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Customs ancient and modern alive and well in Yorkshire
YOU'VE probably heard of the Ripon horn blower, while the Denby Dale pie is the stuff of legend. But what about church clipping in Guiseley and the Flamborough Sword Dance?
Many people assume these idiosyncratic customs have all but disappeared from our towns and villages, but writer Tony Foxworthy says their demise has been exaggerated.
"A lot of English people seem to think we don't have any customs left and I wanted to prove that we still have plenty of folk culture in this country."
Foxworthy sought out the age-old customs woven into the fabric of this region for Folklore of England: 2 – Customs in Yorkshire, the second part of his journey through English folk traditions. He identifies more than 60 traditional festivals and customs and says all but one still exist today. Foxworthy's fascination with folk heritage dates back to his own childhood in Cornwall, when he and his grandfather used to guard the local maypole from rival villages intent on stealing it.
Since then he has founded the Whitby Folk Festival and spent 20 years working for the English Folk Dance and Song Society.
He says: "The people who are involved in these customs don't think of them as anything unusual because it's part of their life."
He gives the example of the "Haxey Hood", an annual event held in the village of Haxey, in North Lincolnshire, which is still going strong after more than 700 years. "Just after Christmas they have this incredible football match which involves a scrum of around 200 men. But they don't do it just to keep it alive as a custom, or because it's archaic. They repeat the custom every year because it is entrenched in their life and if it didn't happen they would feel as though something was missing."
Yorkshire is home to numerous traditions including the long sword dance, believed to date back to Pagan times, which involves teams of six or eight men who dance under the swords, creating complicated figures by weaving in and out.
May pole dancing is another thriving pastime, with 25 permanent maypoles dotted around the county.
Many customs were introduced from abroad, while others have changed over the years, but some, like Burning Owd Bartle in the village of West Wilton in Wensleydale, are more puzzling. "The Burning of Owd Bartle is unusual because no one knows quite how it started," says Mr Foxworthy.
"It involves the effigy of a man stuffed with straw that is taken from house to house where a poem is recited and then it is burned. But nobody knows who he was, some say he could have been St Bartholomew although that seems unlikely, so it remains a mystery."
As communities have changed over time some customs have inevitably died out, like the Bellerby Guisers. This North Yorkshire tradition involved
older male villagers dressing up as clowns and the younger men as women. The whole group then walked around the village with a large pan, accompanied by a melodeon player and a drum, collecting food and money from each house. The food was then laid out on tables so the children could enjoy a bun fight.
But while some traditions have disappeared others have taken their place. The Scarecrow Festival, in Kettlewell, began as a fundraising event for the local church in 1994, since when it's become a popular fixture in the local calendar. "This is very exciting because everybody is involved. You walk down the street and see scarecrows dressed as Groucho Marx, or superheroes or clowns, and others made to look like people who live in the village. So even though it's not been going very long, I think it will be around for many years to come because the whole village is involved."
Walking the Boundary was reintroduced in Todmorden 26 years ago and involves walkers enacting a custom that dates back to pre-historic times, when the whole village would walk or ride the local boundaries, beating each boundary mark with a willow wand or stick.
Today the 22-mile walk is done around May Bank Holiday, and a shorter version (a mere12 miles) has been introduced.
Wide community involvement is key to the continuation of these events, as Mr Foxworthy explains. "These customs aren't influenced by councils or politics or religion. They're about people coming together and doing something they love. It's as simple as that."
n Folklore of England: 2 - Customs in Yorkshire, by Tony Foxworthy, is published by Country Books, 12.50. To order from the Yorkshire Post Bookshop, call free 0800 0153232 or online at www.yorkshirepostbookshop.
co.uk. Postage costs 2.75.
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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