Remember 1999? The year before the dreaded impending disaster of the Y2K bug was predicted to bring an end to civilisation as we knew it?
While the technical world was frantically at its computers, calm and hope descended on Thorpe Market in North Norfolk. In the spring of 1999, an army of volunteers were planting snowdrops in a new extension to the churchyard that had been an isolated wild space behind the striking St Margaret of Antioch church.
A year later, as a way of starting a new millennium, the first Snowdrop Sundays were held in February 2000. So 2026 is our 25th anniversary – do not panic if you are a numbers person, there was the small matter of a Covid-19 year that messed up the symmetry!
Since their introduction snowdrops have slowly marched across from the original planting site to cover over 50% of the churchyard.
The leading lady
The star of the show is of course Galanthus (from Ancient Greek γάλα [gála, ‘milk’] + ἄνθος [ánthos, ‘flower’]), or snowdrop. The original plants have two linear leaves and a single small white drooping bell-shaped flower with six petal-like tepals in two circles (whorls). The smaller inner petals have green markings.
The flower has been known since the earliest times and is native to Europe and the Middle East. It is thought it may have been brought to the UK in Roman times and have been known by various names, including white violet, in Tudor times. It was given the botanical name Galanthus in 1753 by Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus.
Today there are more than 2,500 recognised varieties or ‘cultivars’. The flower can be single or double, white, white with green markings, or yellow. Some yellow varieties – Galanthus plicatus ‘Golden Tears’ or ‘Golden Fleece’ – can set you back hundreds of pounds or more. Most of ours are Common Snowdrop, Galanthus nivalis (derived from the Latin, meaning ‘of the snow’). However, if you look closely, which requires a degree of bending, there are some more ‘exotic’ varieties – good hunting!
A new beginning
Celebrated as a sign of spring, snowdrops may form impressive carpets of white in areas where they are native or have been naturalised, such as at St Margaret’s.
In the language of flowers, the snowdrop is synonymous with ‘hope‘. Some believe this derives from Greek myth when the goddess Persephone/Proserpina returned from Hades. As the flower blooms in early springtime, just before the vernal equinox, it is seen as ‘heralding‘ the new spring and better times ahead. However, a Victorian superstition viewed the sight of a single snowdrop flower as a sign of impending death and it was considered bad luck to take one into a house.
Snowdrops were often called Candlemas Bells.These early names refer to the association with the religious feast of Candlemas on 2 February. Candlemas celebrates the Feast of the Presentation of Jesus Christ at the Temple and heralds the start of the farming year. It is also the optimum flowering time of the snowdrop.
Medicinal and defensive
Traditionally, snowdrops were used to treat headaches and as a painkiller. However, snowdrop bulbs themselves are toxic, a fact which perhaps led to the superstition that a single snowdrop bloom in a house represents death. Snowdrop bulbs contain two alkaloids, lycorine and galantamine, which can lead to diarrhoea and vomiting. This is a good defence against hungry deer grazing on the flowers or squirrels digging up the bulbs, but a nasty surprise for anyone confusing snowdrop bulbs for shallots! In modern medicine a compound in the bulb has been used to develop a dementia treatment.
Grow your own
Snowdrops are best planted in spring, when they are ‘in the green’ – that is, when the bulbs have their roots and foliage already developed. Dried snowdrop bulbs may be planted in October or November. Snowdrops are happiest in well-drained soil with light shade and seem to prefer to be planted in clumps. There are some clever ways to propagate them, but if they are happy where you plant them they will of their own accord spread year on year.
Snowdrop Sunday
Last year St Margaret’s welcomed over 1100 visitors on the four Sundays in February. Visitors come from near and far and often return each year or each week. When asked why they come it is of course to see the flowers, to view and buy the art on display and to sit in a warm church with friends enjoying tea and cake. More interestingly, many speak about Snowdrop Sunday as being the start of their year visiting places of beauty and calm.
St Margaret’s is not what many would expect of a Norfolk church. It was built in 1796 by Mr Wood for Harbord Harbord, later Lord Suffield, whose original house was at the back of the church, and it replaced a derelict medieval building. The church is an early example of the neo-gothic style, sometimes referred to as ‘churchwarden’s gothic’.
Almost 100 years later the exuberant church at Booton marked the end of the style. The Houses of Parliament, built in the middle of the period, were in the same style. St Margaret’s is a simple symmetrical rectangle. Its small size and stature means that even a small congregation makes the church feel homely and well attended.
There are many snowdrop walks across the region. St Margaret’s invites you to the four weekly Snowdrop Sundays from 1 February to 22 February, between noon and 4pm. There is ample parking and you are sure of a welcome in the warm church from our wonderful growing community of volunteers and local artists who exhibit each week.
A gentle stroll around the churchyard to see St Margaret’s annual display of nature’s early flowering snowdrops heralds the new spring and brings hope for better times ahead.
The following artists are exhibiting on both the Saturday and Sunday of the snowdrop weekends:
- 1 February – East Coast Artz
- 8 February – Rosalie Osborne
- 15 February – Amanda Springall-Rogers, Margaret Rogers, Sue Scheller & Alison Sawyer
- 22 February – Emma Wilkinson, Denise Canderton& Vicky Wilkinson
St Margaret’s Church, Church Rd, Thorpe Market, Norfolk, NR11 8UA | What3Words – ///plates.bandwagon.skies
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