Local Marriage Customs
The farmers always thought Shrove a special time for getting their children married as it was an idle time and tehre was nothing to be done on the land. If he had a daughter to whom he was able to give a fortune he would get her married to some other young man who had land of his own. Then the match was settled for Shrove Tuesday. Men go to the house where the wedding feast is held to share in the enjoyment and dance till morning. These men are called "straw boys". Marriages were never known to have taken place in the houses in this district. A wedding feast is always held. After the wedding they all go for a long drive through the country. You would often see fifty or sixty motors on their way to the Church on a wedding day, the bride and her friends in the front cars and the man and his relations in the rear ones.
Long ago twice as many marriages were held in rural district than there are now held. (that is one of the chief reasons for the decline in the averages in the school at the present day) Shrove (which) is the general time for matchmaking and marriages. It begins on the second or third sunday of the year and ends on Shrove Tuesday. Long ago weddings were carried out very pompously and lasted two or three days. (Thirty and forty common cars and side cars used to attend these weddings. In some cars there were fiddles in others