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The village of North Leigh has a particularly rich tradition of stories and
rhymes. For instance, the North Leigh Enclosure Award is dated 14th April 1759.
During 1760 and 1761 feelings were running high over the enclosures and when
fences and hedges belonging to James Leigh Perrot were torn down by rioters the
Berkshire Militia marched from Witney to North Leigh, where several were
arrested. Thus this version of a contemporary verse
They was bad what stole the geese off the common...
But they was wuss what stole the common off the geese.
The Sparks family lived in a farmhouse at East End where they brewed ale, and
sold it at public houses they owned:
Hit or Miss and the Golden Ball,
The Leather Bottle and Shepherds All.
There were many ways of seeing your future husband. Throwing hempseed over
your left shoulder, walking round the churchyard three times at midnight, or
putting two pieces of cake under your pillow, then getting into bed backwards
and saying:
I put this cake under my head,
To dream of the living, not of the dead.
To dream of the man that I shall wed
Not in his best or Sunday array,
But in the clothes that he wears every day.
A spring supplied the town well, which was situated near the Gospel chapel, and
the pond which in the Enclosure Award was called Cucking Stool Pond. The name
later changed to Cuckamus pond and is now Cuckamus Green. A certain Billy
Wickson was blamed for the low level of water in the well and evidently the
villagers were glad to see the back of him!
Now grumbling Billy has gone away,
Theres plenty of water night and day.
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