Falling asleep during a long sermon once came with a rude surprise. In some English churches, an official known as a “sluggard-waker” watched the congregation for anyone nodding off. The role was often handled by the parish clerk, who quietly moved through the aisles during the service.
Sluggard-wakers carried long wooden staffs. Some had a solid knob or fork for giving male worshippers a sharp tap, while the other end had a fox’s tail that was used to tickle sleeping women awake. The same official sometimes worked as a “dog-whipper,” keeping animals from disrupting the service.
Old church accounts show that the unusual job really existed. In 1740, a church in Barton-on-Humber recorded paying a man named Brocklebank two shillings for “waking sleepers.” At Castleton, a sluggard-waker received ten shillings for performing the same duty in 1722.