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FACES

These are some of the faces we have come across on our travels about the custom world. Not much we can say about them really except THANK YOU!

John Kirkpatrick of the Shropshire Bedlams Border Morris dancers, at a folky event by the South Bank Arts Centre, London, 1987

Yeoman Gaoler and Chief Yeoman Warder, Tower of London, EC3

Tony Fowell leader of the Abbots Bromley Horn Dancers, Staffordshire, England, 1990

Sword Dancer displaying the lock, Handsworth, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, Boxing Day 1989 (The lock is created by the dance)

Detail of the well dressing of Hall Well, Tissington, Derbyshire, England, 1990

HAC pikeman at the Lord Mayor’s Show, London, 1981

Easter Bonnet at the Easter Parade, Battersea Park, London, 1982

Marzipan Santas

Traditional mask at Chinese New Year in Chinatown, London, 1983

Halloween witch with her pumpkin lantern

‘Tuppeny Starvers’ for children at St Michael-on-the-Mount Without, Bristol, 1984, according to the 1748 bequest of Peter and Mary Davis

‘Chelsea Pensioners’ on Founder’s Day at the Royal Hospital Chelsea, London, 1984

Piper and Tabor Player at the Straw Bear Festival, Whittlesey, Cambridgeshire, 1989

‘Mary’, a character in the Antrobus Souling Play, Antrobus, Cheshire, England, 1969

John Flynn leader of the Britannia Coconut Dancers, Bacup, Lancashire, 1967 (He died in the late 1980s)

Mr Scarlett, The ‘Orange Scrambler’ who accompanied the Tuttimen on their rounds during the Hocktide Ceremonies in Hungerford, Berkshire, England, 1965

A garland dance by the Britannia Coconut Dancers, Bacup, Lancashire, England, 1965

‘Toss Pot’ and friends in the Midgley Pace Egg Play in the Calder Valley, West Yorkshire, England, on Good Friday 1965

Judges in procession from Westminster Abbey to the House of Lords for the ‘Lord Chancellor’s Breakfast’ at the start of the legal year, London, 1972

A young visitor at Hall Well during Well Dressing at Tissington, Derbyshire in 1973.

The Guizer Jarl (Peter Malcolmson on this occasion) poses on the Galley on the morning of Up-Helly-Aa, Lerwick, Shetland, 1984

Officials at the proclamation of ‘The Mart’, the first big travelling fair of the year, Tuesday Marketplace, King’s Lynn, Norfolk, England, on St Valentine’s Day 1984

Travellers at Appleby Horse Fair, Appleby-in-Westmorland, Cumbria, England, 1984

Pearly Kings at the Pearlies’ Harvest Festival at St Martin-in-the-Fields, Trafalgar Square, London, England, 1984

Pearly Queen at the Pearlies’ Harvest Festival at St Martin-in-the-Fields, Trafalgar Square, London, England, 1984

Raising the Maypole at Barwick-in-Elmet, near Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, on Spring Bank Holiday 1987

Preparing the mulled cider (to the inevitable ‘secret recipe’) before Wassailing the Apple Trees at Carhampton, near Minehead, Somerset, England, 1988

Martin Carthy and Norma Waterson on Spring Bank Holiday in Bampton, Oxfordshire, England, 1988

Francis Shergold, Squire,and the musicians of the Bampton Morris Dancers on Spring Bank Holiday in Bampton, Oxfordshire, England, 1988

Musician at Notting Hill Carnival, London, 1988

At the Chinse New Year celebrations in Chinatown, London, 1982

A young masquerader at Notting Hill Carnival, London, 1983

Pensioners having a sing-song, 1977

Marshfield Mummers, ‘The Old-time Paper Boys’, appearing for their Boxing Day performance in the village of Marshfield, South Gloucestershire, 1966

Pearly Queen of the City of London, Teresa Murphy, at the Pearlies’ Harvest Festival at St Martin-in-the-Fields, Trafalgar Square, London, 1985

The Mask and beard of the Blue ‘Oss on May Day in Padstow, Cornwall, 1968

Doug Fowell, musician to the Abbots Bromley Horn Dance for many years, in Abbots Bromley, September 1964 (He died in 2006)

Abbots Bromley Horn Dancers at Blithfield Hall, home of Lady Bagot (left), Staffordshire, 1964 (Leader Dennis Fowell is in the centre)

Roy Shergold of the Bampton Morris Dancers, on Spring Bank Holiday in in Bampton, Oxfordshire, 1963

Bampton Mumming Play performed each Christmas Eve in the ‘big houses’ and pubs of Bampton, Oxfordshire (1967)

