A townie born and bred, I have spent recent years learning about country plants, birds and folklore. One of my guides was Heather who started and led the village walking group for many years. On our rambles she would name the wild flowers for me and point out lapwings and skylarks. I had never seen cowslips in London but here in Colmworth we often came across clumps of these yellow flowers (a member of the primrose family) which show themselves in April and May. I think it was Heather who told me that in the neighbouring village of Bolnhurst (which in days gone by was a poor agricultural settlement) children were given time off school to collect cowslips. Their parents made the cowslips into wine which was sold to supplement the meagre farm worker’s income. This practice (common in other parts of England too) ended in the 1920’s

Shakespeare mentions the flower in The Tempest

Where the bee sucks, there suck 1,

In a cowslip’s bell l lie

There I couch when owls do cry!

John Milton also writes of the plant, in his Song of a May Morning:

Now the bright morning star, day’s harbinger,

Comes dancing from the East, and leads with her

The flowering May, who from her green lap throws

The yellow cowslip and the pale primrose.’