A cobblers' custom.
An Autumn Custom : Wetting the Candle
‘It was a common sight throughout the town [i.e. Crediton] to see a cobbler in his little front room, the door generally open, squatting on his low stool with lapstone, lasts, candles and scraps of leather, irons and heel ball all around him. His furniture was scanty, and the fire was invariably kept aglow with refuse from the tanpits, and the house was filled with an odour all its own. They did quite well on a five day week, some economizing to three, made possible with strong beer at 1½d [less than 1p] a pint. Their chief amusement, for which the public houses set aside a special room, was heel and toe dancing, which went on for part of Saturday and was re-commenced on Monday morning; and all day long drumming and tapping of feet to the music of a fiddle could be heard. The customary hours in old-time workrooms for apprentices and journeymen alike were from 21st March to 31st September, from six o’clock in the morning until 9 at night. Before entering upon the six dreary months when lighting was necessary, it was the custom to “Wet the Candle”. One was stuck in a quart pot of beer and passed around to men and women, the jug being replenished so long as funds lasted. This depended on the response of the curriers and tanners, generous or otherwise, who on 21st September each year were visited by a deputation of journeymen for “candle money”’.
(Venn, Crediton : Vol.2, p.247)
We have not found any other references to this custom, in Crediton or elsewhere – although there is evidence from other locations of a similarly-named custom in which lace-makers would “wet the candle block” by drinking tea together and eating Cattern Cakes on St Catherine’s Day (25th November). If you have any information about cobblers or people in other trades “wetting the candle”, please contact us at info@creditonhistory.org.uk