Plaiting gold

For thousands of years, corn dollies, or harvest tokens, were crafted by our ancestors to house the spirit of the crop, but this intricate art is now at risk of extinction. Julie Brominicks finds out why

- Julie Brominicks

orn-dolly crafter Colette Hughes describes the bleak situations our ancestors faced. “Imagine,” she says. “It’s winter and your family is hungry and cold. It gets dark early, fresh food is in short supply. You could eat that grain that you’ve kept to plant. Do you?” It’s a sunny day in North Wales, but she paints a vivid scene.

The corn dollies that Colette has created - by folding, knotting or plaiting hollow straw stems into various shapes, such as twists, figures or fans - are displayed on the table. Intriguing, golden and intricate, they inspire curiosity.

Cultivation of corn (a generic term for all cereals such as wheat, barley and oats) began about 10,000 years ago in West Asia, from where the practice spread. Before soil fertility and germination was understood, comunities worldwide put their hopes for a good harvest in a deity. The success, or otherwise, of a crop could be a life or death situation.

Many legends claim that the spirit of the corn lived in the fields. Perhaps it was seen moving through the corn as the wind scythed the crop into waves. Our pre-Christian ancestors believed the spirit retreated further as the corn was harvested and would die if the corn was all thrashed, so the last of the crop was used to fashion a receptacle in which the spirit could dwell during winter until spring, when it was returned to the field.

In British folklore, evidence is scant. References to ‘dressing’ the sheaf date from the 16th century, while a record of fashioning a shape from the last of the corn came two centuries later. But pagan and Christian traditions frequently co-mingled, and corn dollies, as they became known, were often made to celebrate both Lammas (the first day of the harvest season) and Christian harvest festivals.