Who put the Wren in Wreningham?

The Wreningham Witch by Granny Bonnet

Who put the ‘Wren’ in Wreningham? The answer of course, is the witch.

There has been a village in Norfolk with the name of Wreningham since Domesday and it is now part of South Norfolk District Council. Over the course of centuries since its listing in 1086, its three original parishes of Little Wreningham, Great Wreningham and Nelonde, have become one and there, once upon a time, lived a witch.

Superstitious and suspicious villagers, worried by her presence, alerted a knight to her whereabouts but before he could murder her, she transformed into a tiny wren and flew away to safety. Whereupon the locals beat hedges and bushes to flush out the wrens. Any they found, they killed. Such was their enduring fear of the witch's return, that each year on the feast day of St. Stephen (Boxing Day, 26th December), the villagers would be on the defence. Ready and waiting, they tramped fields and hedgerows stoning or trapping any wrens caught.

There are countless variations on this tale across Great Britain and Europe in which the innocent wren is hunted on St. Stephen’s day. Christianity’s first martyr, Stephen, faced death-by-stoning in AD36 after his hiding place was allegedly given away by the tiny but vociferous bird. Oliver Cromwell's troops were apparently saved from the Irish when alerted by a wren. Cliona the seductress, who enticed young men into the ocean to drown, escaped the same death by transforming into a wren and flying away. And so it goes on, version after version…

The wren ‘ceremony’ follows the pattern of many similar ancient entertainments which can be simply described as ritual house-visiting. Groups of people, mostly men and boys, often masked or painted, wearing unusual outfits, (frequently dresses) or cloaked in straw, would go knocking from house to house. 'Wren Boys' as they were known, carried a live or stuffed effigy of the bird which was often burned. As well as offering music and song, they collected money which variously was offered to the church, charity or funded a party. (Sound familiar? Penny-for the Guy? Trick-or-treat at Halloween?) All forms of lusty local entertainment that helped liven up the dark and dreary days of winter.

Perhaps hostility to this harmless little bird was driven in the Middle Ages by religious zealots and clerics determined to exterminate vestiges of druidic reverence and practice. Medieval texts interpret the etymology of wren, as 'druid bird’ or 'king bird' with powers of wisdom and cunning.

Thankfully the legacy of the legend of Wreningham allows residents of today to enjoy less gruesome forms of cheer in their community hall's bar, aptly named The Witch and Wren, or eating out at the local restaurant, The Bird in Hand.

Hmm… I live close to Wreningham and regularly have scolding little wrens in my garden. They certainly pack a punch for such a tiny creature. I wonder, should I be wary that there's clearly more to them than meets the eye….?

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The wren has always been a king, as its name in European languages indicates:

Latin: regulus [king]

French: roitelet [little king]

Welsh: dryw [king]

Teutonic: Koening Voegel, [king-bird]

Dutch: Konije [little king]

Other names include: Jinnie (wran), Jenny-wren

Manx (&S.D.Cr): Drein, Drean, Dreeain (from druai dryw, the Druid's bird)

Cf. Irish: Dreathan, Dreoilin

Se. Gaelic: Dreollan, Drethein

Mellis

Mellis common by Mike Dodman

14th November, 2019

This morning, mid-November, the sun was shining bright and early from a clear blue sky, so Hubby and I decided not to miss the opportunity to venture out. I quickly made a flask of soup, filled some rolls and we were off! We didn’t travel far before we arrived at Mellis in Suffolk, where we browsed the furniture and furnishings housed in The Old Mill before settling ourselves outside in the village car park to eat lunch. We ate facing the common to enjoy the vista before changing our footwear and setting off for a stroll to wherever the grassy paths led us. We were astonished at the size of the open green space and found out that for some reason or other, Mellis Common escaped the fate of so many other villages that lost land under a series of Acts of Parliament which enclosed open fields and common land. Those Acts created legal property rights to the fortunate (or greedy) few, to land that was previously used by commoners to graze their animals. In fact, between 1604 and 1914, over 5,200 individual acts enclosed 6.8 million acres. Lucky enough to have escaped enclosure, Mellis retains the largest area of unfenced common land in England. Puritan Oliver Cromwell whose Parliamentarians controlled the East of England, trained his troops here in 1644, ready to do battle with Catholic sympathising King Charles I, whose death warrant he signed in 1649. Strange then, when we entered the church basking in sunshine behind huge Irish yew-trees in the churchyard, to find a yellowing coat-of-arms dedicated to Charles I and dated 1653. Perhaps the congregation had been sympathisers too… We left the church whose building began in the 13th century, sorry to see that its tower had fallen in 1730. Never replaced, the precious stone was re-used to build a raised path across the boggy land known as The Carnser.

Picture by Richard Rice

As is the case with so many of East Anglia’s beautiful churches, it is left to the imagination as to how sumptuous the interior must have been in its prime, and the painted tracery of the rood screen only hints at the glorious sight that must have been beholden by congregations of the past.

Rood Screen, Mellis Church

Out again onto the spongy grass, we basked in the profound silence and imagined the meadows as they must have looked then. Now, thankfully, they are managed by the Suffolk Wildlife Trust using age-old methods that ensure a succession of wild-flowers as well as nutritious grazing for the animals. We concluded our morning out and about in Suffolk, determined to try to visit to a new place of interest every week if possible. ​ https://www.suffolkwildlifetrust.org/melliscommon