Mexborough & Swinton Times – Friday 01 April 1932

Egg-Rolling.

It is difficult to discover why the ancient medieval practice of egg rolling on Easter Monday should have persisted in Great Houghton to the degree it has, while in most other villages in South Yorkshire it is either casual or non-existent.

The “Brecks” is the traditional rolling place and on Easter Monday the spot is crowded with children playing in pairs or in teams, as their eggs roll and turn and twist to the bottom. This sport has been so crowded in recent years that an alternative “rolling place” has been found at Mount Pleasant.

Most of the eggs rolled on Monday were attractively coloured and the way the children get the colouring is interesting. Boiling with cochineal or permangate of potash might occur to most of us; but many would be surprised to learn a beautiful cerulean blue may be got by boiling the egg a long time in a sugar bag, or a delicate browny yellow which no live hen has succeeded in producing. by boiling with a good supply of onion peelings.

Even that does not exhaust the possibilities. Experiments still go on, for the Easter Monday competition is not only for the winner of the roll, but for the one who can produce the most novel colouring.