Customs at Collections

CHILDREN

Children are involved in many customs. Some they enjoy and can’t wait to take part in, some they are made to do, under extreme protest, by grown-ups. Being May Queen may be the pinnacle of a girl’s whole life; being made to dress up in some silly ‘olde’ costume to escort her might be the the worst thing that could ever happen to a boy. Collections has mixed feelings. The doles, games and plays look fun, and on the whole the kids can choose whether to take part or not. Coercion is required for those elaborate May Day extravaganzas at which, it always seems to us, most of the kids look cold, uncertain what they are supposed to be doing, bored, and much put upon. These events are for the gratification of parents and teachers and have little to do with what went on on May Day in days of yore. Still, mustn’t be grumpy. Here is an entirely random collection of children on custom duty. They look happy enough...

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Maypole Dancing on Ickwell May Day, Ickwell Green, Bedfordshire, England, 1981 (Actually held on May Bank Holiday)

Bluecoat March in 1985 with the boys from Christ’s Hospital School setting off from Newgate Street to the Guildhall, London, England

Farthing Bundles at the Fern Street Settlement in Bromley-by-Bow, East London, England, 1972 (The custom has more or less died out now for the good reason that the welfare state provides)

‘Farthing Bundles’ at Fern Street Settlement, East London, when children had to step under an arch to qualify for a small present. (Once weekly and popular ‘progress’ has all but made the treat obsolete. This was a rare occasion in Sept 1987)

Penny for the Guy in Hornsey, north London, England, c1980

Church Clipping at Painswick, Gloucestershire, England, 1968

Specially coloured eggs for Easter Egg Rolling in hilly Avenham Park, Preston, Lancashire, 1981 (These stained and painted eggs were once standard but nowadays chocolate eggs and almost anything else that rolls will do)

Mary and Joseph in the Nativity Play at St Michael’s Church School, Highgate, London, England, 1985

Nativity Play at St Michael’s Church School, Highgate, London, England, 1985

Nativity Play at the Rosary School, Hampstead, London, 1985

The May Queen and her Retinue in procession to her ‘coronation’ on Royal May Day, Knutsford, Cheshire, 1983

The May Queen, Paula Wiliamson, on Royal May Day, Knutsford, Cheshire, 1983

Halloween witch with her pumpkin lantern

Punky Night in Hinton St George, Somerset, 1983 (Like Halloween but on the last Thursday of October, with mangel-wurzel lanterns. Townies might like to know that the veg is a kind of turnip used as cattle feed!)

Eton Wall Game, played to impenetrable rules, between ‘Collegers’ and ‘Oppidans’ of the famous school in Berkshire, 1983

Getting ready for Warrington Walking Day, Cheshire, England, 1984 (This is a vast ecumenical procession of about 4000 children, plus attendant adults, on the Friday nearest 30 June)

Children and garlands on Garland Day in Abbotsbury, Dorset, 1984 (There are two garlands, one of wild flowers and one of garden flowers)

Maypole dancing on Garland Day (May Day), Charlton-on-Otmoor, Oxfordshire, 1984

Kazoo players of Kibblesworth Phoenix at Raising the Maypole on Spring Bank Holiday, Barwick-in-Elmet, West Yorkshire, 1987

Horse’, in fact the young and not happy sister of a Boy Ploughman of St Margaret’s Hope, Orkney, Scotland, 1984 (The costumes, including halters and ‘feathers’, are handed down in families - but added to each year!)

The Boy Bishop of Hereford Cathedral in 1985, invariably a chorister with an impeccable record

The Boy Bishop in Salisbury Cathedral, Wiltshire (It is not known who this is but experts feel it is unlikely that a Boy Bishop would die in the short duration of his ‘office’, and therefore suggest it is more likely to be a miniature effigy of a real Bishop)

Christingle Service at St Mary Redcliffe, Bristol, 1985 (‘Christingle’ came to Britain, not much more than 40 years ago, from the Moravian Church in Germany)

The Fiddler plays the ‘ten little girls’ through the streets of St Ives as part of the John Knill Ceremony, St Ives, Cornwall, 1986

The Fiddler leads his ‘ten little girls’ in a dance around Knill’s Steeple according to the terms of the will of John Knill, St Ives, Cornwall, 1986

Boys team, Goathland Plough Stots, North Yorkshire, 1980 (These sword dancers had no less than three teams going that Saturday)

Going Egg Rolling in Avenham Park, Preston, Lancashire, England in 1966

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

Midgley Pace Egg Play being performed in Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire, England, on Good Friday 1967

Children ‘Church Clipping’ at St Mary’s Church, Painswick, Gloucestershire, England, 1969

Church Clipping at St Mary’s Church, Painswick, Gloucestershire, England, 1968

Preparing for the Pancake Greaze at Westminster School, London, on Shrove Tuesday, 1973 (The pancake is tossed over the bar above)

