New Style/Old Style

Have you ever wondered why the tax year ends on such a strange date, 5th April each year?

In the UK, it has always been tradition that each year would be governed by four quarter days, based on the seasons. Lady Day, (which is today, 25th March), Midsummer Day (24th June), Michaelmas (29th September) and Christmas Day (25th December). These were (and still are) the days when farmers and others paid their rents to the landowners, when servants were hired and when school terms started (many public schools still use these terms). In fact, Lady Day was considered the first day of the financial year

By the late 16th century, it was realised that the ancient calendar (the Julian Calendar) had an in-built error and had allowed for too many leap years in past times. The Pope, Gregory XIII proposed a new calendar to correct this and to catch up, His calendar was adopted throughout Europe, but Britain felt it was too ‘Popish’, so retained the old Julian calendar

It was not until 1751 that Britain decided to adopt the new Gregorian calendar. The effect was that 1751 was only 282 days long, starting, not on 1st January, but on Lady Day instead, finishing on 31st December. In the next year, 1752, the country skipped forward by another 11 days. So, Wednesday 2nd September was followed by Thursday 14th September!

There were stories of riots around the country of local folk who were worried that they’d lost so many days of their life and that saint’s days and holy days were changing, including the dates for Easter. Maybe these stories were only urban myths; however, there is a painting by William Hogarth (see below, courtesy of John Soanes Museum) entitled ‘Give us Back our Eleven Days’ where people in London were picketing with homemade placards

The government of the day realised that they might lose 11 days’ worth of taxes because of the new calendar, so they simply changed the start of the financial year from 25th March to 5th April. The date was tweaked again in 1800 when they realised another leap year hadn’t been included, so the new financial year moved finally to 6th April

I wonder what the residents of Whitchurch thought about all this change? Would they have even noticed? There’s nothing recorded

But there is a community in the Gwaun Valley near Fishguard in west Wales where the changeover never happened, and they kept to the old Julian calendar. Even today, the 200-strong community celebrate New Year on 13th January. They call it ‘Hen Galan’, the Old Celebration. Perhaps we ought to think about having a second New Year in Whitchurch too. What do you think?

Anyway, Happy Lady Day to all!

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