That short verse sums up the greatest need of the month – good weather for the haying. To the Saxons this was Hey-monath or Maed-monath, named for the meadows being at their fullest flowering.

For the haying, workers began each morning as soon as the dew was dried and went on until the evening dew fell. They stayed in the fields all day, even to eat, but by custom usually took an hour of rest and sleep at mid-day. The hay not only had to be cut but turned over in its swathes for better drying, then raked and lifted up and built into haycocks to shed rain and dew until finally fully dry. Only then could it be collected and carted for piling into haystacks. The amount of hay that could be cut and stored during the summer was of major importance because it determined how many animals could be kept over the winter for the next year’s flocks and herds. A poor haying meant most of the livestock might have to be killed come the autumn. The fewer animals which could be kept, the poorer the next year would be. So good weather with little rain was a necessity all through July until haying ended near Lammastide at the beginning of August.

At the same time the work days owed to the lord of the manor were at their heaviest, his hay harvest also needing to be mowed, tossed, cocked, stacked as well as all the other work tended to as well. And with the good weather building work went on, with repairs to mills and the setting up of folds, pens, and fishing weirs. Barley, oats, peas and beans needed weeding. Blacksmiths were kept busy making and repairing scythes, sickles, and hay forks. On the moors there was danger of bracken-poisoning of sheep and cows, with extra care needed there, although as soon as the haying was done, the fields would be opened to the cows for grazing and the sake of having their dung dropped there.

Closer to home, beekeeping was particularly vital, since honey and wax were used in every household. Honey was the main sweetener (sugar being an expensive import from abroad) and also used in medicines and in mead and its by-products in dyes. So most people kept their own bees, maintaining the hives and processing and storing the honey and wax.

Among other things happening, the flax and hemp crops were ripening. Flax was grown by most households for their cloth needs, with the extensive labor needed to change the flax from plant to linen thread mainly the housewife’s task. So was preparing the hemp needed for making ropes stronger than the common ones made of twisted straw.

Along with all of that, this was the hottest time of year. On July 3 the proverbially hot Dog Days officially began (and went on until August 11), named from the Roman idea that the heat and attending diseases of these days were connected to the rising and setting of the Little Dog Star, Canicula.

For those with leisure to hunt, the roebuck was still officially in season but the summer months were commonly treated as a time of grace, with no hunting until Holy Rood Day in September.

With so much pressing work on the land, there were no major Church holidays to distract folk, but according to folklore, rain on St. Swithin of Winchester’s day, July 15, meant the saint had “christened the little apples” and there would be rain more or less for the next forty days. In southern England, at least, folk gave the priest farthings in church on St. Swithin’s day.

It was a mixed blessing either way, because too much rain would spoil the haying but some rain was needed for all the crops waiting to be harvested come August and the autumn. The hardest work of the year was only partly done by the time July ended.

Summer 1448

- Margaret