Scrambling for bits of the pancake at the Pancake Greaze at Westminster School, London, on Shrove Tuesday, 1973 (One representative from each class takes part in the scramble for bits of the pancake)

Young Sword Dancers at Ickwell May Day, Ickwell Green, Bedfordshire, England, May Bank Holiday 1981

Young Morris Dancers at Ickwell May Day, Ickwell Green, Bedfordshire, England, May Bank Holiday 1981

Traditional Rushbearings prepared for the Rushbearing ceremonies in Grasmere, Cumbria, England, 1982

A ‘punky’ lantern, traditionally made from a mangel-wurzel, on Punky Night in Hinton St George, Somerset, England, 1983

‘Tuppenny Starvers’ given, according to the bequest of Peter & Mary Davis in 1748, to the children of St Michael-on-the-Mount Without, Bristol, England, 1984

Dicing for Bibles in All Saints church, St Ives, Cambridgeshire, England on Whit Tuesday 1984 (According to the terms of the will of Dr Robert Wilde in 1675)

A church party at the fine Town Hall preparing to take part in the great procession on Warrington Walking Day, 1984

Girls of Christ’s Hospital School on the ‘Bluecoat March’ from Newgate to the Mansion House, London, 1985

The Boy Bishop, elected on St Nicholas’ Day (6 Dec) and in office until Holy Innocents’ Day (28th), in Hereford Cathedral, Herefordshire, England 1985

Apple Bobbing at Hallowe’en, London, 1986

The realities of May Day, Ickwell Green, Bedfordshire, England, 1986 (Actually on May Bank Holiday)

A private house performance of the Derby Tup play in Unstone, north Derbyshire, England, on Boxing Day 1989

‘Penny for the Guy’ outside Homebase in Eastleigh, Hampshire, mid-1970s

Children’s May Day Customs, here carrying a garland exactly like those from Abbotsbury, Dorset, today (from Chambers’ Book of Days, published 1862)

May Queen in the south of France - but it could be any village in England (from Chambers’ Book of Days, published 1862)

Ducking for apples (or Apple-bobbing) at Halloween (From Chambers’ Book of Days, published 1864)

Children’s Carol on Christmas Morning in Yorkshire (From Chambers’ Book of Days, published 1864)

Blind Man’s Buff (From The Boy’s Home Book of Sports, Games, Exercises and Pursuits, published mid-1800s)

The Grand Mufti sits on a chair while his ‘courtiers’ have to imitate his every face or gesture, however grotesque. (From The Boy’s Home Book of Sports, Games, Exercises and Pursuits, published mid-1800s)

Procession of Freemasons’ Orphans at Freemasons’ Hall (From ‘London’ Vol VI, edited by Charles Knight, 1844)

‘A Prospect of the Fifth of November, Showing the Guys’ by Richard Doyle from ‘Manners and Customs of ye Englyshe in 1849’ (Doyle worked for Punch, which serialised these cartoons with the text a pastiche of Pepys’ Diary, published as a book in 1849)

Going Egg Rolling in Avenham Park, Preston, Lancashire, on Easter Monday 1966

Midgley Pace Eggers in Hebden Bridge, Calderdale, West Yorkshire, on Good Friday 1965

Maypole Dancing at Scuttlebrook Wake in Chipping Campden, Gloucestershire, 1986

Country dancing on May Day at Ickwell Green, Bedfordshire, 1986 (Ickwell May Day is actually on May Bank Holiday)

‘Penny for the Guy’ in the days leading up to Bonfire Night in North London, 1972

Well dressing in Tideswell, Derbyshire, 1972 (Well dressing is part of Wakes Week held around 24 June - it is competitive and this lad created his entry by himself)

Young Blue Oss followers on May Day in Padstow, Cornwall, 1964

Farthing Bundles, once given to hundreds of children every Saturday morning by the charitable Fern Street Settlement, Bromley-by-Bow, had dwindled to only a few by this time (1972) and has since disappeared altogether, except on rare special occasions.

Hector is slain by St George - Midgley Pace Eggers in Todmorden, Calderdale, West Yorkshire, on Good Friday 1965

A ‘juvenile ride’ at Hampstead Fair, London, 1984 (There is a mighty, and popular, fair on Hampstead Heath every Bank Holiday weekend from Easter to August)

The Lord Mayor of Westminster’s New Year’s Day Parade, London, England, 2000 (Visiting American bands are an annual feature of this parade)

Sousaphone player at The Lord Mayor of Westminster’s New Year’s Day Parade, London, England, 2000 (Visiting American bands are an annual feature of this parade)

A Boy Bishop, (Published in ‘Ancient Mysteries Described’, William Hone, 1823)

‘Here we go round the Mulberry Bush’, from Walter Crane’s Picture Book, published by Frederick Warne in London, 1900 (The book was for children, mainly nursery rhymes. Crane was prominent in the Arts & Crafts Movement)

‘Little Bo-Peep’ from Walter Crane’s Picture Book, published by Frederick Warne in London, 1900 (The book was for children, mainly nursery rhymes. Crane was prominent in the Arts & Crafts Movement)

