'Old Style' and 'New Style' dates - see 1582 and 1751.
By the time the Gregorian calendar was adopted in Britain, it was 11 days 'ahead'
of the old Julian calendar it replaced. Julian
dates are termed 'Old Style' and Gregorian dates 'New Style'
- March 25 (Old Style) Lady Day; first day of New Year from c150AD until
1751 one of the Quarter Days in England when rents become due. Became
April 6th (New Style), which is why our present Tax Year starts on this day!
- Note method of remembering English Quarter days: last
digit is the same as the number of letters in the month name [so March = 25,
June = 24, September = 29] except for Christmas Day, which you just have to
remember!
- Fourth Sunday in Lent Mothering Sunday simnel cake eaten
- Easter Sunday the first Sunday after the first Ecclesiastical Full Moon
on or after 21 March (the nominal Vernal Equinox)
thus earliest date for Easter is March 22 and latest is April 25.
- Second Monday & Tuesday after Easter Hocktide money collected for
charitable purposes by men binding with cord any woman they met and receiving
payment for release women bound men on the next day.
- May 15
Whitsunday as a Quarter Day in Scotland (legislatively
fixed at May 15 for this purpose)
- June 24 Midsummer's Day or St John's Day one of the Quarter Days in
England
- July 15 St Swithun's Day
- August 1 [Aug 13 from 1753 onwards] Lammas
Day Fences removed from common land which had been cultivated during the
summer, and livestock permitted to graze over it till re-seeded again. An
old Quarter Day in Scotland.
- Sept 29 Michaelmas Day one of the Quarter Days in England termination
date for men and women who had been hired as labourers and servants at the
fairs the year before.
- Nov 11 Martinmas once a Quarter Day in Scotland.
- Dec 13 St Lucy's Day the shortest day before the new calendar was introduced.
- Dec 25 Christmas Day one of the Quarter Days in England the old pagan
feast of Saturnalia.
- Jan 5 Twelfth Night.
- Monday after Jan 6th Plough Monday marked return to work after Christmas
festivities.
- Feb 2 Candlemas Day - one of the Quarter Days in Scotland.
John Owen Smith Home Page
I hope you find this list helpful and informative even entertaining at
times!
It represents the combined efforts of a number of contributors, but none of
us would want you to think that it represents all the important events in British
history, or have you believe that everything you read here is necessarily accurate
or undisputed.
Nor, I might add, do we imply that all the inventions, etc, listed here are
British ones but it can be useful, for example, to know whether your ancestor
(or the character in that historical novel which you're writing) could
have been using a particular item at the time they were living. At least, I
think so.
We have done our best, and hope that you will take the list in that spirit.
If you have any better information which you feel should be added, please
let me know.
Return to top
- John Hitchcock
Victorian London Research
- Marina Alexander
- Iain Kerr of Windsor, Berkshire
- Hilary Brookes list as submitted to Yorksgen
- Bryan Wetton Adelaide South Australia
"A Southerner from the North"
- John Owen Smith Home Page
... and many others my thanks to you all!
This site has been included by
Glossarist.com
in their
Linguistics Dictionary page a source for many definitions of technical,
professional or specialist terms.
If you've liked this site, try the following: