Hi all,
I was having a bit of a "senior moment" in my last post. I said that there ware two meaning to the work spancil (or spancel as it is more commonly spelled). This is incorrect, the word spancel means "to tie together the front legs of an animal to stop it wandering".

In the second explanation I suggested that it also meant a small token of money given to children on a specific date of the year. This is incorrect, I had myself confused with the word "handsel". Handsel Monday is the first monday of January and in parts of Ireland and Scotland it was tradition for women to "handsel" children with a small gift of money or clothing. It was an interesting tradition with some strange customs, if you are interested in more information look it up in Wikipedia.

Sorry for the confusion
Fergus