Abbots Bromley Horn Dance 2012

Abbots Bromley Horn Dance is believed to have been running since the Barthelmy Fair, granted to the Abbots of Burton by Henry III in 1226, celebrating Bartholomew’s Day – August 24^th. The changing of the Julian Calender in 1752 has moved the Fair to the beginning of September, and the Fair became one day, rather than three days. Yet the horns have been dated to centuries before – circa 11^th century – and being reindeer antlers, they obviously came from Scandinavia, probably down the River Trent and into the Staffordshire region.

The Horn dance day is always held on a Monday – Here is how you remember which day it is on. It’s always ‘the Monday following the first Sunday after the fourth of September’ – remember that folks, many a person has turned up on the wrong Monday and been disappointed…..

Abbots Bromley Horn Dance

So I managed to go to the Abbots Bromley Horn Dance in 2012 on the 10^th of September. My friend Steve goes every year, and has done since 1989. So when I thought I could go, I emailed Steve about it, he told me he could not go, but told me how much it was going to cost me to go via public transport. It did not seem worth it, considering if I had to travel there myself, funds were low, and I had plane tickets to buy to get back home to Australia.  But then Steve changed his mind, saying he would be able to go and help me pay for my travel there. Suddenly that was it – I was going!

I met Steve at Wakefield station at 10am, and we made our way south to Derby, then to Uttoxeter where a cab driver was waiting for us – Steve books him every year, so he knows him personally. From there, the village was about a 15 – 20 min drive away.

In Abbots Bromley, you found yourself in a relatively untouched village – a typical Staffordshire village at that – with not much changed. Some of the buildings here still are certainly medieval. We were dropped off at the Buttercross – a hexagonal shaped building near the green that was used for market day over many centuries – I’ve seen one other like it in Bungay, in Suffolk. This one is more medieval looking, the Bungay one looks Georgian. Someone there that day told me what a Buttercross was – at market, it was where people bought butter, milk and eggs.

The Buttercross, with the Goat's
Head pub behind it

We visited a pagan art stall – a longhaired, bearded attractive man named Chris Bell, selling his pagan art in the market and I bought a few as gifts for people back home. After that we had our first pint at the Goat’s Head pub, and met some of Steve’s pagan friends there. Great chats with people I’d just met, who had good stories to tell. Even Steve had stories to tell about his annual jaunts to Abbots Bromley. As he’s been coming since 1989, he had a few tales, and I think, could write a book about the goings on that he had witnessed over the years – the pagan camps, the large and small crowds, the popularity of the event, and how they’ve evolved. One story he told was about how he and his pagan friends were sitting in the pub or somewhere and a tradesman came along and asked them about runes – he had seen some around the village – under the tiles of the old roofs and houses – dating back centuries, probably even the middle ages. They had been scratched into the architecture of the old buildings – some of these probably not repaired for many centuries. Sketching the runes for the pagans, the tradesman was told they may have been symbols of protection upon the house. Kind of reminds me of the concealed shoes superstition. Now THAT would be good article.

The Church House

After our pint, we went to the old Church House – that is certainly medieval or even later, but definitely one of the oldest houses in the village. They put on a great spread there – sandwiches and cakes to eat, and endless tea – we had our lunch there – well, a small lunch, we also ate more later on.

 

 

 

St Nicholas Parish Church down from the Church House

Steve took me to the St Nicholas Parish Church to see where the horns are kept. I could tell by looking at it, parts of it were Saxon, and like all Saxon churches, had been added to over the years, especially in the Norman times. Saxon and Norman buildings go together a lot here. This one was quite a lovely church. The bars that hang the horns up are there, and even the old hobby horse from years ago – I’ve seen old images from the 70’s of that hobby horse being ridden about the place – it says that it is from the middle ages – could it actually be that old? I often hold doubt of things like this – what looks medieval, could have been made as recently as the 19^th century. They use a new one in the dance now. There were also glass cabinets holding the regalia and costumes of horn dancers past.

St Nicholas Parish Church

Racks for hanging horns

Horn dancers past

Where they hang the horns for 364 days of the year

There was also a story from Steve about the pagans who actually came to church services in previous Horn dance weekends, in their velvet robes and pentacles, and sat in the front row, much to the annoyance of the vicar. The Christian locals preferred to sit up the back as far away from the pagans as possible. Would have loved to have seen that.