‘Hot Cross Buns!’ from ‘The New Cries of London’, with ‘characteristic engravings’ by Isaac Taylor, published by Darton & Harvey, London, 1803

Primary school children dressed as angels for the Nativity Play, with teacher, London, England

Choirboys of the Abbey Choir School singing Christmas carols before the crib in Westminster Abbey, London, England

Primary school children in a Nativity Play, London, England

Chinese boy in a traditional silk jacket receives a lucky red envelope with money gifts for Chinese New Year, Soho, London, England

The Whitsuntide custom of ‘Dicing for Bibles’ in the nave of All Saints, St Ives, Cambridgeshire, England

The vicar and village schoolchildren on Garland Day (May Day) in Charlton-on-Otmoor, Oxfordshire

Village schoolchildren carry their garlands to the church on Garland Day (May Day) at Charlton-on-Otmoor, Oxfordshire, England

Small girl in a cardboard crown with union-jack painted face at street-party for the Royal Wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton. North London

Sparklers and the Bonfire on Guy Fawkes Night

Maypole Dancing at Slingsby, North Yorkshire, early 1980s

Shrovetide Skipping in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, England

Masquerader in Birmingham International Carnival, Handsworth, Birmingham, England, mid-1990s

The Children’s Pancake Race on Shrove Tuesday, Olney, Buckinghamshire, England

The May Queen crowned on May Morning in Ansty, Wiltshire, England

Easter Monday Egg Rolling, Avenham Park, Preston, Lancashire

Church Clipping at St Mary’s Church, Painswick, Gloucester, England, early 1980s

Children at a Christingle Service in Cumbria (‘Christingle’ came to Britain, not much more than 40 years ago, from the Moravian Church in Germany)

Inside a gypsy caravan at Appleby Horse Fair, Appleby-in-Westmorland, Cumbria, England

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

‘Bawming the Thorn’, Appleton Thorn, Warrington, England, 1996

Procession to the crowning of the ‘Queen of the Revel’, Marhamchurch Revel, Cornwall, England, 1996 (Like a May custom but near 12 August in honour of St Morwenna)

Red Feather Day at which pupils remember the founder (in 1710) of Sir John Cass School at St Botolph-without-Aldgate, in the City of London, England, 1996

Rushbearing at Warcop, Cumbria, England, 1995

The Salmon Queen tours Tweedmouth during the Salmon Feast, Tweedmouth, Berwick-upon-Tweed, Northumberland, England, 1995

The Salmon Queen and attendants at the Salmon Feast, Tweedmouth, Berwick-upon-Tweed, Northumberland, England, 1995

Children gather to remember the Old Man of Braughing, Hertfordshire, England, 1995 (Non-locals might like to know the name is pronounced ‘Braffing’ - as in laughing)

Maypole dancing in Wickhambreaux, Kent, England

At the VE Day Anniversary street party in Mitre Street, Southwark, London, 1995

The May Queen and her attendants, Lustleigh May Day, Dartmoor, Devon, England

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

At the St Patrick’s Day Parade in Belfast City Centre every 17 March, Belfast, Northern Ireland

Procession to the Well Dressing at Bisley, Gloucestershire, England, late 1990s (Unlike the Derbyshire tradition, at Bisley garlands are carried in procession from the church to the elaborate Victorian wells, on Ascension Day, and put on display)

Well Dressing at Bisley, Gloucestershire, England, late 1990s (Unlike the Derbyshire tradition, at Bisley garlands are carried in procession from the church to the elaborate Victorian wells, on Ascension Day, and put on display)

Battle of Flowers evening parade, Jersey, Channel Islands (The ‘battle’ is history and the event has evolved into a huge procession of floats decorated with flowers, a major industry of the Channel Islands)

Hunting the Slipper, by Thomas Rowlandson (From ‘The Vicar of Wakefield by Oliver Goldsmith, 1823)

The Christmas Pudding (Illustrated London News, 1849)

Lord Derby laying the first stone of the Seamen’s Orphan Institution, Liverpool, in September 1871 - Newsham Park is still there but the Institution moved out in 1949 (Illustrated London News)

Christmas entertainment to the children of the St James’s District Schools, Hampstead Road, London (from the Illustrated London News, 1854)

Building the Guy for the Fifth of November (from the Illustrated London News, 1853)

Distribution of fruit after the Oranges and Lemons Service at St Clement Danes Church, Strand, London

Village children dancing around the Maypole on May Day, watched by The May Queen on her platform, Ickwell Green, Bedfordshire, England (Actually on May Bank Holiday)

Lanimer Day Procession, 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)

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)

‘Purple Pixies’ at Lanimer Day in Lanark, South Lanarkshire, Scotland (‘Lanimers’ is a week-long celebration in June marking the granting of the status of ‘Royal Burgh’ by King David I in the 12th century. Lanimer Day, on Thursday, is for the children)