anyone got information on ploughjags?

Question

A resident in the home i work in, asked if i knew any thing about ploughjags, her memories are vague, but she remembers being frightened by the tales her mother used to tell her,of the ploughjags visits.

Answer 1

Plough Jag Day

Saint Distaff’s Day

Among the village women of the pre-industrial world this day was known as St. Distaff’s Day, because it was more often than not on this day that they had to return to the humdrum working world after the great Midwinter festivals. Before the coming of mechanized industry, women were constantly spinning wool and flax into thread. They had to produce all the cloth needed for their families, and for even the simplest garment miles of thread had to be spun. But the day, which might well have been seen as a gloomy occasion, was made into something of a romp, with young men attempting to set fire to the flax or hemp the women had set ready for spinning, while the women retaliated by throwing buckets of water not only over the torches but on those who carried them.

In the long, dark days of midwinter any excuse for fun and games was seized upon, and soon after St. Distaff’s day the men had their own festival - Plough Monday, which was once again an occasion for Mummers and guisers to entertain the village with their plays about the death and resurrection of the harvest. The cast of the Plough Monday Mummers. or "The Fool’s Plough," as it was called, included a king and a male queen, a fiddler, a purser to take up a collection, a couple of wardens wearing top hats and greenery and a team of boys who carried a plough and were jokingly referred to as "plough bullocks". But the most significant figure was the fool, who "almost covered with skins, a hairy cap on his head, and with the tail of some animal hanging down his back!"

In later times the plough was blessed by the parish priest, though we may imagine that it was once done by the local druid. In some places, the "plough jag", as it was called, would send out the pursers to collect money and they would plough a symbolic furrow and then perform a solemn and grotesque dance around it. If, however, they failed to get as much money as they thought right, they would plough up the nearest piece of ground where ever they stood - even if it was the middle of the road!

Though Plough Monday now falls on the 8th of January, after Twelfth Night, it must once have been part of the winter festivities. It seems to have its origins with the Roman Compitaline festival, held where four estates joined. Here a little shrine was built, open to four directions, and a plough set up on each of the four altars in the shrine along with a wooden doll for every freemason in each household. The ceremonial breaking of the earth was then solemnly observed, with priests to oversee and bless the proceedings.

In parts of Britain, Plough Monday is still followed by Straw Bear Tuesday, in which a man dressed as a bear is carried through the town collecting gifts along the way. This is accompanied by a haunting tune.

On this day, then, we celebrate the beginning of a return to normal time and normal acts after the festivals. Though there are still several days to go before Twelfth Night, it is appropriate to look ahead at this point and to begin considering what the New Year may bring.

Answer 2

It seems to be an old tradition, perhaps related to morris dancing. Here's all I could find:

1885
Lincolnshire
Willingham

Mr Roberts aged 78, retired joiner, remembered seeing Morris Dancers here as a boy. He didn t know for certain if there was a Willingham team but he thought there was. The morris dancers were gaily dressed, and started going round about 5th November until Christmas. They were a team of eight and carried broomsticks and acted in their play there was a fight and a man was killed. The doctor came in and gave him a dose that brought him to life again. The doctor had a tall hat with medicine bottles on the brim, ranged round the front of the hat.
On plough Monday the ploughjags came round and brought a plough with them, they ploughed up the doorstep if refused admittance or not given money. They do not seem to have acted a play, but were dressed up ugly quite the opposite of the morris dancers who were gaily dressed. The same team of men were both morris men and ploughjags.

Answer 3

no sorry