 

In the churchyard, the ground surrounding the church was raised, as if it was small pre-Christian mound. It makes us wonder if indeed a Saxon church was here, maybe something before it existed. Steve also showed me a headstone, belonging to a man that was once a leader of the horn dancers – and it says that on his headstone. He belonged to the Fowell family, and they are the official horn dancers – their family and another one are the only members that can dance, and have been for many, many generations.  Steve also told me about another friend of his and visitor to the Horn Dance day would spend the night in the graveyard because he had nowhere else to sleep. And people and locals did not mind – he was just the ‘guy who slept in the graveyard.’ Oh Boy! The characters you get at these events.

We walked up the street to the Bagot Arms, passing some of the places where Steve says the dancers stop for a pint, or food. In the Bagot Arms, Steve and I had another pint and we chatted about many other things – pagans in the UK and Australia, folk dancing, horse brasses, and many other things that crossed our minds. I kept seeing more and more people walking past the pub window, as I realised the tourists were arriving. It was probably about 3.00 - 3.30pm by now, and the dancers were due to arrive in the village. After a toilet run, I went outside to find Steve standing there, prompting me along. As I looked west down the road, I saw the dancers skipping along the road with their horns. I got really excited here – this was it! I was finally going to see this horn dance. It all dawned on me where I was when I saw them. I began to not believe that I was here!

Steve and Shamus

As they came along, they circled around each other, and I saw my Staffordshire friend Shamus, he acknowledged me and gave me a head bow. I began to take some short footage of the dance, and Angela, the leader of my border morris team back in Yorkshire, was in the background. She saw me and came around to give me a hug. After this dance the dancers went under an arch and out into the backyard of one of their friends who had put on a bit of food. Steve suggested we walk back into the village, and before we walked off, Ang invited us out the back with the dancers to hang out with Shamus. The four of us got some group photos together and then went further out the back to the lawn to watch some of the dancers dance with some locals. They are a more open folk dance than I thought. You think about Padstow and how only locals can go to the May Day Festival because the tourists ‘clogged the village.’ And the Morris Ring who have men-only sides who refuse to let women join, but here in Abbots Bromley, they let locals dance and WOMEN too! What a nice bunch of people! Not superstitious about a woman holding the horns let alone having a dance!



The Hobby Horse of Abbots Bromley

After that, we followed the dancers out to the street again and walked along as we watched them head to the Bagot Arms back towards the village. At this car park, Shamus dragged me over to where the horns were laid on the ground, and shoved a set of horns into my hands. I was holding the lighter horns that were damaged in the mid 70’s and the broken bit was dated to have been from around 1060s. I made sure veteran attendee Steve got to hold them as well.

 

 

We headed back towards the Buttercross, running into more pagan friends of Steve on the way and stopping for chats. At the Crown Pub, we went inside to see the new décor of the renovated pub – all modern and new, and saw the Horn Dance paintings done in the 1940s. Then we went round the back of the pub and visited the pagan camp site up the back – I saw Nick from the Black Pigs Border Morris and went to say hello to him by his hearse. Then we got a hotdog outside the front of the Crown and then stood with more of Steve’s friends, Cathy and Robin. It was now when the horn dancers had made their way down into the village and arrived outside the Goat’s Head and held up the traffic doing their road-hogging dance. Then they rested by the Goat’s Head and let friends dance with them.

I chatted to friends Ang, Fran, and Shamus, and Steve and his friends joined us. I visited the stalls again and bought some Horn Dancer pins. Then the dancers went out the back of the Goat’s Head and posed for photos. We stayed back there in the large beer garden until about 6pm, then headed back to the Crown. It was time for Steve and I to get back to the station, so we looked for our cab. I could not find Ang or Shamus at all, so never got to say goodbye. It was the last time I saw Shamus too. Our cab was waiting when it started to rain again. We got the train from Uttoxeter to Derby and on the Derby train, an announcement told us we were not stopping at Wakefield, so Steve had to get off at Sheffield. I went onto Leeds and eventually got home via Shipley, as trains were down that night.

Steve gets to hold the horns

The painting in the Crown Pub

 

I had an awesome and memorable day at Abbots Bromley and am very glad I got to go. It was magic! And brilliant to witness such an old dance and finally see how it was conducted, especially since I have been going to folk dances all year. Getting to know so many people apart from Steve in England has been wonderful, meeting Shamus in March and becoming friends with him, and then learning that he was the accordion player for the Horn Dancers absolutely blew my mind! What are the chances of such a meeting! I had such a wonderful day!

