Tag: poem

Haven’t heard a Peep

Kirkham Priory with Kirkham Bridge visible, top centre, where a nocturnal bird fair used to take place on Trinity Sunday followed by a festival in the abbey grounds. Do you know anything more about this fair? Picture: English Heritage

 

Following my piece a couple of weeks ago on Hamer Inn, also known as the Lettered Board and Hamer House, reader Howard Campion has been in touch.

He writes: “Thank you for the article on Hamer House…I have followed this area with interest since purchasing Bill Cowley’s book ‘Snilesworth’, and have recently located an article that appeared in 1989 as well as a paragraph in your dad’s book ‘Portrait of the North York Moors’ – you will no doubt be familiar with the last – but the newspaper article does not have an author’s name. Do you have an e-mail address to which I can send it?”

I replied to Howard with my email address, so I am hoping to receive a copy of the article soon and will report back as to whether it offers more information on the mysterious inn. Howard also asked me: “Any luck with the bird festival thing at Kirkham?”

Howard was referring to a message he sent me several years ago asking if I could find out more about this festival because he was struggling to track down much information. I looked into it briefly, but after getting waylaid by other stuff failed to pursue it. His new message prompted me to have another go and I found the following reference in a 2005 newspaper article:

Kirkham Priory “…is best viewed from the nearby bridge over the River Derwent. This bridge is associated with an interesting festival, the Kirkham Bird Fair. At two o’clock in the morning on Trinity Sunday, men and boys met on the bridge to exchange or purchase pet birds. At sunrise, the bartering stopped and a village feast with drinking and merrymaking commenced.”

A later article in 2006 mentioned that the merrymaking was held in the grounds of the nearby abbey, and that a band would arrive on a boat from Malton.

Trinity Sunday is the first Sunday after Whit Sunday (which is the seventh Sunday after Easter) and this year it will fall on 31st May. I wonder if any of you know more about the Kirkham Bird Festival, for how long it ran, and when it was last held?

If you can’t help with that mystery, you might be able to help with another. Reader Katherine Hill has been in touch after coming across a column I wrote in 2022:

“I have just read your beautiful poem about Peep o’Day Farm near Husthwaite, Easingwold. I am writing a family history booklet and I understood from my grandma that my grandpa was born at Peep o’Day Farm. His name was Samuel Bean and would have been born most probably in the 1880s. He was the fifth child in a family of eight. At some point the family moved to live at Grange Farm, Acomb, York. I would be delighted if you knew, or could confirm, that the Bean family lived at Peep o’Day.”

The poem went like this: ‘Rising Sun and Peep o’Day, Throstle Nest and Flower o’May,

Acaster Hill and Baxby Mill, Well Pots Green and Providence Hill.’

I couldn’t answer Katherine’s question, but looking in my files, I found a letter sent by Margaret Kilner at the time, who’d done substantial research about the farm.

The information Margaret gave me included that a ‘Peep o’Day, Easingwold’ was farmed by a Mr W Coates in the 1850s. In 1865, a ‘Mr John Coates of Peep o’Day Easingwold’, took part in a stag hunt. Bulmer’s Husthwaite Directory of 1890 lists William and John Coates at Peep o’Day. By the 1911 census, Peep o’Day was run by widow Hannah Winspear until her death in 1930 at the age of 80. She bequeathed it to her two surviving children and her nephew.

Unfortunately, there is no mention of anyone named Bean. Of course, back then, Margaret was not looking for him, so it’s possible she missed it. Perhaps Samuel Bean was the son of someone who worked at the farm, rather than the owner of it? Or is there another ‘Peep o’Day’ farm in the area?

I tried to contact Margaret but the email bounced back, so you are reading this Margaret, please get in touch! And if anyone else can help Katherine confirm her ancestor Samuel Bean’s link to Peep o’Day, do get in touch using the methods below.

Do you have opinions, memories or ideas to share with me? Get in touch with me using the ‘Contact’ button on the top right.

This column appeared in the Darlington & Stockton Times on Friday 6th and the Ryedale Gazette and Herald on Wednesday 4th Feb 2026

A doze of the flew

 

Lemsip is helping me keep on top of my symptoms of the flue flew FLU!

 

When I took over writing this weekly column from my dad in 2017, I was aware that it came with a number of burdens. Firstly, to step into my dad’s shoes, which are substantial, secondly, to do that every single week for 52 weeks a year, and thirdly, to keep coming up with interesting stuff to write about.

 

Fulfilling those requirements becomes even more difficult when you are feeling below par. As I write this, I am laid low with my third fluey bug in as many months. The first was definitely the worst, with me confined to bed for three full days, unable to do much more than make a cup of tea without feeling like I’d just run a marathon. The second was similar, but I was confined to bed for just the one day. This time, I don’t think it is as bad, but I have been full of cold and sneezing for several days now, yet still able to carry on as normal. I went to bed last night thinking that by today (day 4) I would be beginning to get better, only to find I woke up feeling like a limp dishrag. Motivation and inspiration are staying well away, clearly afraid of the germs lingering in the air.

It is at times like these when I am more grateful than usual for readers getting in touch with their own stories and comments because it means I can shamelessly use what they send me to fill column inches.

This week it is Albert Elliot from Castleton who, in my time of need, has come galloping to my rescue. He writes: “I was amused to read (last year!) the comments in your article in December on spelling mistakes. I wondered if you had ever seen this piece of doggerel that I picked up somewhere many years ago (see below)?

“In the early days of computers, before predictive text, spellcheckers were used, or so I understand (I am not particularly computer literate). I think it quite amusing. I still struggle with correct spelling myself and often make blunders, although I don’t like predictive text systems as they ‘jump the gun’ and get in the way! As far as I know the piece is by that famous author called ‘Anon’.”

This is the poem that Albert sent me, and it did make me chuckle because it is very clever and takes me back to the early days of PCs and Microsoft Word. Ahh things were so much simpler then (were they?).

Spell-cheque

I halve a spelling chequer

It came with my pea sea

It plainly marques four my revue

Miss steaks I do knot sea

 

Eye strike a quay and type a word

And weight four it too say

Weather eye I am write or wrong

It shows me strait a weigh

 

As soon as a missed ache is maid

It nose bee fore two long

And eye can putt the error rite

It’s rare lea ever wrong

 

Eye have run this poem threw it

I am shore your pleased two no

The spelling’s perfect awl the weigh

My chequer tolled me sew!

As this poem demonstrates, and as those who have been caught out more recently by Autocorrect understand, it is never a good idea to rely on technology to do work you really ought to do yourself – that is to check your copy and messages before you send them to anyone else. Otherwise it could be very embarrassing indeed.

Albert also recalled a time when he met my dad: “Your father, Peter Walker, kindly came along to my writers’ group (the Egton Bridge Writers Group – still in full vigour and of which I remain a member) and gave us an interesting talk on himself and his writing career…Although this was a long time ago, I remember the talk was fascinating and thoroughly enjoyed by the whole group. He has left a lasting legacy with his Heartbeat stories and other Yorkshire writings.”

I never tire of hearing about tales involving my dad, many of which I would never know if people didn’t get in touch.

So very many thanks to Albert, and on that note, I’m off back to bed with a Lemsip. Normal service will, I hope, resume next week.

Do you have opinions, memories or ideas to share with me? Get in touch with me via the ‘Contact’ tab at the top right of this page.

This column appeared in the Darlington & Stockton Times on Friday 24th Jan and the Ryedale Gazette and Herald on Wednesday 22nd Jan 2025