- Collection type
- Object
- Description
- Ceremonial cake made in human form.
- Geographical reference
- England Hertfordshire St. Albans
- Cultural groups
- English
- Person
- Maker Unknown Maker
- Field collector Unknown Collector
- PRM source Walter William Skeat (1866-1953)
- Date / Period
- Date made: Before 1913
- Date collected
- By 1913
- Acquisition information
- Donated: 1913
- Dimensions
- Length: max 145 mm approx
- Object numbers
- Accession number: 1913.52.2
- Research and responses
Field Collector and PRM Source - From the date of donation the PRM Source is Walter William Skeat (1866 - 1953), although the subject matter and country of origin suggests that the field collector could be Walter William Skeat (1835 - 1912), the father of the Donor. [JD 14/1/2006]
http://www.aboutfood.co.uk/places/stalbans_specialities.html:
Popladies were dough cakes which were traditionally sold in St. Albans on New Year's Day until the early 1900's. They were highly glazed pastries, not dissimilar to hot cross buns, but formed into a roughly human figure with currant eyes and mouth. There origin are unknown, though they were in some way connected to a myth relating to St. Joan. Sadly this particular tradition has now been confined to history.
http://nq.oxfordjournals.org/content/vols9-III/issue62/index.dtl
W. P. MERRICK POPLADIES Notes and Queries 1899 s9-III: 172; doi:10.1093/nq/s9-III.62.172-a [AP 21/09/2006]
- Associated publications
- For an account of Pope Lady Cakes and a recipe for making them (including a reference to PRM objects 1913.52.1 and 1913.52.2), see pages 254-257 of A Slice of Britain, by Caroline Taggart (Basingstoke: AA, 2014); reprinted as Around Britain by Cake (Basingstoke: AA, 2017). [JC 17 10 2019]
Search terms: Food and Drink, Figure, Ritual and Ceremonial, Religion, Food, Ceremonial Object, Religious Object