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People

Name
Withers, Gladys (b.1900)
Introduction

Gladys Withers was born in Babcary, near Somerton.  Her father was a baker but his hobby was cider making, and he made various varieties for different guests.

 

At Christmas time there were wonderful celebrations, Gladys’s family observed the old Somerset custom of burning an ashen faggot.  The ashen faggot is made with ash stick and tied together with withies (willow). As each one of the faggot’s bonds burst, a mug of cider is passed amongst revellers.

The Ashen Faggot being burnt at the King William IV pub in Curry Rivel in the 1960s. In Curry Rivel, a village near Langport, this particular Somerset custom survives today. The Ashen Faggot being burnt at the King William IV pub in Curry Rivel in the 1960s. In Curry Rivel, a village near Langport, this particular Somerset custom survives today.
Sound File
Listen to Gladys Withers - 1.66MB Duration 3:36 min.
Transcript

GW: My father was a very keen man making cider, that was his hobby.  He loved to do it and when I was ...I can remember when I was about 6 we had to go to a neighbouring farm; he hadn’t got the equipment.  We moved to a ...my father bought an old inn, a beautiful property and it had a cider house and a press and all the equipment in a properly constructed cider house so he was in his element, and we had two fine orchards which in days gone by had won silver cups with their produce from the apples being made into cider.

 

So he developed his hobby and he chose different kinds of apples to make different kinds of cider.  He contemplated making three different kinds of cider, a hard kind which the local people favoured, especially the older men, and then he made a milder kind which he himself liked, and his friends, and then, for my mother who also liked a glass of cider, he made a very special blend for her from specially selected apples and specially made for her and her friends.

 

Christmas was the most wonderful fairytale that ever could be when I was young.  There were great preparations long before Christmas; Christmas puddings being made and there was always apple in Christmas pudding.

 

And then when Christmas Eve came, the work that had been organised that Christmas Eve was practically free, and my father and my brothers would go out and cut ashen wood to make the faggot.  And it would be very long, long strands of faggot, of ashen branches. Oh I expect they would be about eight or nine feet long, and they would be place together and bound round with a withy stick which is very pliable and can easily be tied, and the ties would be made, oh perhaps eight or nine inches away, perhaps a foot.

 

And it would be placed on this open hearth, which we had, a big open hearth with a huge chimney going up.  You could sit in there and watch the smoke going up to the sky.  This faggot would be placed on as soon as the tea was over, perhaps about six o’clock, and friends would begin to congregate.  We would all sit round this fire with the cider in big jugs waiting, and every time the fire came and burst one of the ties, the bonds as we called them, the cider would be handed round.  Everybody would have a drink.

Copyright Information
Copyright. This recording was made by Philippa Legg in 1983. Photograph ©SRLM. For access to full interview please contact the Somerset Heritage Centre.