‘Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness’ spoke Keats of autumn, but for our ancestors Michaelmas, one of the four Quarter Days, marked a significant turning point of the year. The corn harvest, essential for providing bread and beer for the populace, marked the ending of one farming cycle and the beginning of the next. The post-harvest period was a time when many rural folk were on the move, many types of ‘debts’ were settled and as such it also yields an abundant paper trail for family historians as well as the traditional Michaelmas goose.