Crimson’s Creative Challenge #23
Papa painted the walls
He painted them pretty pink.
He went to the slaughter-house.
begged a bucket,
mixed it with lime-wash
and thickly slapped it
Pretty, that pink.
Yeah, but how many died for that bucket of blood?
So? They were foreigners all.
Written for Crimson’s Creative Challenge 23
The traditional cottage in Norfolk and Suffolk was painted in shades of pink, produced by adding ox-blood to lime-wash. And so began my poem.
Until recent years, Norfolk villagers refered to any newcomer not Norfolk-bred as a foreigner. A ‘foreigner’ could live in a village 50 years and still be considered foreign. This attitude probably dates to the Dark Ages, when Norfolk and Suffolk (then considered an homogenous whole) was set apart from the rest of Britain by water (the Fens) and dense woodlands that stretched far to south. In those days, intruders were usually bent on theft or conquest, and therefore were feared and fought. And so arises my final line.
crispina kemp 
Wonderfully written and informative piece.. Love it.
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I thank you, Violet. 🙂
I thought I ought to add the end-bit, cos the poem doesn’t hit as hard without it,
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Ah! The darker side of Pink. Perhaps a day or two to think. Gives a whole new meaning to “Pretty IN Pink.” I’m feeling a tad foreign. LOL
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Even into my twenties, non-Norfolk folk were still referred to as foreigners. Maybe in the more isolated villages they still are. But I live in a holiday resort, a small port with a former fishing industry. We’re all foreigners here, and suspect it’s always been so. 🙂
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Good to know. I’ll stick to holiday resorts if I ever get that way. Nice prompt Crispina. I like it. I’m wondering if it will like me, we’ll see. 😊🌼
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If you mean, willi it send, yes, it has 🙂
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I guess it has LOL
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Wonderful poem and thanks for sharing the history! ❤
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I thank you, and my pleasure. 🙂
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A slightly gruesome tale, using human blood rather than ox-blood to paint it pink!
Well done and man… who’d a thunk to use blood to colour paint? Nuts.
Most interesting, though.
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I thank you. And if yiu think think the use of blood to colour blood, might I interest you in the recipe for the ‘daub’part of wattle and daub? 🙂
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Uhhhhh….
I would not be surprised this house was built using wattle and daub then tainted with blood. Quite the combo.
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Nah, it shows signs of Dutch influence. It was the Dutch brought us the use of bricks, seen at its best in Hampton Court. Though I wouldn’t be surprised in the interior walls were wattle & daub.
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We use the term ‘local’ here to describe someone who was born in the town. Everyone else is considered ‘not local’ no matter how long they have lived there. Its a curious piece of history isn’t it?
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Indeed. These days, with train lines and motorways, people forget how cut off an area could be. Though it must be said, there is still not a motorway that actually enters Norfolk!
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Nice looking place but who knows what history, a clue perhaps at http://bobfairfield.org/2019/04/18/crimsons-creative-challenge-23/
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I enjoyed your story: Truly English 🙂
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Wow – that paint story got dark REAL quick! Still, a very interesting background info for the story.
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I thank you. Such is the Norfolk mind. 🙂
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This is so good, and I appreciate your added notes of history, Crispina–as some of us are “foreigners” and wouldn’t necessarily get the meaning.
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I thank you, Glad you enjoyed, and found it interesting 🙂
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I certainly did.
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🙂
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I love, love, love it. More so because to me it read like a sarcastic take on the tribalistic mindset societies tend to have toward immigrants or tourists. You didn’t mean it that way, perhaps. But it definitely touched me.
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I thank you. Yea, the thought did lurk … 🙂
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Pingback: “Hope Not…” in response to Crimson’s Creative Challenge: CCC 23 Apr.18, 2019 “Papa Painted The Walls” – Jen Goldie – A little this, a little that, some real and some imaginings.
Well, here’s my take.😊
https://jengoldie493473930.wordpress.com/2019/04/19/hope-not-in-response-to-crimsons-creative-challenge-ccc-23-apr-18-2019-papa-painted-the-walls/
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Indeed, I have seen it, read it, immensely liked it. Left my little comment. And smiled 🙂
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Gruesome! 😉
I like this dark take!
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O do occasionally step into the dark. 🙂
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Hahaha…I like those steps! 😉
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I’ll try to give you more. 🙂
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Awesome! 😉
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I thank you, praise from the dark master
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Wow…dark and gruesome. I enjoyed how you combined the different bits of history. I wonder, was the blood added to the lime wash only for the colour or did it start out for any other reason, do you know? Such as to ward away bad luck or something…?
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Glad you enjoyed. I can be dark sometimes. As to the ox-blood … Well, although not confined to Norfolk & Suffolk, it is a particular East Anglian custom. So, was did it arrive with the Angles? If so, it probably exists in North Germany and Holland. I don’t know.
Then again, blood sacrifice, or a blood blessing, that’s more Scandinavian, and this part of world was part of Danelaw: Long Live King Godrum!
I can imagine the added blood would thicken the lime wash, help it adhere and possibly help to waterproof it.
When I have five minutes begging me to use them, I’ll chase its origins. 🙂
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That is so interesting, Crispina. Thank you for sharing. 🙂
Where I live was a boundary town between the Danelaw and the Saxons, and is reputed to be the burial place of King Offa of Mercia…
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Ah-ha. King Offa. As I remember, he invited our king to marry his daughter, and when said king arrived, Offa killed him. Humph. That’s not playing it fair. Then the Mercians arrived, collecting jugs in hand, to take the taxes.
But, long time ago; time to bury the hatchet. 🙂 🙂 🙂
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Hey, I looked, I found. Not as historical and pagan as I thought: Here’s the link:
https://www.fennwright.co.uk/about-us/news/the-history-behind-suffolk-pink-houses/
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That was very interesting – especially the part about using a particular shade of pink…
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I was and wasn’t surprised that listed buildings had to keep to the same pink wash. So I guess I can’t do mine pink, cos it’s white, and it’s white, and I suppose it’s always been white.
In fact, strain the brain, I don’t remember seeing any pink-washed houses in Yarmouth.
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And another link; this one has wider scope and is more informative.:
https://home.howstuffworks.com/question635.htm
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Again, very interesting. Rust sounds just as unusual – though less macabre – than blood.
But, I would have thought the whole idea would have gone back much further than the 14th century and have even more folklore surrounding around it…
Still, fascinating stuff!
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I thought similar. Though all the article really says is it’s first recorded then. The pre-brick way of building was wattle & daub, then a coating of lime-wash. That dates back to Neolithic, and was certainly the chosen form of the Anglo-Saxons and Celts.
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