December 2022
Member Jean Nankervis was welcomed by the Penzance Old Cornwall Society on October 16th and gave them a talk about Some Zennor Women (See Penwith Papers for October 2021, December 2021 and January 2022). This raised the thorny question: how much ale to the firkin?
Jean told her listeners that in March 1617 Nicholas Andrews – an important man of Zennor - died and left, among other things ‘3 firkins of butter containing about 3 cwt. £3.15s.0d.’ To demonstrate the size of this, Jean brought along her biggest ‘bussa’- and explained how seven gallons could just be squeezed in, and that a firkin was somewhat bigger.
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As the value of butter was at its highest in March, the bequest was, in financial terms at least, timely.
Jean adds that she spoke to a friend recently who remembered making enough butter every May to last through the winter, and brine being poured on top to preserve it. She could clearly remember six bussas, like the one pictured above, standing under the slate in the dairy.
As part of the presentation, member Linda Collins – who also runs the Penzance Folk Club – sang two verses/choruses of Keith Marsden’s song “Bring us a barrel” which helps to answer the question:
“No man that's a drinker takes ale from a pin
For there is too little good stuff there within
Four and a half is it's measure in full
Too small for a sup, not enough for a pull...
Then bring us a barrel and set it up right
Bring us a barrel, to last out the night
Bring us a barrel, no matter how high
We'll drink it up Lads, we'll drink it dry.
The poor little firkin's nine gallons in all
Though the beer it is good, the size is too small
For lads that are drinkers like you and like I
That firkin small barrel will quickly run dry.”
As members Ros and Paul were also there to help Jean, the talk was quite a group occasion. The appreciative audience bought some of Jean’s latest A History of Zennor, on sale at the Morrab Library and in local shops for £15.
More recently, we enjoyed our usual Christmas lunch – appetites whetted by a Yorkshire version of ‘While Shepherds Watched’ with its jolly chorus ‘Sweet Chiming Bell.s’
The singing was led by Linda Collins, being applauded in the picture below, and our dinners were later helped down by a fun quiz from Jenny - which challenged the group to sort the real mediaeval taxes from some amusing fakes.
PLHG publications can be purchased online here or perused in the Morrab Library.
Penwith Local History Group
Edited by
Sally Corbet
price £10
plus p&p
Photo Glyn Richards