Flaming torches

Posted on January 14, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Choir, Crowds, Dancing, Fairy lights, Fire, flaming torches, Music, Singing, Village hall, villagers, WassailLeave a comment

When I dropped my hubby off at Penkhull it was amazing to see three or four hundred people crowded on either side of the road getting ready to set off on the Wassail. There were people carrying lit flaming torches which Sent sparks up into the windy air. I let hubby out of the car next to the Domesday Morris dancers, they were dressed in their costumes with fairy lights wrapped around their hats. The sun was about to set and I wished I was going with them down the hill to the ancient apple tree to beat its boughs so that it will be fruitful in autumn. They would be walking around some of the boundaries of the village and stopping off to dance on the church green then calling in at the local pubs and the choir I am with would be singing Wassail songs outside them. Unfortunately I missed all of that. But I went home and had a rest instead.

Wassail time

Posted on January 14, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged apple trees, Cider, Clay Chorus, Fun, Morris dancers, New year, Penkhull, People, procession, WassailLeave a comment

The world is trying to wake up again and one of the local rituals is happening today on SATURDAY 14th January 2023.

This is possibly of anyone visiting the Stoke-on-Trent area later today.
The Penkhull Wassail is fast approaching, and Domesday Morris look forward to seeing all friends both old and new!
Starting at 4.30pm at the Village Hall in Penkhull, there will be the usual torch lit procession, blessing of fruit trees, wassail readings, music, song and of course Morris dance this year on the Church Green in the very heart of the village. Please feel free to bring lanterns.
From the Church Green the procession will then make their way around the village from hostelry to village hostelry for a traditional old twelfth night evening of misrule.
The wonderful Penkhull Brass will be there and guests Leek Morris and hopefully Greg and Kate with the Clay Chorus choir.
There is a TICKET ONLY CEILIDH in the Village Hall from 8pm

Penkhull Wassail!

Posted on January 19, 2022January 19, 2022 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Apple tree, Cider, Dance, Eccentricity, gathering, Life, Music, Penkhull, song, Stoke-on trent, WassailLeave a comment

Memory of Doomesday Morris at Penkhull Wassail a couple of years ago. They danced and beat sticks to encourage the ancient Penkhull Apple tree to bud, flower and bear fruit later in the year. They were surrounded by a crowd of people, maybe two or three hundred. Some if us carried flaming torches to light our way. A walk around the boundaries of Penkhull and into local hostelries. I was part of the Mystery Singers choir who sang Wassail songs as we stopped off at the pubs…

Crowds and laughter, mad jolly japes, humans being gregarious. That’s what I miss. Thank goodness for Mysterious madness and eccentricity. Let’s pray to the gods of Wassail for this to come again one day, drink cider, jingle your bells, stamp your clogs, crash your sticks together! WASSAIL!

Spooky mask

Posted on April 13, 2021 Posted in UncategorizedTagged celebrating, Crowd, Dance, Fun, Morris team, Music, Photo, plague doctor, plague mask, Wassail2 Comments

Pre covid, my friend at the Wassail for a local apple tree.

Wassail? An ancient celebration to encourage apple trees to be fruitful again this year. In Penkhull, Stoke-on-Trent it is celebrated by our local Morris Dancing team.

Morris Dancing? In ancient times Local groups of men (now anyone can join) used to get together and dress up, wearing boots or heavy clogs on their feet. Dancing to ancient tunes. Sometimes there is a person dressed as a hobby horse (with a large skirt and a carved horse head worn as a mask?) I don’t know enough about Morris history. I’m sure there is a lot of information out there.

So why this photo? It’s blurry, but it was taken at a Wassail. The Morris men were dancing, and the apple tree was beaten with sticks to get it to grow. And amidst it was my friend in his plague doctors mask, Cape and tricorn hat. And today I found it again and thought… Why not?

