In the early 14th century a boar was said to haunt Cliffe Wood. A reward was offered for anyone who killed the animal. John Northrop Manningham saw the animal drinking from a well, took aim with his bow and arrow and killed the boar. To prove his feat, he cut out the tongue of the boar and went off to claim his reward.

Another man saw the dead boar and decided to profit from the kill. He cut off the head and made his way to the court to claim the prize. Arriving before Manningham, he offered the boar’s head to the court. However, he was unable to offer an explanation as to why the tongue was missing. John Manningham turned up and showed the tongue, claiming the reward of a piece of land, which today is called Horton (where Hunt Yard is, where the slain boar was taken). A condition was that Manningham and his heirs were to blow three blasts on a horn every St Martin’s Day: upon the blowing of the horn, he was to wait on John of Gaunt and his heirs and conduct them safely to Pontefract Castle, a service granted to the Manor of Bradford & then conferred on John Northrop Manningham.

The Bradford Boar features on the city’s coat of arms and is, I believe, the only boar in heraldry to feature without its tongue.

http://www.ngw.nl/int/gbr/b/bradford.htm

But it’s not the only Boar story! On a visit to Bishop Auckland Castle (still the seat of the Bishop of Durham) I was amazed to find the Leg-end of Pollard’s Brawn below:

LEGEND OF THE POLLARD BRAWN

Legend has it that at some time in the middle ages Bishop Auckland was the haunt of a huge, ferocious brawn (or boar). Many attempts had been made to kill the beast, but all had failed, so the Bishop of Durham offered an unspecified reward for anyone who could do so.

Richard Pollard, a skilled but poor young knight, rose to the challenge and began to study the behaviour of the brawn, which is supposed to have been as large as a cow. Arming himself with several spears, Pollard killed the beast after a long and bl@@dy struggle. He then proudly cut off the brawn’s tongue and placed it in his pocket as a souvenir.

Pollard was exhausted from his pursuit and fell asleep with the dead creature by his side. A little later, a man was passing by and noticed the sleeping knight and his quarry. Remembering the Bishop’s promise of a prize, & without waking Pollard, he quickly made off with the carcass. When Pollard awoke, he was horrified to see the brawn had been taken, but guessed what had happened and quickly made his way to Auckland Palace, to see the Bishop of Durham.

Arriving at the palace, Pollard found he was too late, learning that someone had already presented the Bishop with the brawn and received an ample sum of money in reward. Pollard nevertheless gained entry to the palace, and claimed that he was the one who had slain the brawn. When Pollard showed the Bishop the brawn’s tongue, the carcass was examined and the young knight’s claims were proved to be true.

The Bishop told Pollard that as a reward he could have all the lands he could ride around, in the time it took him to finish his meal. Wasting no time Pollard set off, accompanied by one of the Bishop’s servants, but astonishingly returned to the palace only a few minutes later. The Bishop was surprised that Pollard had taken so little time, but learned that the reason was simple, Pollard had ridden around Auckland palace itself! Of course, the Bishop could not possibly give Pollard his palace and its grounds, but was impressed with the young knight’s clever thinking, so instead presented him with some of the most fertile lands in the Auckland area. These lands became known as Pollard’s lands.

Now I am wondering just how many other ‘Bradford’ Boars there are!

That struck me again tonight as I watched Katherine Tickell at the proms…..it was so much more enjoyable than the audio version a couple of weeks ago.
I MUST venture out into the woods for my Youtube efforts before that cold and wet winter sets in!

There are 4 records of Bold Sir Rylas in the Library, having been collected by Alfred Williams from the singing of Daniel Morgan from Braydon Wood in Wiltshire.

http://tinyurl.com/sirrylas1

We used the Roud number to cross reference against different titles for the song. When searched on Roud No. 29, this rises to an impressive 122 records; it also goes by the titles ‘Sir Lionel’, ‘Bangum and the Boar’, ‘Brangywell’, ‘Dilly-Dove’, ‘The Jovial Hunter of Bromsgrove’, ‘Old Bangham’ and more.

http://tinyurl.com/sirrylas2

If you wish to see more detail on each record, change the ‘output’ to ‘record’ and press ‘submit query’.

There are no records of the song in the Take 6 archive.

We use the Roud index and the Take 6 online collections in the search for information on Jon’s selections.

For more information, or to carry out your own search for songs, please visit http://www.efdss.org/front/access-the-library-online/access-the-library-online/115

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