Stan Boor, the King Boggin (or Lord of the Hood), carrying his willow wand, before the Hood Game in Haxey, North Lincolnshire, 1967

Pearlies at the Pearlies’ Harvest Festival at St Martin-in-the-Fields, Trafalgar Square, London, 1972

Pearly King at the Pearlies’ Harvest Festival at St Martin-in-the-Fields, Trafalgar Square, London, 1972

‘John Barleycorn, a Briton’ by G Spratt

Colourfully dressed woman waiting for the Royal Wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton; she is sitting at Parliament Square on the procession route. London

The Burry Man, Queensferry, Edinburgh, Scotland

Mr Punch

Bolster the Giant on Bolster Day in Chapel Porth, near St Agnes, Cornwall, May 1999 (‘Let’s have a nice cup of tea and maybe it will go away’)

Gypsies at Stow Horse Fair, held twice yearly in May and October, Stow-on-the-Wold, Gloucestershire, England

Halloween Witch

Green Man, All Saints Church,Sutton Benger, Wiltshire, England

‘Lion’ seeking offerings at Chinese New Year, Chinatown, London, England

Vic Owen, King Conker at the World Conker Championships in 2001, Ashton, near Oundle, Northamptonshire, England

Green Man on a pew end in St Mary the Virgin, Bishops Lydeard, Somerset

Irish harpist Niamh Franklin playing at Blarney Castle, Co Cork, Ireland

Tin whistle player at the Fleadh Cheoil na hEireann, Listowel, Co Kerry, Ireland (This vast international competitive ‘Festival of Music’, in a different town each year, started in the 1950s to encourage Irish traditional music)

Young mouth organist busking at Fleadh Cheoil na hEireann, Listowel, Co Kerry, Ireland, 1995 (This vast international competitive ‘Festival of Music’, in a different town each year, started in the 1950s to encourage Irish traditional music)

Festive Policeman at the Lincoln Christmas Fair, Lincolnshire, England

Junior contestant in the World Gurning Championship, part of the Crab Fair at Egremont, Cumbria

School leavers decorated with ‘good luck’ messages from their friends, Dalton-in-Furness, Cumbria, 1999

Veteran of the Royal Hampshire Regiment at a service in Winchester Cathedral, Hampshire (In 1992 the Hampshires merged with the Queen’s Royal Regiment to become the Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment)

Statue of King Puck, hero of Puck Fair, Killorglin, Co Kerry, Ireland (Being Ireland, there are fanciful theories about origins of Puck Fair, including pagan sacrifice, but the fair was old already when granted a charter by James 1 in 1603)

Jess Beare, May Queen, Lustleigh, Dartmoor, Devon, England. May Day 2007

Bloomsday, 16 June, inspired by Leopold Bloom’s day in ‘Ulysses’ by James Joyce, Dublin, Ireland

Sir William Wallace Grand Lodge of Free Colliers (The Pinkie Men) from Falkirk, Scotland (A traditional miners’ ‘Walk’, with linked little fingers, symbolising what they had to find their way in the pitch dark of the pits as only one miner per group was allowed a lamp)

Burning the Wicker Man at Halloween, Archaeolink Prehistory Park, Aberdeenshire, Scotland (This ‘custom’ seems to be based entirely on a spooky film called ‘The Wicker Man’ made in 1973)

Mas band at Notting Hill Carnival, London, England, c1995

The Lord Mayor’s Show, City of London, 13th November 2010 - Lord Mayor Alderman Michael Bear

Religious fundamentalist at Auld Lammas Fair, Ballycastle, Co Antrim, Northern Ireland

At the Clowns’ Service held annually on the first Sunday in February in Holy Trinity Church, Dalston, London, to commemorate the life of Joseph Grimaldi

Young participant in the Procession on Lanimer Day, Lanark, South Lanarkshire, Scotland, 2001 (Week-long ‘Lanimers’ at the beginning of June is similar to Border Ridings with hundreds of children taking part in the Thursday Procession)

Plaque of Guy Fawkes in the Queen’s House Council Chambers, Tower of London (He looks suitably wild-eyed)

A participant in the Jack in the Green Festival, Hastings, East Sussex

Pearly King, at the Pearlies Harvest Festival, St Martin-in-the-Fields, London

Haiden Cook, winner of the Red Hose Race, Carnwath, South Lanarkshire in 2010. (Started by King James IV of Scotland by Royal Charter in 1508, the fastest local runner in the 3-mile race wins a pair of red stockings. It is the oldest road race in the world and takes place at midsummer)