7th April
St Brynach’s Day/ Low Sunday
Sources: World History Archive/Alamy Stock Photos/allthatsinteresting.com
Today is St Brynach’s Day and in 2024 it is Low Sunday, the start of Hocktide, which had its origins in marking the beginning of tithes collection, but little of that tradition now remains. Brynach is chiefly remembered for the tall cross erected in his honour at Nevern near Newport in the ninth century, upon which the first cuckoo of spring traditionally alights.
On this day in 1739, Dick Turpin fearlessly flung himself off the scaffold at York, thus ending his own life but starting the legend of a brave and noble highwayman. In fact Turpin was a cattle rustler, robber and murderer who terrorised the highways and byways of York, never committing a gallant deed in his life. This did not prevent a carefully curated legend emerging after his execution that Turpin was a suave and sophisticated road agent, who charmed the ladies and aroused the envy of gentlemen and who once gave himself a superb alibi by riding from York to London in one night astride his steed Black Bess at a time no one thought such a feat was possible. None of this true (including his horse), but the legend of Turpin as a folk hero has continued to the present day.