1. My father’s family have lived in the same part of Warwickshire, the villages of Tysoe and Brailles since at least the late fifteenth century …  We were a bit frightened of the common butterbur colony near us, because we were told it was poisonous.  Didn’t stop us making dens in it, it seemed so vast!  I went back there a few years ago and it seemed so small! [London, EC1, November 2018].

2. [Mardu, Shropshire] Butterbur leaves used as umbrellas, quite effectively and used like a fan to twirl around the head to keep biting flies off in the hayfield, especially horseflies; [placed] inside shoes for sore feet [Newcastle-on-Clun, Shropshire, 4November 2004].

3. I remember as a child having a … cream made from butterbur and applied to spots and sores [Cotherstone, Co. Durham, April 1994].

4. A number of victims of the plague were buried in Veryan churchyard, on their graves nothing but plaguewort – butterbur – will grow [St Ervan, Cornwall, February 1992].

Images: main, Wiki Commons; upper inset, River Derwent between Baslow and Calver, Derbyshire, July 2015; lower inset, beside River Wandle, Richmond Green, Beddington, London Borough of Sutton, March 2021.