Fan The Loons an Lassikies Cam Oot Tae Play - Auld Rhymes Made New
Launched on the 3rd May 2025 - a wee exhibition of the project can be seen at the Aberdeenshire Farming Museum, Aden Country Park - many thanks to the museum and staff for hosting the display!
Visitors to the museum can read about Annie, her rhymes, the workshops and new rhymes and illustrations from the pupils of the four schools involved to date. Visitors can also let us know their favourite Doric word!
It'll be there until Sunday 18th May and can be seen during museum hours which are Thursdays to Sundays, 11am to 4pm.
"Jockie's At His Flail Again"
One of Annie's rhymes gave us our project subtitle, "Fan the Loons an Lassikies Cam Oot Tae Play" and the same rhyme was used with all schools involved in the project to create a new seasonal rhyme:
Yule has come, and yule has gone,
And we’ve a’ fared weel;
Jockie’s at his flail again,
And Jennie’s at her wheel,
And a’ the loons and lassiekies,
Are back at the skweel.
The flail consists of two pieces of wood "hinged" by a chain or rope. The farm hands would have used the flail to beat the gathered crop, knocking the grain from the stem - a process known as threshing. Pauline was told the first threshing machine in Scotland was erected in Mid Lothian around 1785 or 1786. They became more popular, resulting in riots in England in 1830 because so many labourers were now unemployed!
This rhyme of Annie's must have been a fair age by the time she collected it!
These images show two farm workers threshing with flails (from the museum's display boards) and a threshing flail displayed on the wall of the museum.
So what's this "flail" that Jockie is back to?
When Pauline was setting up the Annie Shirer exhibition at the Aberdeenshire Farming Museum, staff were only too happy to explain!
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Celebrating Annie Shirer's Work Collecting Doric Rhymes In Buchan.