 

Construction of an Obby Oss

Padstow 'Obby Oss

This post was written in 2005 to be published in The Screaming Mandrake - A Victorian magazine publication of the Pagan Alliance (Issue 3, Spring 2005). It was also posted on the Mount Franklin Beltane blog in March 2011.

I have decided to make a hobby horse, and I want to make it in time for the Mt Franklin Beltane Gathering of October 2005. That gives me a goal and time limit.

I recall the days of my youth, when a hobby horse was plastic or stuffed vinyl horse head on a stick, with reins and wheels. Little did I know then, that this was a major festival item for many British and European celebrations, and that often they were large and highly decorated, sometimes appearing during the longest summer days or the shortest winter days and often ‘dying’ at the end of the festival, only to wait to be revived in a years’ time.

Today the most popular hobby horse festival I know, is the May Day festivities of Padstow, on coastal Cornwall, where they have a black hobby horse called the ‘Oss’. I’m calling mine the ‘Oss’ these days.

The head of my 'Oss

February 2005 – We receive a gift of a wicker horse head from a friend Paul. The head has no ears and has marble eyes, although one eye has been pulled out and the wicker eye socket damaged. It already has a red vinyl bridal.

I plan to do some research to find out about these hobby horses. The books on my shelf tell of fantastic legends and customs of the horse in fertility festivals and its importance in Celtic and other mythologies. Alexei Kondratiev's book The Apple Branch – A path to Celtic Ritual has fine information about the Mari Llwyd and the darker seasons festivals.

Mari Llwyd

June – I go to the National Celtic Festival in Portarlington on long weekend June, with my old super 8 camera to catch footage of the Padstow Obby Oss that is rumoured to be there. We see no sign of it. My friends Wendy and Mark and I often ask organisers, where is the Oss? Most of them have no idea what an Oss is. We are horrified.

Eventually we speak to someone who knows about it and they send us to speak to the Cornish Society in one of the main tents. They show us a picture of this Oss. It is identical to the Padstow one, only a little smaller, and they tell us it might appear on Monday morning. We sink in disappointment. We tell the Society that we are going to make an Oss, not quite the same as the Padstow one though. They get very excited, and give us a business card and say ‘tell us when it’s done, bring it to our meeting!’

‘The most remarkable surviving May Day celebrations are probably those held in the Cornish harbour town of Padstow. At the end of April a maypole is set up and greenery and flags decorated through town…The main attraction is the Obby Oss, a heavy constructions built around a 6 foot diameter hoop, a man who’s head is covered by a grotesque mask resembling a bishops mitre in shape. The horse performs a swaying, dipping dance, egged on by its teaser who wields a decorated club. The music dies and the oss sinks to the ground. A farewell song is sung to the oss and it is to be revived the next May Day.’                                                                                                                                  

                                                                                            - ‘Rites and Riots’

‘The ceremony is believed to be based on a Pre-Christian Spring fertility rite with the dying oss representing the passing of the old year.’

                                                                       - Folklore Myths and Legends of Britain



The Minehead Hobby Horse

July and Aug – Designs of the oss are being drawn up. I decide on a metal ring. Circle or oval? I love the Oss represented in ‘The Wicker man’ film. I ask our blacksmith friend Owen to make a ring. I decide on a size, but think it may be too big. I wanted a circle but am not fussed if its an oval. And maybe a ring for the head to sit on.

Sept – I buy a large marble and find it is a little bigger than the eye already there. I still add it to the head and put air-drying clay over the eyelid. I put an identical layer of clay over the other eye to have matching eyelids. Then I paint it gold. It already seems happier with 2 eyes.

I begin to decorate the head. I add a red diamond to his nose, with a gold leafed diamond in the middle of that. I tie all the left over ribbons I had to the red bridal, and added small mirror squares to the bridal too. I am used to seeing it without ears. I planned to add leather ears, but have now decided against it. I add pink and purple raffia to thicken the hair of the horse. Looks like a carnival horse.

I want a name for it. I decide to call the Oss ‘Dobbin’ because of my Yorkshire background.

A Hobby Horse of Knaresborough, in North Yorkshire, makes his appearance during the Plough Monday Ceremony. Every January, they pull the plough up the High street in a parade. The horses name is Dobbin. Dobbin is built around the skull of a real horse, placed on a stick with a cloak around it.

