In recent weeks, there has been a great deal of emphasis and political comment on the rise of rural crime. Communities which hitherto had been regarded as reasonably free from the attentions of burglars, car thieves, cattle rustlers, garden raiders and other villains have, in recent months, become targets for urban rogues who have the ability to travel rapidly over great distances and so evade justice.

In the absence of sympathetic consideration by the present Government, it is not surprising that rural folks have resorted to personal means of defending their property, their animals and their loved ones. Young burglars have been shot and thieves have been attacked as terrified and threatened country folk have struggled to protect themselves and their belongings.

It was this unwelcome development which reminded me of past methods of dealing with troublesome yobs in small communities. Most of us have heard of the stocks in which minor offenders were locked for an hour or two, there to endure suitable punishment from members of the public.

Having committed some minor offence, like drunkenness, vagrancy, petty theft or selling mouldy bread, the offenders were arrayed on the village green so that bad eggs, dead cats and rotten vegetables could be thrown at them by all and sundry. It was jolly good fun for the victims of the crime and their friends, but suitably humiliating for the offenders. More serious offenders might be placed in the pillory, or whipping post for a public lashing and, of course, major criminals were hanged on the gibbet.

Most of these simplistic punishments for crime are well-known to most of us, but they were not the only penalties for misbehaviour. One particular style of rustic punishment, popular throughout Yorkshire as late as 1889 or even afterwards, was known as called Riding the Stang.

Accounts of the imposition of this penalty do survive, and it seems to have been widely practised in the villages and market towns of the Yorkshire Dales and Wolds well towards the final years of the nineteenth century.

The purpose of Riding the Stang was to ridicule a domestic offender, particularly a man who was in the habit of beating his wife, or who had been unfaithful to her. The punishment was not imposed by any court of law, but by those who knew him, like his neighbours. In this way, the matter was generally restricted to the community in which the offender lived.

Although Riding the Stang may have survived in Yorkshire after being abandoned in other parts of the country, this odd method of punishment was fairly common throughout England, Scotland and Wales.

A long wooden pole, or perhaps a ladder, was used. An effigy of the offender was placed upon it, and the effigy wore, around its neck, a placard which provided details of the offence. A noisy group of villagers was then assembled; they were equipped with pots and pans or anything else that would make a loud noise, and these were accompanied by a villager who was able to write and compose a song or verse which related the details of the 'crime'. These verses included the name of the offender, and the composer then climbed onto the ladder or pole, and sat next to the effigy.

The entire affair was then carried around the village or town, as the verses were sung or recited, and one important aspect was to parade three times around the parish church. Another was to halt outside the offender's house! Each Riding of the Stang took place on three successive nights, and each time, the church had to be encircled three times - this meant the revellers could not themselves be prosecuted for a breach of the peace!

After the third night, the effigy was burnt and that was usually considered the end of the matter. Whether or not the subject of this public humiliation ever offended again is not recorded, but there are accounts of Riding the Stang in Castleton (Yorkshire's Eskdale) in 1669 and in Bedale as late as 1868. There was an instance (undated) in Upper Wharfedale, while a well documented instance occurred at Sutton near Hull in 1877 and another in Northallerton on March 1, 1887.

In the latter case, the offender was said to have been guilty of gross immoral practices and a breach of sacred matrimonial rights. The last recorded instance of Riding the Stang appears to have occurred at Hedon in the East Riding of Yorkshire in 1889.

The custom did occur in other parts of the country, being known in the south of England as Skimmington-Riding, in Wales as Riding the Ceffyl, (wooden horse), and in Scotland as Riding the Stang. If a Yorkshireman was subjected to this treatment, however, it was said afterwards, that he'd been "Well and truly stanged."

Norwegian jottings

My mailbag this week has a truly international flavour. A correspondent from Norway has written about the remarkable similarities between his language and various terms and names used in this part of the world. Among the wealth of information he provides, he highlights the word 'thwaite' which appears as a suffix to the names of several villages. For example, there is Husthwaite near Thirsk whilst Hustveit is the name of a hillfarm near his home in Voss. Thwaite in our part of the world means a clearing in a forest, while in Norway, tveit indicates a clearing in the hills.

Rigg, from our view point, is a ridge of countryside, a kind of backbone to the landscape and good examples in my part of Yorkshire are Castleton Rigg and Rudland Rigg. My Norwegian correspondent tells me that rygg in his language means a man's back, and thus a rucksack is a ryggsekk. He refers to other names, like grov, meaning a small beck, (perhaps as in Skinningrove) but he does not refer to the name of his own town, Voss.

From the brochures he kindly sent, it seems it is surrounded by waterfalls, so could this be somehow connected to our foss or force - meaning waterfall?

Another letter comes from Australia in which my correspondent asks if I can help find a nursery rhyme or verse which begins, "When Daddy was a little boy, all little boys were good..."

I have checked my reference books of nursery rhymes, and other sources containing local verses or folk songs, but have not come across this particular opening line. Likewise, I have various dictionaries of quotations, both modern and not so modern, and this line is not featured in any of them. Quite naturally, I have written to my correspondent to say that readers of this column have all the world's important information at their fingertips and I feel confident that someone will provide my Australian ex-Yorkshireman reader with the information he seeks.

Is it fair?

This is not a Rhea rant, but it is very similar and comes from a farmer at Sinnington near Pickering. He has provided me with details of the North Yorkshire County Council's "firm but fair" policy to improve the footpath and bridleway network within the county.

He has highlighted a provision that if a right of way is blocked, the case will be investigated within five working days. The landowner then receives another seven days in which to repair the damage, with a follow-up inspection by county council officials. If the work, is satisfactory, the landowner will be thanked; if not, he will receive a notice requiring the work to be done within 24 hours and if it is not, the council will undertake the task and send the bill to the landowner. Court proceedings will be taken against persistent offenders.

If a right of way is unlawfully blocked by a landowner, then this heavy-handed approach is understandable but it is questionable whether land-owners should be forced to spend their own time and money clearing routes which have been obstructed by nature, eg landslips, fallen trees, briars etc. As my correspondent says, it gives Gestapo-minded ramblers the right to persistently complain about very trivial matters. And with 400 passing through his land every year, he never has a weekend free from them and their right to complain. But, in the socialist paradise in which we live, shouldn't a public right of way be maintained from the public purse