Rampton, Ran-Tanning in 1907
This photo is believed to be of a German Cobbler who lived next to the Green in Rampton who had married an Englishwoman. He was alleged to have put the fingers of one of his children into the coal fire after she supposedly stole something. The child was badly burned and the villagers were very angry. He had to then lock himself into the house (information supplied by an elderly village resident in April 1979). Ran-Tanning was known in North Notts and Lincolnshire as a method of expressing indignation for which it was notorious for in this area, particularly in the fen-lands, it closely resembled a riot. If a person had committed some act of which the other village residents disapproved, they would assemble near their house, making a terrible noise beating sticks, tins, cans, buckets and kettles, playing mouth organs, booing, hissing, shouting and singing, on occasions they would light a bonfire and burn an effigy of the person who had incurred the displeasure. This would carry on for a number of nights in succession.