‘The wooden horse is found as a traditional animal all over the country. Where the (pantomime) horse consists of a human under the costume, it is without speech. Where it is a hobby horse with a human rider, the human is a kind of fool and can relate verbally to the audience…Dobbin’s behaviour is often independent from his rider, John  - he is ‘calculatingly mischievous.’ He can dance a jig and play dead, but a pint of beer or a kiss from a maiden will revive him…I have to be careful what Dobbin does. His activities must always add to the dance and not detract from it. At the same time, he can be used to cover up any of the dancers mistakes.’

 
                                                         - Dalesman Magazine
 

‘Looking at shape shifting anthropomorphic creatures of Folklore and Mythology, the well known ‘each uisage’ of Scotland ‘The water horse’ or ‘water kelpie’ was well known for guarding stretches of water, like lochs and rivers, by killing a certain traveller who mounted the horse, intended for faster travels. It is believed that a Yorkshire dialect term for these creatures was dobbin or dobbie, which may have used the Celtic dhu (‘black’) as its first element.’

                                                                                
                                                        - ‘Twilight of the Celtic Gods’



The flags I added to the Oss

I am putting flags around the sides, not unlike the Oss in ‘The Wicker Man’. But instead designs of paint, embroidery or material are going to be added to each one – and I will give these flags to friends to all contribute something. I am using beautiful brocade colour samples I got for free from a curtain store. I cut and sew all the flags to identical sizes. I began to paint 4 flags, beginning with the Isle of Man flag, the ‘triskelion’, with the 3 legs, then I paint a flying raven, a St Andrews flag, and an ivy vine. I send some pre-sewn flags to friends to begin their designs.

When the ring eventually showed up, I was amazed at its weight, and began to worry. But decided to keep going with it. It was getting close to October and Owen had been working hard and very dedicated. There is a ring at the front for its head to sit on, and this makes the front heavier. I will have to add a counter-weight at the back; luckily Owen added hooks at the back to tie things to. 

The Abbots Bromley Hobby Horse,
now hangs in the Church and
has been replaced by a new Horse

What would I wear with the oss? I buy green material and make a tunic and cover this tunic with leaves for a bogie/fool outfit, an accompaniment for the horse, I want follow it with bells, a mask, and a jesters’ hat.

Oct – To make a skirt, I want green material. Terri brings around a variety of left over green material she has accumulated. We cut up squares and rectangles and sew them together making the width of the skirt 6 metres, a little bit over the circumference of the ring. It became a patchwork skirt that had a length of under a metre. It seemed like it took no time at all.

My friend Rose comes around and we bind the ring with scrap panne velvet to soften its edges. Then we measure a calico ‘petticoat’ to go underneath the cover. I cut out the calico and sewed another strip of calico to that and then I had to get another person to hold the ring as I sewed the calico to it. We also cut out the brocade that I wanted the oss to wear – a red and gold colour. I pin the green skirt to the brocade, gathering it every now and then. It is working! I sew the skirt to the brocade.

Oss with its green patchwork skirt

Painted flags are arriving in the mail from friends – one with a corn dolly attached, one with a boat scene from the Bayeux Tapestry, and one of the Celtic Cross symbol, representing the six symbols from Susan Coopers books, ‘The Dark is Rising Sequence’. I attach bells to the bottom of each flag. One flag was saved for listing the makers of the oss and the names of those who contributed to it, so all could see how much effort was put in.

I have acquired spare braid to attach the flags to. They all fit on the right length of braid and then I pin them into position. Then I sew the flags on, and then eventually sew the flags and braid onto the edge of the skirt.



The Banbury Hobby Horse Festival - Hobby Horses come
in all styles and sizes, dragon-like, donkey-like, cow-like.

I sew on the head to the smaller ring and add a jester collar of triangles.  I make a tail out of scrap material – mostly satin scraps, which will fray but I don’t mind it looking messy. I cut a hole into the brocade at the tail end of the oss and pushed through strips to tie to the hook under the calico. For more counter-weight, I added by the tail, my two garden ornament-hanging gargoyles, the Belcher and the Friar, replicas of the outer wall gargoyles of the Brasenose College in Oxford.





Brasenose gargoyles were counterweights - they did
not really work

The oss is virtually done, except for additional pieces of decoration and the straps that are to hold the oss up on the shoulders of the rider. I buy enough length for straps and when Terri and I attached it, it does not look very strong. We prepare ourselves for possible breakage. However, this Beltane gathering was only one weekend, if we are not happy with anything, we can make it better later on.  I find a colour picture of the Mari Llwyd, a midwinter Welsh hobby horse with a real horse skull, and I add it to an oval frame to attach to the skirt. It looked very feminine, yet very eerie, kind of my Obby Oss' counterpart!

