51/123

This corn dolly, known as a 'cock dolly', is in the form of a cockerel. It is made of wheat straw with short lengths of split ash to keep the wings and tail outstretched. The beak, neck and body are bound with wire, and ears of wheat form the crest of the bird. The cock is a common symbol in the harvest tradition and cock dollies were often either set on top of the hayrick or mounted on poles as weather vanes. It was made for Mr Massingham by a Worcestershire thatcher.

1 cock dolly: wheat straw; ash wood; wire; good condition

Citation in publication [H. J. Massingham, 'Country Relics' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1939)] –'The "Dolly" took on a great variety of forms - cross, cock, apple, boat, turnip, crown, "church", "mell", or "kirn" (doll-like figure) and "neck" of plaited straw, the last being kept in the farmhouse until the following season and the others being usually secured by an ash-pole to the apex or gable-end of the corn-rick. // The thatcher, for instance, who made my dolly had so ornamented (though with different devices) a dozen or more of the cottages in his neighbourhood. Two other pieces of decorative thatching I have in the Hermitage - moulded knobs for the ends of the roof-ridge - which look to be dervied from the Gothic stone finial; but since the making of straw ornaments is agricultural in origin, it is probable that these are really modified forms of the dolly. In making my dolly the thatcher's only tools were his hands and his only material was wheat-straw, wheat-ears for the crest of the bird, withy "stretchers" or short lengths of split ash for keeping the wings outstretched and fanned tail upright, and twine for binding over the beak.' (pp.179-181) [see also 51/124], MERL list / description [Massingham Collection, October 1989] – 'ACC. NO.: 51/123 // NAME: DOLLY-STRAW // NEG NO.: 5/96, 35/127 // STORAGE: ', MERL list / description [Massingham Collection, circa 1951] - '[insert] MASSINGHAM FILE [end insert] // THE COTSWOLD TRADITION // AN EXHIBITION AT CIRENCESTER PARK // MAY-SEPTEMBER 1951 ... // RECEIPT. // Received with gratitude the following articles, collected from Reading University on the 29th April, 1951: // ... Rick Ornament. ... // Loaned by The Massingham Collection.', NB. The black and white photograph shows 79/60, a replica of 51/123 made by Lettice Sandford. MERL list / description [Massingham Collection, circa 1951] - 'Museum of English Rural Life // Equipment to be loaned to the Cotswold Tradition Exhibition // Cat Ref. No.: // 51/123 M // [tick] ['Rick' scored through] [cock] Dolly [Cleaned] [tick] ...'

Worcestershire

1937-01-01 - 1937-12-31

Plant fibre, straw, Wood, ash, Metal