tablespoonful of the dried fruit mixture. Dampen the edges of the pastry and carefully bring the edges to meet in the centre. Pat down to ensure the gaps of the pastry are closed, then with the rolling pin roll the cakes gently until you can just see the fruit through the pastry. Prick the surface with a fork. Transfer carefully to the baking tray and bake in the pre-heated oven at 200°C for about 20 minutes or until lightly brown. They are particularly good eaten whilst just warm and spread with butter but will keep for several days.

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David
Genealogists do it in the library.

I have found one recipe that just says dried fruit and brown sugar wrapped in shortcut pastry. It was a use for left over pastry.

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Mel

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Well Mel,that is the way in days gone by that Sad cake really evolved I think.It was a way of using up excess pastry that had been made for other things rather than wasting it.

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David
Genealogists do it in the library.

This Sad Cake sounds much like the Eccles Cake that was about the only thing my grandmother would let me help with in the kitchen. We have them at our little bakery in Amble, and they look a tad more exotic than my grandmother's did 50+ years ago, but she'd have been doing what David mentions ... using up the scraps of pastry.

Here's the Eccles Cake ............

Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 15 minutes
Pre-heat oven to 220°C

Ingredients:

500g flaky pastry
25g melted butter
Nutmeg
50g candied peel
100g sugar
200g currants
Method:

In a medium saucepan, combine the sugar and butter and cook over a medium heat until melted
Off the heat, add currants, candied peel, nutmeg and allspice
On a lightly-floured surface, roll the pastry thinly and cut into rounds of about 0.5cm thickness and 10cm diameter
Place a small spoonful of filling onto centre of each pastry circle
Dampen the edges of the pastry and draw the edges together over the fruit and pinch to seal
Turn over, then press gently with a rolling pin to flatten the cakes
Flatten and snip a V in the top with scissors. Place on a baking tray
Brush with water and sprinkle with a little extra sugar
Bake in a hot oven for 20 minutes (220°C) or until lightly browned round the edges
Place on a wire rack and allow to cool.
Try not to eat them all at once!

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Lancaster, Geldard, Proctor, Clough, Heyes, Stockdale, Driver

My Grandma used only currants for filling but the general method was the same as Chorley or Eccles cakes, except the pastry was left in one large round piece.

David, Oddie's is now on my list of places to go, at my next visit.

Joan

Eccles cakes are a totally different thing to Sad Cakes or Chorley Cakes.
Eccles Cakes are made with Puff pastry, Sad Cakes and Chorley Cakes are made with shortcrust pastry.Just not the same thing at all.

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David
Genealogists do it in the library.

My mother in law used to make it - just left-over pastry with dried fruit in it. Not as rich as a Chorley cake. She said it was called sad because it was flat. She also used the description 'sad' for a sponge cake that didn't rise or sank in the middle.

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

I agree they taste different David but the method is the same, just different pastry to give me heartburn!

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Mel

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