Penkhull’s Apple Tree

Posted on January 17, 2021January 17, 2021 Posted in UncategorizedTagged 2021, Apple tree, Garden, Life, Memories, Penkhull, Sing, Walk, WassailLeave a comment

A song for the Apple Tree. To an ancient tune….thanks to my friend Bruce for the words!

Old Apple Tree, We are Come to Wassail Thee
Wassail Song
Old Apple tree, we are come to wassail thee,
All for to bloom, and to bear thy flowers and fruit so free.
Wassail! wassail! all round our town;
Our cups are white and our ale is brown.
Our bowl is made of a good ashen tree,
And here’s kind fellows as will drink to thee.
Hats full, caps full, five-bushel bags full,
Barns full, floors full, stables full, tallats full,
And the little hole under the stairs, three times three!
Hip, hip, hurrah! shout we.

Wassail the apple tree

Posted on January 17, 2021 Posted in UncategorizedTagged 2021, ancient festival, Apple, Bowl, Fruit, Garden, libation, Life, Penkhull, Walk, WassailLeave a comment

We found an apple as green as grass on our apple tree this December just after Christmas! It was in a sheltered part of the garden and had clung on round the back of the tree. Now it’s sitting in a bowl on its own. Pride of place. We may have to pour libations onto our trees. Wassail!

Apple a day

Posted on January 16, 2021January 19, 2021 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Apple, Boundaries, Cider, cider punch, Dancing, historic, Morris troupe, Old fashioned, Penkhull, Walking, Walnut tree, WassailLeave a comment

Apple found in our garden in December. I wrote about it in a blog about Wassails. We joined in a virtual Wassail at the weekend and drank too much cider. People posted photos of previous years Wassails when they walked about with flaming torches around the boundaries of the parish. No threats were made but there were so many of us we had to have a police escort and cars were stopped as we wandered down the road to the Penkhull apple tree. A few jolly hours to beat back the cold and the dark. In some places in the past they used to shoot shotguns at the trees to make them flower and bear fruit. There are other traditions where they beat the trunks of Walnut trees to get them to bear fruit. We’ve never had that problem with ours. The squirrels always find enough nuts and then we have to find places far away to plant the saplings, we’ve already got too many!

Wassail

Posted on December 21, 2020December 22, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Apple, Boundaries, Celebrate, Cider, New year, Parish, Poem, Poetry, Rhyme, Traditions, WassailLeave a comment

Drink mulled cider

Dance and turn

beat the apple bough

Sing and burn

Fires to fight

And defeat the dark

Bring good fortune

To the bark.

Wassail the folk

Who sing in praise

A happy new year

And prosperity raise.

Remembered wassail

But not this time

Socially distanced

Won’t be the same.

Two years ago?

Posted on November 1, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Coincidence, corona virus, Costume, Covid19, Mask, Memories, Two years ago, WassailLeave a comment

My friend went to the Wassail in 2018 wearing his tricorn hat and a plague mask! Completely coincidental, but I just found this while clearing old photos off my phone, so spooky I had to share it.

Wassailing

Posted on January 10, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Boundaries, Choirs, Dancing, Fun, Humour, Penkhull, Singing, Stoke-on trent, Traditional, WassailLeave a comment

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Wassailing is a tradition to celebrate the New year. People would go from door to door knocking on them to rouse their occupants.

The local Morris Dancing troupe started to organise Penkhull Wassail a few years ago. Our Choir joined in and now quite a lot of people walk around the boundaries of penkhull with lighted (flaming) torches. We visit an ancient apple tree in a garden nearby, the Morris dancers dance and we get a drink of hot cider.. Then we continue around and sing and dance outside the local pubs.. . Just for fun. We end up at the local village hall for soup. Sometimes we stop for a barn dance afterwards.

We sing various songs including the Penkhull Wassail and the Gower and the Gloucester Wassail.

I guess some of the songs will be on YouTube.

Mallaband-Brown

Tag: Wassail