Custom
The Thirteen Trees
Thirteen died, and thirteen trees stand.
Stand where it happened
- What's there
- A row of trees by a village football pitch
- Legend from
- Hepworth tradition (1665)
- Best time
- Last Monday in June
- Tone
- Melancholy
Plague came in on London cloth, and thirteen trees still stand for the thirteen dead.
Wikipedia says that when the plague of 1665 spread across the country, Hepworth was the most northerly point it reached. According to local legend it came in on cloth brought from London. To save the village the residents split it into two parts at Barracks Fold, with the infected left isolated in one half. Thirteen villagers died, and thirteen trees were planted to remember them by the football pitch; two replacements went in in 2004. The end of the plague is marked on the last Monday in June by Hepworth Feast. In 2025 it fell on 30 June, with a band procession, children's teas, races and fireworks.