Nicholas Rhea: Yorkshire life

Few realise that next Monday is Collop Monday. Collops are not to be confused with dollops or scallops because collops were –and still are – large rashers of fatty bacon eaten with lots of eggs. In more recent times, the word might include massive pieces of other meat eaten that Monday.

Sometimes the size of that meal was off-putting especially if the collops were offered with masses of vegetables, gravy and Yorkshire puddings.

The reason for this excess was that collops presented the final opportunity for a great feast of red meat before Easter. Collop Monday was also an opportunity to use up all the surplus fat, butter, eggs and so forth that had not been used for previous meals. People were too poor to waste anything consequently there was a massive clear-out of the pantry while leaving sufficient ingredients to make pancakes on Tuesday. Pancake making, using up any spare fat, were the final preparatory act for Lent.

Early pancakes comprised the final left-overs that were fried in batter but today some are eaten with syrup or jam although others are more savoury.

Because they make use of spare items of food, they could – and can – contain many mysterious things.

In some parts of Yorkshire pancake bells, perhaps called shriving bells, are still rung but now summon people to pancake races or skipping contests rather than reminding them to go to confession, make pancakes and use the last of their goose grease.

“Shrove” or “shriven” means to have been absolved at confession. Shrove Tuesday therefore means Confession Tuesday, with Lent once being a time of penance and prayer along with almsgiving and charitable works.

Now it seems to be a means of saving money by not eating chocolates and avoiding alcohol.

Collops are not scallops; the latter are shellfish. They had a religious significance though, because pilgrims, especially those visiting Saint James’s shrine at Compostela in Spain, carried scallop shells to scoop water from holy wells or to act as spoons or small plates. Shells are still carried on such pilgrimages.

A “dollop”, as we know, is a shapeless lump or mass of something – butter, fat, mud and pastry or even gatherings like a shoal of fish or a fork full of hay. In some parts of Yorkshire it might refer to a clumsy person or someone who is rather stupid. And that reminds me of a tale about a Yorkshire countryman who had seen a vandal break a window with a stone. He was called to the local magistrates’ court to give evidence where the prosecutor asked: “How large was the stone? Was it small like a piece of gravel?”

“Nay,” said the witness. “It was bigger than that.” “How big?”

“Oh, it was a fairish size.”

“Do you mean it was large?”

“Nut really, Ah’d say it was middlin.”

“Are you saying it was as big as a brick?”

“Nay, ah’d say it was more like a dollop o’ mud.”

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