All posts in Syston Local History Group

I came across this interesting extract from Syston’s parish register whilst I was researching something else, and thought that it shed light on Syston in times past. It shows some of the expenses that might seem strange to us now, that the then parish spent over 400 years ago. Syston – Extract from Parish Register – in the parish register of this village which begins in 1594, are the following singular entries which illustrate the customs expenses etc of former times. 1597 – Paid to the Armour Dresser- 3s 4d.  Also for the town sword 7s 0d 1599 – Paid to Peter Pollard for helping to drive away the town bull that was sold – 1d 1599 - Paid for a bull – 30s 0d 1599 - Paid for another bull – 40s 6d 1600 – Paid to Thomas Pollard for moving the bull hooke. 12d 1601 – Old Julian Rivette, widow, bequeathed by will 12d – which was bestowed upon painting the church porch and oiling of the same. 1601 – Spent at Leicester, when we were summoned to appear at the court for that some of the priests had wrought on St Bartholomew’s day – 8d 1602 – Paid to Lord Morden’s players, because they should not play in the church – 12d 1602 - Harvest late, Barley not got in before St Matthew’s day, and on that day no pease nor Beans were got in at Syston. 1603 – A pound of good hops sold for 2s 8d 1603 - A strike * of malt 17d 1603 - A strike * of wheat – 2s 4d 1606 – Grinding was so scant, either by water or wind that at the feast of St Luke, the people came from Hinckley to Syston to grind their corn. 1606 - Frost so hard and continued, that men could not set forth their ploughs till after St Valentines day. 1606 – Upon Wednesday, after Lady Day, there was a very great flood, that entered into many farms, and did much harm among the corn and hay. 1606 - Loughborough, 500 people died of the plague. * A Strike – of indeterminable weight, where grain is measured, by passing a rod across the top of an agreed heaped vessel, to ensure that it shall be full and no more. * St Matthews Day – 21st September I wonder what sins the priests had committed on St Bartholomew’s day (24th August) to be summoned to Leicester court, to be mentioned in the parish records? And why were the Morden players banned from performing in the church? and why would the parish purchase a couple of bulls? the mind boggles. By Roy Townsend. Note on the above article: For our readers who are unfamiliar with pre-decimal currency. The ‘s’ stands for shillings and the ‘d’ was pennies. At the time of this record we used £ s d which was named after Libra, Sistertius and Denarius from the old roman coinage, or LSD as it was commonly known. There were 240 pennies to the pound and the average agricultural labourer earned around £7.50 per year, which was approximately 35 pence per week so this may put the costs into perspective.