The Daily: 11 March 2026

Penny Loaf Day

March 11th is Penny Loaf Day, though it is also traditional to set the observance to the Sunday closest to 11 March. This is an obscure holiday that I’d like to revive. Because first of all, it involves bread (so, duh, of course!), and second it celebrates generosity that has endured for nearly four centuries.

In 1644 during the First English Civil War, Hercules Clay of Newark, Nottingham, had a dream that his house would burn down. This was not so unusual a dream. Fire happened frequently in England and there was also a war on. It was understandable that fire nerves might plague his dreams on occasion. But the very next night, he had the same dream again. This was a bit more troublesome, but again he brushed it off and went about his business. However, the next night he again dreamt that his house would be engulfed in flames — because things always happen in three’s. The final dream came on the 11th of March. Deciding that he’d best heed the omens, he and his family left the house to shelter in the country. Sure enough, the next night, fighting made its way to Newark, and his house was in fact burnt to the ground, the collateral damage of an errant bomb from besieging military forces.

Grateful to heaven for what he decided was a life-saving warning, he established a charity trust of £100, equivalent to about £25,000 in modern funds (the annual wages of a skilled tradesman), to pay his good fortune forward. Every year on 11 March, the fund distributed penny loaves of bread as well as clothing and shoes to those in need. This was not entirely free; the recipients were obliged to hear a sermon first. At its height in the early 1800s, the dole handed out nearly 3,000 penny loaves each year.

The charity fund has been depleted since then, but the sermon is still read in Newark on the Sunday closest to 11 March. There are, however, efforts to revive the old ceremony. In recent years a few penny loaves have been handed out on March 11th — but these days without the obligatory sermon.

A penny loaf was a smallish loaf or bun that cost one penny when there were 240 pence to a pound. Recipes I’ve seen for “Irish Penny Loaves” and the like tend to remind me of the ubiquitous hot cross buns of spring. And indeed, the nursery rhyme “Hot Cross Buns” tells us that they cost “one a penny, two a penny / hot cross buns”. Presumably the cheaper bun is the day-old stale bread price…

The Wednesday Word

for 11 March 2026

generosity

What does generosity mean to you? Think about it. If you’d like, send me a quick poem or story… or just a few thoughts. If you really have something to say, maybe enter my Wednesday Word contest on AllPoetry.

To think on…

Today is the remembrance of a gift of gratitude given to the future. These days we tend to sneer at the idea of giving to those less fortunate. It is said that nobody wants what is given out of pity. But I don’t know. When I was homeless for those several months in my youth, I was not ashamed to be on the receiving end of benevolence… and I wonder if this is, rather, a sentiment the wealthy have invented so they do not feel obliged to share the wealth (wealth that is largely stolen from those who are needy as a result…). In any case, I can’t see any of the billionaire class setting up a food kitchen with no strings attached (except maybe a sermon…). And maybe we all need to think on what exactly we mean by “charity”.