‘It was the skeleton of a giant horse, staring with the blind eye-sockets of a skull running and leaping and prancing of legs on bone…faster than any living horse it galloped and without any sound…the creature was playing with them… the leering skull thrust out, the jaws open wide, it charged at them in terrible silence...Bran was sitting up ‘The Mari Llwyd!’ he whispered ‘The Mari Llwyd!’ he was staring at the thing as if bewitched.’

                                                                         - ‘The Silver on the Tree’

‘The best known skull and pole type of hobby-horse, with glass bottle bottoms for eyes, and a pair of old gloves for ears is the Mari Lwyd, the famous horse of South Wales. He is beautifully decked out with ribbon and horse-bells and appears at midwinter, rearing and plunging in the dark street, while the party accompanying him holds a singing contest with every house they visit…the Mari Lwyd is accompanied by a Sergeant, a Merryman, and a Punch and Judy.’

                                                                             - Man, Myth and Magic magazine

Version 1.0 of my Obby Oss

Beltane weekend – On the Saturday of Beltane, Linda asked if the horse could be in ritual. I personally wanted it to be used around the maypole on Sunday, but was prepared for Linda to ask this. Terri and I added shoulder pads to the straps and added small decorations and toys to the skirt. I then had to gather people for the jester/teasing job. I had my green tunic with leaves, jester hat and ivy mask, Terri was Maid Marion, Hania, Elvanna, Wendy and Emily were jesters and teaser maidens of their own kind, and Wendy’s brother Ash, was the Man-Woman, complete with purple dress and make-up. Lorena led the procession with her daughter Brielle, and they carried a ribboned wreath with bells on a stick. And most important of all, Ryan Trahar was our masked Oss rider.

During the ritual the oss was called in. We all went as teasers and jesters, but made sure that Ryan was alright with his straps. It all happened so quickly, and I barely remember any of it, my main concern was Ryan and the Oss, but he indicated when he was ready to leave. The overall reaction to the oss was positive. Everyone loved him, I thought the colours worked extremely well together and the painted flags added to the community effort.

Another from the Banbury Hobby Horse Festival

Some damage was done to the oss after the rite – such dramatic festival pieces should expect a bit of battering – but I plan to make great changes to the oss in the near future, so it will be ready for other festivals.




Version 2.0 of my Obby Oss (2006)

One year later.......

In 2006, one year after the making of version 1.0 of Dobbin, I came back with new ideas. I had just spent our winter in England (their summer) and saw all sorts of pagan festivals while I was there, especially the Pagan Pride March in London (held on my birthday!) which had drummers, bogies, Giants, and a Jack-in-the-Green. Such inspiration!

The Oss was far too heavy with his metal ring so we abandoned it for a cane ring. Terri made a fish shaped cane frame which was much lighter, and I took the skirt off the oss. I cut the red and gold brocade to shape and re-gathered the skirt, sewing it back on. As it was a smaller Oss, I chose the best flags to leave onto the braid and sewed that on. I then attached the head with wire this time, and re-attached the tail. All of it was much the same, not as much work was done to this one. The straps were better and the Oss was overall lighter and bounced around a lot better than before.

At the 2006 Mount Franklin Beltane, we all celebrated the 25th Anniversary of the gathering. There were well over one dozen ritualists this year, as we performed a small play and sang a song during ritual. Before the circle was opened, the Oss rider ran around the circle, and our friend Steve was 'Punch' – who had two halves of coconuts and followed the rider – but the rider, in his nervousness, ran too fast and the punch could not keep up!! Dobbin certainly was better this year, lighter and easier to handle.

Dobbin has been used since 2006 at Beltane, but not every year. He quite often comes to Beltane to enjoy the fun, but not always get used. With luck, he will be around for a very long time!!

References

Pegg, Bob.  Rites and Riots, Blandford Press, 1981
Folklore, Myths and Legends of Britain,  Readers’ Digest Assoc. London.    2nd Ed,  1977
Dalesman Magazine,  May 2005
Roberts, Andy. & Clarke, David.  Twilight of the Celtic Gods,  Blandford Press,  1996
Cooper, Susan.  Silver on the Tree,  ‘Dark is Rising Sequence’  1977
Man, Myth and Magic Magazines ‘Hobby-Horse,’ 1971