For accommodation near Henley, Twyford, Winnersh or Wokingham

Now probably Berkshire's finest B&B but once upon a time it was.........

This section of the website is going to be an ever evolving narrative in the hope that those who stumble accross it will email me with corrections, additions, pictures, maybe even videos. So please, please feel free to add your own thoughts and comments.

Now where shall we start this epic journey - I wonder? I know let's start with the chap himself St. Swithin!

St. Swithin's Day is 15 July, a day on which people watch the weather for tradition says that whatever the weather is like on St. Swithin's Day, it will continue so for the next forty days.

There is a weather-rhyme is well known throughout the British Isles since Elizabethan times.

St. Swithin's day if thou dost rain For forty days it will remain St. Swithin's day if thou be fair For forty days 'twill rain nae mair.'

Where...

dost = does

thou = you

nae mair = no more.

So who was St. Swithin?

St. Swithin (or more properly, Swithun) was a Saxon Bishop of Winchester. He was born in the kingdom of Wessex and educated in its capital, Winchester. He was famous for charitable gifts and building churches.

Why do people watch the weather on St. Swithin's day?

A legend says that as the Bishop lay on his deathbed, he asked to be buried out of doors, where he would be trodden on and rained on. For nine years, his wishes were followed, but then, the monks of Winchester attempted to remove his remains to a splendid shrine inside the cathedral on 15 July 971. According to legend there was a heavy rain storm either during the ceremony or on its anniversary.

This led to the old wives' tale (folklore) that if it rains on St Swithin's Day (July 15th), it will rain for the next 40 days in succession, and a fine 15th July will be followed by 40 days of fine weather.

However, according to the Met Office, this old wives' tale is nothing other than a myth. It has been put to the test on 55 occasions*, when it has been wet on St Swithin's Day and 40 days of rain did not follow.

What symbols are associated with St. Swithins?

The emblems of St. Swithin refer to the legend of the forty days' rain (raindrops) and the apples from the trees he planted.

Apples and St. Swithins

"St Swithin is christening the apples"

Brand, Popular Antiquities, 1813, i, 342

There is an old saying when it rains on St. Swithin's Day, it is the Saint christening the apples.

Apple growers ask St. Swithin for his blessing each year because they believe: copied from projectbritain.com

• Rain on St. Swithin's day 'blesses and christens the apples'.
• 
  
• No apple should picked or eaten before July 15th.
• 
  
• Apples still growing at St Swithin's day will ripen fully.
• 
  Now let's move onto me; my name is Dean Milroy and I moved into Hurst and St. Swithins House, which is next door to St. Swithins Cottage, in 1990.
  
  In 1995 I acquired the land surrounding St. Swithins Cottage and that's when I took this picture of the Granary to the side of St. Swithins Cottage garage. I know in the past, quite a far distant past I may add, that St. Swithins Cottage was a bakery to the village and hence the requirement for a granary in which the grain was stored, safely out of reach of rats, to make the bread.
  
  Bizarrely between then and March 2004, when St. Swithins Cottage came into my hands, I also lived for a couple of years in St. Swithins Court, Twyford. SoI have gone from the house to the court to the cottage - spoooooooky some may say but there obviously must be some darned affinity between myself and that Right Honourable fine upstanding Saint the Mr. St. Swithin!
  
  Both my sons started their education in our village school which won the UK Primary School of the Year award in 1995. They are now continuing their education as polite, caring & thoughtful young gentlemen but it was this village that gave them the springboard in life.
  
  The Green Man has of course played a major part in my life and many good friends have been made there. (The picture to the left is a very industrious Gordon Guile slaving away in The Green Man's kitchen back in December 2000).
  
  When I arrived back in 1990 the then Landlord was Alen Hayward. He later moved on and Alf Morgan took over; well actually his daughter and son-in-law Sharron and Peter Cullverhouse did. Then Gordon (king of the eyeliner) and Simon Guile (pictured to the right, again back in December 2000, is "in the office" of The Green Man as it is affectionately termed by us locals) took over the reigns for some 11 years before handing over to their own kitchen team of Phil Sanderson and Jack Moody.
  
  Before Allen Hayward I know that Cliff and Allison Lukeman had it and before them it was their parents. The furthest back I can go, which was probably just before Cliff and Allison's parents time, is to a gentleman wonderfully known as Alf Hucker (truly fabulous name!!!!) and his partner or wife who was just affectionately known as Scotty to then owner of St. Swithins Cottage Betty Owen (maiden name Hicks).
  
  As for this picture to the left with The Green Man "Old Crew" well I have no idea as to the date of it but as it looks like pictures taken from the time of my Great Grandfather I can only suspect it to be very early 1900's.
  
  Any reasonable guesses as to the date would be gratefully received. As would any names of the people in the picture above. So answers on a post card please!
  
  And to our left we have a painting of our famous pub all the way from a Mr. Joe Jackson in the USA who is researching his mother's family geneology and reports that the 1901 Census states that a Walter William Wicks, Joe's Great Grandfather, was a Beer House Keeper and Carrier who was staying at The Green Man Inn while they were building the Swan Inn which I think was opposite the Hurst pond?
  
  The following photographs were very kindly given to me in 2009 by Gareth Owen the son of Betty Owen, whose maiden name was Hicks and is mentioned above. They show the house and articles from around 1945 onwards when the Owens' purchased it as a derelict property. Then Betty's brother-in-law, who was a builder, resurected St. Swithins Cottage. Thank you Gareth.
  
  
  
  
  
  

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