April Calendar: Thames Valley

March

April

1	April Fool's Day	.
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3	St. Richard's Day	.
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5	St. Derfel's Day	John Stow's Quill Pen, London
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6	Lady Day (Old Style)	.
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7	St. Brynach's Day	.
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APR First Week Sun Rises 0636 Sets 1934 BST

1: "Thunder on All Fool's Day
Brings good crops of corn and hay."
3: Restoration of the Brine-pits Celebration: Droitwich, Worcestershire.
"If the first 3 days of April be foggy,
Then rain in June will make lanes boggy."
5: John Stow's Quill Pen Ceremony: St. Andrews Undershaft, London.
6: Letting the White Bread Meadow: Bourne, Lincolnshire.
"On Lady Day the latter,
The cold comes on the water"
Sat following 6: Candle Auction: Tatworth, Somerset.

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11	St. Guthlac's Day	.
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13	.	Rush Bearing Day
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14	St. Tibertius' Day. First Cuckoo Day	Former Cuckoo Fair: Heathfield, Sussex
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APR Second Week Sun Rises 0620 Sets 1945 BST

14: Date of former Cuckoo Fair: Heathfield, Sussex.
On 14 April an old lady opens her basket at Heffle (Heathfield) Fair and lets out the first cuckoo of spring.

15	.	Swallow Day - return of the Swallows
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16	St. Magnus' Day.	.
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17	St. Donan's Day	.
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19	St. Alphege's Day	Primrose Day (death of Disraeli 1881)
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20	.	Former Cuckoo Fair: Tenbury Wells.
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21	St. Beuno's Day.	.
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APR Third Week Sun Rises 0605 Sets 1957 BST

20: Date of former Cuckoo Fair: Tenbury Wells, Worcestershire .

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23	St. George's Day.	Downton Cuckoo Fair: St. George's Fairs
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.	St Mark's Eve.	.
25	St. Mark's Day	Latest Easter Day
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27	St. Sitha's Day	.
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28	St. Vitalis Day	.
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29	St. Endillion's Day	.
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.	May Day Eve. Walpurgis Night	Hobby Horses: Padstow & Minehead.

APR Last Week Sun Rises 0550 Sets 2009 BST

23: (Now Early Spring Bank Holiday): Downton Cuckoo Fair: Wiltshire. Also one held formerly at Orleton, Herefordshire.
"On the 23 April the villagers of Downton open the gate to let the cuckoo fly through"
23: St. Georges Fairs: Bewdley, Worcestershire & Penrith, Cumbria & Hatfield, Hertfordshire & Lichfield, Staffordshire.
"At St. George's the meadow turns to hay."
"St George cries Goe! St. Mark cries Hoe!"
Last Sun: Tyburn Walk: Marble Arch, London.
30 Eve: Hobby Horses: Padstow, Cornwall & Minehead, Somerset.

	Bluebells: Blue of the Wood, Welcome Summer, Cuckoo Flower. Traditionally blossoms on St. George's Day
	Cuckoo: Summer is icumen in, Loud sing cuccu. "On a time the men of Gotham would have pinned in the cuckoo, whereby shee should sing all the yeare, and in the midst of the town they made a hedge round in compasse, and they had got a cuckoo and put her into it, and said Sing here all the yeare, and then thou shalt lacke neither meat nor drinke. The cuckoo as soone as she perceived her selfe incompassed within the hedge flew away. A vengence on her said they. We made not our hedge high enough" The Wise Men of Gotham (1630) Clumps of trees can be found in the countryside known as Cuckoo Pens after this story. Since the bird's call anounced the arrival of spring many Cuckoo Fairs once took place in April.
	Swallow: One swallow may not make a summer but in Cornwall they jump into the air on sighting the first. Swallows high, fine and dry Swallows low, wet 'twill blow