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Wednesday 1 October 2014

Yellow belly, born and bred




That’s what I am!  Just in case you were wondering if I have permanent jaundice, I’ll tell that means I was born and brought up in the lovely county of Lincolnshire.  And today is Lincolnshire Day.

Lincolnshire Day is not an ancient feast but it does have historical inspiration.  On the 1st October 1536 the Lincolnshire Rising began in St James Church in Louth as a protest against the religious reforms of Henry VIII.  Actually when I think about it I’m not sure if I should be celebrating – it was a protest against the establishment of the Church of England of which I am now a retired vicar!  And the priest who inspired it was hung, drawn and quartered.

Anyway I digress.  Lincolnshire Day is an expression of pride in our county.  Lincolnshire has a reputation for being flat but I live in the glorious Lincolnshire Wolds.  It’s a limestone area with gentle hills.  Lincolnshire is proud of its food – bangers and mash using our local pork in Lincolnshire sausage is a very popular dish.  We also grow great potatoes which form the mash to go with the bangers or the chips to eat with Grimsby fish.  There’s Bateman’s beer, Lincolnshire plum loaf which doesn’t contain any plums and Poacher Cheese which doesn’t contain any poachers.  I love our local haslet for which every butcher has his/her own recipe but basically it’s a spiced pork meatloaf often including liver.  My mother and grandmother used to make it and in these parts we say hay-slet.

We have produced our share of notables including Isaac Newton, physicist and mathematician; John Franklin, arctic explorer; Alfred Tennyson, poet; Margaret Thatcher, prime minister; John Harrison, chronologist and winner of the Longitude Prize; Tony Jacklin, golfer; and John Wesley, founder of Methodism.

I lived away from this county of my birth from 1981 to 1995 but was glad to come back here.  It’s a quiet county, friendly and unpretentious.  And I love it.

And I love the smell of my breakfast which is now cooking – bacon and sausage made from Lincolnshire pigs.  Bliss.
 

(I still haven’t got my laptop back so very sorry for the absence of photographs.)

7 comments:

  1. I didn't realise it was Lincolnshire day. I could just eat your breakfast, I have just had cornflakes not very appetising.

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  2. Thank you for the information about Lincolnshire day, I really don't know much about the county, but I had heard of lincolnshire sausages. It is wonderful to live in a county you love and have such pride. I may get around to seeing Lincolnshire one day, as long as I don't have to eat the pigs :)

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    1. Ah Chickpea, just try plum bread, our various cheeses and our hospitality. Pity you don't fancy pig but we're still worth a visit.

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  3. Very interesting post -- I have only had bangers and mash once but I wouldn't mind trying it again!

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  4. Good to meet a fellow Yellowbelly! Three cheers for our wonderful county.

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