The Magpie's Hoard

Porthcurno

One of my photos of the Cornish coast appears across pages 84 and 85 of BBC History Magazine (August 2011 edition).

The image is used to illustrate an article in the 100 Places That Made Britain series, which describes the critical role that Porthcurno played in the development of global telecommunications.

There are many more pictures of Cornwall on my website.

[Please note: All of the images that I publish on the web are copyrighted: © Roger Butterfield, all rights reserved. Please do not download or use my pictures in publications, presentations, websites or blogs without first obtaining my express permission. If you do wish to use a picture, please contact me and I will respond as quickly as I can.]

Walter Laming

I never knew either of my grandfathers; they both passed away before I was born.

My maternal grandfather, Walter Laming, was born in 1896 and died in 1947. He served in the army throughout the First World War and later worked as a printer for the Sheffield Telegraph.

My mother recently lent me a small booklet containing my grandfather’s own handwritten notes about his military service. Below is a transcript of those notes.

Age 16 years. Enlisted as Driver, Royal Engineers (Territorials) June 1913.

England declared war on Germany August 4th 1914. Then in camp at Hornsea. Immediately returned to Sheffield.

Mobilised 7th August 1914. Left Sheffield with Forces 24th August. Marched to Conisborough, Askern, Cawood. Thence in training at Doncaster, Sandbeck Park, (48 hours leave), Rossington (then last leave 4 days)

Kineton. Joined 29th Division (now famous). Next civilian billets at Long Hitchington*. Havensmouth*. Thence embarked on Troopship B13 March 18th 1915 for abroad (destination then unknown).

Landed in Egypt (Alexandria). Stayed there 13 days. Sailed for Lemnos. April 24th 1915 sailed for Dardanelles. Landed Sedul-Bahr V Beach Gallipoli April 31st* 1915.

Evacuated January 4th 1916. Sailed back to Lemnos. Thence Egypt (Alexandria). Entrained for Port Suez. Sallied through Suez Canal to Port Said. Thence to Marseilles. Via coast of Africa, Morocco.

Landed Marseilles, France March 1916. Pont Reme* 2½ days in cattle trucks, Mailly. Mailly Somme. Ypres Somme.

After 22 months abroad, 10 days leave for England. November 1916.

Back to Somme for Xmas. Arras, Elverdinge, Pilcombe Ridge.

Wounded. Bullet in left knee. CCS Calais. Sailed for Blighty. October 1917. Edmonton Military Hospital, London. Convalescent Home, East Finchley.

February 1917. 10 days sick leave. Back to Duty. Aldershot until June 1917. Sailed again for France with 550th Field Com. To Messines Ridge, Belgium. Bethune. Aberville* etc, etc. Tournai.

Granted 1 month’s leave after 5 years service. November 8th 1918. 3 days later Armistice signed. War ended November 11th 1918. 11th hour, 11th month, 11th day.

Back again to France December 1918. To Tournai, Belgium. Then Antwerp, Belgium.

Demobilised at Clipstone, England May 1st 1919. After 4 years 2 months Foreign Service Abroad. Then only 22 years of age.

*I have deciphered my grandfather's handwriting as best I can, but there may be a few mistakes in this transcript. Some of the place-names appear to have been misspelt. “Long Hitchington” is probably “Long Itchington" (Warwickshire) and “Havensmouth” could be “Avonmouth" (Bristol). “Pont Reme” is probably “Pont-Remy" (Somme) and “Aberville” is probably “Abbeville" (Somme). The date “April 31st” is clearly incorrect.

Palm, Willow and Yew

Tomorrow is the feast of Palm Sunday, when Christians commemorate the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. The crowds that greeted Christ are said to have carpeted his path with palm fronds, symbols of joy and victory in Jewish tradition.

According to Roy Vickery's excellent Dictionary of Plant Lore, Christians in many parts of Europe traditionally used willow as a substitute for palm when decorating their churches on Palm Sunday. The species most often used was Salix caprea, commonly known as pussy willow, goat willow or great sallow. Apparently the tradition has all but died out in England, now that "real" palm fronds can be obtained fairly easily. I'm not sure whether the use of willow still continues on the continent.

Here's a quote from 1530, attributed to Palsgr. Bulleyn, which I found in the OED:

"Palme, the yellow that groweth on wyllowes"

Pussy willow is still known as "palm" in some parts of Britain and Europe. One of my Flickr contacts tells me that Germans call it palmkätzchen, which literally translates as "palm cat". Perhaps Simon can tell us what it's called in Hungary...

The link between willow and palm is not without biblical precedent. In the Old Testament, the book of Leviticus states "And you shall take on the first day the fruit of splendid trees, branches of palm trees and boughs of leafy trees and willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God seven days."

Elsewhere in the British Isles, yew was used in place of palm, giving rise to the feast's alternative name "Yew Sunday". Roy Vickery says that the practice was widespread in Ireland, where many Irish speakers know Palm Sunday as Domhnach an Iuir.

In Flora Britannica, Richard Mabey states that yew was also widely used in England, particularly in years when the date of Palm Sunday was too late to permit flowering willow branches to be gathered. A shortage of willow catkins was more likely to have been a problem in southern counties, where the flowering season begins and ends a few weeks earlier than in the north.

According to the OED, yew was traditionally known as "palm" in parts of Kent. In illustration, the dictionary cites a pub in Woodnesborough called 'The Palm Tree' which, in 1887, was said to "bear for its sign a clipped yew tree."

Incidentally, there's a pub near my home in Sheffield called The Palm Tree Tavern, but I've no idea how it got its name!

This is my contribution to Festival of the Trees 10.